Josh Windass lifts lid on acrimonious Wigan Athletic exit

Sheffield Wednesday new-boy Josh Windass has delivered an blistering broadside at former Wigan Athletic on the eve of the new EFL campaign.
Josh WindassJosh Windass
Josh Windass

The 26-year-old recently completed a permanent move to Wednesday, with whom he spent the second half of last season.

Windass fell out of favour at Wigan under ex-manager Paul Cook, and was expected to leave even without the mass exodus this summer following the club being placed into administration.

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Indeed, the forward briefly trained with the Latics youngsters at Christopher Park last month while the permanent deal was put together.

The only stumbling block was the £500,000 Latics still owed to his former club Rangers, which the Owls eventually covered.

While happy to move on for a new challenge in South Yorkshire, Windass says his time with Wigan has left a sour taste in his mouth.

“I can’t lie, it was mentally a really tough period,” he acknowledged.

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“My old club wouldn’t let me go and train with them, for whatever reason – for no reason, actually.

“I just had to keep myself in a good mental state and do all the runs every single day by myself and keep myself in the best shape that I could.

“Luckily the gaffer (Garry Monk) here trusted me to get myself in good shape and involved me last week, even after only a couple of days training.

“With the work I’ve put in, hopefully that will keep me in good stead pushing forward.”

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When asked specifically what went wrong at Wigan, Windass didn’t exactly hold back.

“I don’t want to speak about it to be honest,” he added. “If I give too much detail there will be people out of a job for quite a long time, so I’ll just keep that one quiet.

“Obviously people have their own opinions, the fans and the club or whatever.

“But the bottom line is I trained every single day and dedicated myself every single day to play football to the best of my ability.

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People around me I don’t feel did that, so there were a couple of words said.

“But I can never question myself, my dedication to train and play well every single day.

“Obviously I wasn’t able to put across my best performances every time.

“But I know I worked as hard as I could.”

Windass scored nine goals in 56 appearances for Latics during his two years at the DW Stadium.

Among his new team-mates at Hillsborough is Chey Dunkley, whose contract with Latics expired at the end of last term.