PART 1: Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - ‘I still think people are finding it harder than ever to adjust to the plan for the future’

Alan Rogers:

Late on Tuesday night I had written a long, rambling tirade about the last few days at Wigan Athletic. In the cold light of Wednesday morning I decided to scrap every word. I had discussed our last two matches, the visit of two past players and the Thelo situation, but after not much consideration, I realised that keeping on pointing out the obvious is becoming boring. So I'll just stick in a few words to summarise what I believe to be the current situation. Apologies if it is blindingly obvious.

Over the last few weeks we have watched Burton Albion, Bristol Rovers, Peterborough United and of course, Wigan Athletic. And on those performances, you would struggle to pick 11 current on-form players from those four teams. And they aren't alone. It's mostly poor teams in a very inconsistent league. You can either try to buy success, like Birmingham or Wrexham, but hopefully a team like Wycombe - who have at least attempted to mix it up - may be the champions. It's a poor league and a well-organised team should walk it.

That's why, as far as the future is concerned, I'm still convinced the current ownership plan is the answer. Long-term stability based on a strong youth system has got to be the way forward for a club like Wigan. But God knows, it's awful to watch. Not just the actual on-field performances. It's soul destroying to lose stars of the future...just when they are beginning to show their true potential. And even worse, it's devastating to lose players like Thelo and Charlie Hughes for a fraction of their true worth. But at least from now on, we will hopefully get a true value when these exciting prospects leave. And sadly, leave they will. Sam Tickle will be next, followed by James Carragher. Because over recent months and years, these young players have shown a strong sense of loyalty but, at the end of the day, they are ambitious and want to progress. And also, of course, cash is king. It must be...otherwise, why would Thelo go to a team who will probably be back in League One next year?

Agents will be the death of our sport. Inevitably the last few days have poked the trolls into action, screaming about how we can let players go so cheaply (along with other rubbish)? Please, if you are going to bother getting your crayons out, at least try to get a basic grasp of the facts. But once again, this is yet another test of Shaun Maloney and also the ownership group. They need to send out a strong signal by using some of the Thelo money to sign a replacement. But that's just part of the problem. I still think people are finding it harder than ever to adjust to the ownership plan for the future. Kids are having their young heroes plastered across the back of their shirts and then left devastated when they leave. The future may be sustainable, but it just doesn't look very bright just now.

Caddy from the 5:

I thought the Burton game was as low as we could go, but oh boy did our lads have other ideas this week...and the Twitter massive are not happy! Indeed, the WAFC hashtag could teach Chubby Brown some new words I'm afraid, there was no holding back! The news breaking of Thelo's departure to the glamour and glitz of - checks notes - Luton started the ball rolling nicely towards the impending doom at London Road on Tuesday night, and my two penneth is it's a nothing move...sideways at best. Yes, he'll get a significant pay rise, but at what cost? The odds are he'll be back at the Whelandome next season...back in Division Three. I've no problem with him leaving, but why not just hang in there until the end of the season, keep playing as he was doing, and get a bigger move to a decent club? Yes, I know they triggered his release clause, but that doesn't mean he has to go. No doubt his agent - funnily enough, the same fella Charlie Hughes had - must've sold him the bright lights of Bury Park, Luton Airport and the cop shop in '24hrs in Police Custody' to get his cut. I mean, look after the interests of his player, but persuading anyone somehow this was a great move...?

Shaun Maloney said 'our hands are tied' on what happened to Thelo, and that begs the question why Mike Danson didn't at least try and get that clause removed at the earliest opportunity by offering him a better deal? Mind you, I suppose the flights to Vegas for his beloved rugby won't be cheap...and the billionaire might need a few quid... Any road the King is dead, long live the King, we go again!

Lincoln in the league on Saturday and then next week brings a glamorous FA Cup fourth-round tie against Fulham in our quest for silverware this season, and I bet they're quaking in their very expensive boots. The only good thing about this tie is it's 3pm on Saturday, so normal boozing around the game is on! I feel it's going to be a long drag to the end of the season without much cheer, and then will come the inevitable sale of Sam Tickle to give Danson more of his money back from when he bought the ground...sorry the Tics. It's a tough time watching us at the moment, but we've been through worse and we're still laughing - just about. And you wonder why I drink...?

Tat:

The editor of the 12th man posted on Twitter during Tuesday night’s game at Peterborough that the Latics players 'look like they’d been affected by losing their Norwegian talisman earlier in the day'. I replied that 'they were playing like a team managed by Shaun Maloney'. We’re a fanbase held hostage by the philosophy of the current incumbent, an ideology based on once scoring a goal by cutting inside against Manchester United. Inverted full backs, false No.9s and wingers playing on opposite wings to their stronger foot, a cornucopia of fashionable football ideas employed by a tinker-man whose charges have neither the wit, wisdom or talent to manifest those ideas into shots on goal. How does he want us to score goals? It’s not a rhetorical question - I genuinely want to know how he wants his team to score a goal. Cut your cloth accordingly Shaun, play to the strengths of the players you can afford, don’t die on the Altar of the Spanish Messiah who now haunts this parish. Take note instead of another echo from the past, the late great Bill Shankly: 'Football is a simple game made complicated by people who should know better'.

George Arkwright:

This wasn’t a particularly good week to be a Wiganer. Our illustrious Norwegian, Thelo Aasgaard, secured a move to Luton Town after they had triggered his release clause, and then we followed that up by putting in a particularly toothless display against Peterborough United - the self-proclaimed ‘softest team in the league’ (per the words of manager Darren Fergueson), in which we didn’t manage a shot on target. Evidently, selling our best player hours before kick-off is never going to produce an emphatic result, but the manner in which we rolled over for the opposition does leave a bitter after-taste. Dale Taylor and Will Goodwin do not look as though they have directness, nor the technical nuance, to cut through a defence. Similarly, the dozens of wingers we have accumulated continue to do very little in the way of a real contribution, and we really don’t seem to have any idea how to break teams down without a Viking in our midst. The hole Thelo will leave in the team is evident and something that will need to be addressed ASAP if Wigan are to take anything of note from this season, or god forbid, survive a relegation scrap that we are still in danger of being drawn into. To add to that, there was a reported offer from Preston for our man between the sticks, Sam Tickle. If we lose him, we’re up the creek without a paddle, to put it politely. The last thing you want as a team struggling to make any attacking impact is to lose the main person keeping you in games that are so deficient offensively.

I think strengthening is a given. But strikers and attacking forwards of repute do not come cheaply, and it would definitely help to cool the heat if our esteemed owner would reinvest some of the money he has made from the sales of two of our ‘crown jewels’. However, I think the main thing our team, and our fan-base needs, is perspective. Over the last five years, we have come close to complete capitulation on multiple occasions. There have definitely been worse weeks as a Latic than this one. Only 18 months ago, we were hours from oblivion, and someone stepped in to spend a significant amount of money to ensure the club kept afloat. According to some on social media, that man is now the enemy, and we are teetering on the precipice of perpetual irrelevance as he rubs his hands at the thought of owning our beloved ‘Brick’.

Similarly, we have made a living off of selling our best players in the ‘Buy Low, sell High’ model, for as long as I have been a fan...Messrs Ellington, Valencia, N'Zogbia, Figeuroa, Moses, McCarthy, Maloney, McClean, McManaman, Powell, Grigg, Burn, Morsy, Keane and Lang have all parted ways with the club in the past, and did we sink into the abyss? No. Instead, we kept on going, sometimes even in the face of seemingly impossible odds. And we will continue to do so. Good players come and go, that is the nature of football. Good teams ebb and flow...just look at Bournemouth, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. Our days have been darker and we will come back from it as we always do, it’s simply a matter of keeping the faith.

Lowey:

Just when you thought losing to Burton on a cold wet Tuesday night in Wigan couldn’t get any worse, step forward a cold wet night in Peterborough. Now I can handle losing, I can handle playing badly, and I can even handle watching poor footballers. What I cannot handle is a lack of effort. I don’t believe (naively?) that any player doesn’t try once they cross the white line. However, Tuesday's first half was as close an example of that you're ever likely to see. The tone was set in the first minute when James Carragher inexplicably picked the ball up thinking it had gone out of play. We failed to string more than two passes together for the first 20 minutes, and those that did barely made their target. It was slow, passive, careless, no energy or enthusiasm until the inevitable happened when they scored. I read - and Shaun indicated - the players were affected by Thelo's exit, but that should not stop a player from doing the basics, should it? It’s also a convenient excuse, as it’s not as though we’ve not witnessed this before this season. The second half was marginally better, but the only chance we had was when their goalkeeper managed to kick the ball up our new striker's backside. It was that bad!

Peterborough (bar Plymouth) have conceded the most goals in the EFL, their manager described them as the softest set of players he has ever managed, yet we didn’t have a single shot on target. It must be harder to try and play for 97 minutes and not have a shot at goal! I'm past anger and frustration now, I’ve accepted we are a poor middle-to-lower-table team who will win a few, lose a few more...throw in a shocker now and again, but have enough (hopefully) to stay up. This was the case regardless of Thelo's exit, but obviously becomes more of a concern now. Most teams struggle when you take their leading goalscorer, and the most (only) creative player out of any team, never mind a poor one. What would we have done if he'd have got injured? Not sure we would hear 'well that’s us in League Two' which bounced around social media soon after. We should be able to cope without one player, and hopefully we have something lined up to see us over the line. I am usually a glass half-full, but the last week or so has pushed me closer to the dark side as this week’s ramblings probably show. Imagine if I'd written this at 10pm on Tuesday night!