PART 2: Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - ‘I foresee our struggles lasting well beyond this week if we do not shrewdly reinvest’

Matt Auffrey:

This past Tuesday gave us a double whammy for the ages as Thelo Aasgaard’s transfer to Luton coupled with a sub-standard performance at Peterborough sunk our fanbase’s collective morale to very low levels. Thelo’s departure was inevitable. His absence was always going to leave an obvious gap in the squad. His skilful moves, captivating flair, and unquestioned goal-scoring ability played a big role in Latics winning three of their final four fixtures before the move transpired. He is largely responsible for our recent FA Cup run that has landed us a fourth-round home tie with Premier League opposition.

We entered London Road on Tuesday evening with a 4-4-2 formation and looked unsettled from the very first kick. Posh produced a well-taken goal in the 19th-minute from a set piece routine, and dominated the chances for the rest of the match en route to a comfortable win. Latics could hardly lay a finger on the hosts, as our only scoring chance materialised from charging down a Posh backpass and nearly sending the blocked clearance attempt by their goalkeeper into the back of the net. Otherwise, Latics hardly looked like a League One side, and displayed the fluidity of a team dealing with a bad hangover. Shaun Maloney was quick to excuse the performance during his post-match interview emphasising how much Thelo’s departure had impacted the squad’s mental state. Even the most optimistic of fans (like myself) saw enough go wrong on the pitch that I foresee our struggles lasting well beyond this week if we do not shrewdly reinvest in key areas before the January window shuts.

One particular thought that still weighs heavy on me is how the plight of our most recent opponent could affect Latics in the future. With the exception of a brief appearance in the Championship during the 21/22 season, Posh have spent a significant part of the past decade as an upper-half League One side - frequently challenging for the play-offs. They are well known for acquiring and developing young talent with the intention of selling those players for a tidy profit when the time is right. They appear to be executing a model of sustainability that we hope to emulate over the coming years. Their lone goalscorer on Tuesday had only turned 20 years old not even two weeks ago. Yet, their recent struggles as a team were well-documented going into Tuesday’s fixture. They had won just one of their past 12 league matches, and were quickly approaching rock bottom as a 5-1 defeat at Lincoln dropped them to 19th in the league table. However, their high press gave Latics fits on Tuesday night and there were plenty of dynamic, exciting players on the pitch even with starboy Kwame Poku missing the match due to injury. If Latics can barely produce mid-table form when everything is going ‘well’, how can we expect to compete in this division over the course of long, difficult stretches?

Last summer’s recruitment is looking more and more questionable by the day as only a small handful of our new signees have made a genuine positive impact on the squad. Can we really trust the club’s plan to replace the quality and production of a player like Thelo based on their recent track record? Securing safety in this division for another season seemed like a sure bet not too long ago. However, former cellar-dwellers Burton Albion have taken full advantage of Latics’ recent charity offering at the Brick and have strung together three straight wins to catapult to 21st position - just nine points behind us in the league table. A few more weeks of poor football could drag us into the relegation battle as well.

I would love for this period of doom and gloom to end with an encouraging close to the transfer window, and a positive result against Lincoln at home on Saturday. The manager celebrated his two-year anniversary earlier in the week, which is certainly a feat that should be applauded in this modern age of football. He has helped us navigate more adverse periods than what we are facing right now. He has my vote of confidence going forward. Let us hope this weekend marks the moment when the ship gets steered in the right direction.

Martin Lally:

Coming out of the Brick on Saturday, I allowed myself to feel slightly confident that maybe we had turned the proverbial corner this season. And if we could just hang onto the stars, with some more young heroes really starting to spark as well, maybe the promotion push was an actual reality. Despite my boy reminding me how big the gulf was in the Birmingham game just at the start of the month…ever the optimist! Onto Tuesday - and knowing I was going to miss Lincoln at home - I felt the itch you need to scratch. Especially having seen Darren Ferguson’s meltdown - or call to arms (whichever way you look at it) - the decision was made to travel in and out of Peterborough in a nine-hour stint...the things we do for football!

The first hammer blow was the 'Wigan Today' report on Thelo leaving...surely it was only speculation, hopefully even totally off the mark? But it certainly led to a three-hour drive filled with trepidation, dreading that 6.45pm team news release from the club. And of course the concerns were met just as I parked the car...the move was on! I felt for the players on Tuesday night. I’ve seen lots of different views online...from sensible perspectives of how the team must have prepared with Thelo in the team, to 'it’s not like he died' - how typically Wigan fan behaviour?! The honest truth is the lads struggled on the night, and I’m not even a negative person in the slightest. I stayed until the end with a small handful of the 210 and clapped them down the tunnel, but the Aasgaard-shaped hole in the jigsaw was as wide as the mark left by previous losses. I can only compare it with that Nathan Ellington loss so close to the Premiership dawn. But it felt tougher than many more before.

And so the final three-hour slog home began with a dissection that Dexter would be proud of in relation to the team. I think the world of Sahun Maloney, he has my full backing, and you can only play the hand you're dealt. But even he looked dejected at the end. The injuries are a big thing as well. Peterborough were in my top-six pick at the start of the season, but an easier task we may not encounter again on the road this season. Yet we still managed to draw a blank and lose.

I think the conclusion I came to led me to the current ownership. I know many quote the tirade of trouble we have had in the last 10 years, but you have to live in the now. We all knew it would be a tough ride, but now leadership is required and, for me, these next five days will make or break our season. I believe Maloney should be backed, but the problem is who really fills the Aasgaard piece of the jigsaw? It’s a big ask. But it does feel the ‘well, they saved our club’ is now running to a conclusion, and it’s no longer enough.

Tony Moon:

Massively depressing, isn’t it? Makes you wish it would just stop. Always the same stuff repeated game after game. What? The football? Nah, the whinging, moaning and entitled outrage after we’ve been beaten by 'the likes of...' (enter any team who hasn’t won the FA Cup any time recently). Then, of course, there’s the entertainment value…or rather, lack of it. We’re admittedly not always the easiest on the eye…but how many other clubs would say exactly the same? Certainly our friends over Rivington way would. So, here we sit, mid-table for the second season in succession, and we’re finding mediocrity is simply something that doesn’t sit well with Latics fans. Of course, getting immediately relegated following winning the league didn’t sit easy either, so we got rid of those managers too! We’re unlikely to reach the play-offs. We’re also unlikely to get relegated (though you wouldn’t think so reading some comments on social media). Is Shaun Maloney the Messiah we’d hoped? Who knows, maybe not, though he’s certainly (according to some) a very naughty boy at the moment. Personally, I just hope he gets to oversee us play a third season in the same division since 2013/13.

Sean Livesey:

One step forward, three steps back. It’s been Latics' season in a nutshell, and how frustrating it’s becoming. Earlier this week, a league table of the most miserable fans in the EFL was produced, with Latics only appearing in third place. After this week, there’s no doubt Latics will be at the top of the table after the events of the last few days. There had been a slight outbreak of positivity with Saturday’s win over Bristol Rovers, that had completed Latics first double of the season and saw James Carragher score his first professional goal for the club (just three behind his dad now). That had followed on from an equally disappointing Tuesday against Burton that saw Latics fail to hold on to their lead against the bottom side in the division. The fact Gary Bowyer’s side have gone on to win another two matches following the win over Latics probably says more about Burton’s ability to rise from the dead than our ability to implode, but both points are valid.

So to Tuesday, and it’s not exactly been a secret there was a buy-out clause placed in Thelo Aasgaard’s contract. The same level of buy-out that interestingly enough was in Charlie Hughes' contract, and the same agent involved. It wasn’t a surprise to see a bigger club come in for Hughes last summer, and neither was it a surprise for one to come in for Aasgaard. The only surprise was the speed in which the deal to Luton was concluded. There’s been the usual heat directed towards the club, manager and owner over this. Seemingly from people who fail to understand how a buy-out clause works, and who equally blame the current ownership for the results of the actions of those ridiculous members of the Phoenix 2021 group that have caused so much damage to this club. Many people said we should have simply offered Aasgaard a new contract, without considering whether a) Thelo would have accepted new terms and, probably more importantly, whether b) his agent would have sanctioned that and lost the buy-out clause and a potentially large pay-day.

The club in the summer of 2023 were held over a barrel. Will Keane, Jack Whatmough and Jamie McGrath walked out for nothing, and Hughes and Thelo could have followed them. Thankfully the club, under new ownership, managed to convince them and their representatives that staying would be beneficial. But the only way the club managed to retain those two players was by accepting their agents' demands for a buy-out clause. Those buy-out clauses have now been met, so it’s not Mike Danson feathering his nest, it’s not Danson accepting a low offer. It’s a club meeting the level in a buy-out clause and being able to sign a player. It’s horrible, it’s soul destroying, but it’s not at all surprising either. The only surprise to me is that we managed to keep hold of him until the end of January. You only have to look at how Latics struggled at Peterborough to see how crucial Thelo was to our side. But he’s gone now, and there’s no point crying over it. Bigger players have left and we’ve bounced back, and we will bounce back again. If anything it’s credit to the likes of Gregor Rioch and, yes, the much-maligned Maloney to see the system is working. We can bring through talent that we can then sell on. The concern is there’s not a new Thelo available every couple of years.

Latics struggled badly on Tuesday, in fact they looked shell-shocked. Against the leakiest defence in the league, Maloney’s side barely registered an attempt on target, which is one of the most disappointing performances since the previous most disappointing performance...just seven days previously. We’ve an horrific injury list, with virtually a whole first-choice midfield missing, and our only creative outlet has left for Luton Town. Still, on the upside, if our inconsistent form means anything, we’ll beat Lincoln on Saturday as the cycle of one step forward and three steps back continues. The lads really need to step up from Saturday if we’re not to get dragged into a relegation battle, we desperately need to start stringing some results together. How we do that, and whether we have enough in the side to see us through to the end of the season, is all down to the recruitment team now. The summer transfer window can be described as disappointing, and the last few days of the January window are as probably crucial to the club as you could expect. We all understand the restrictions we’re under (or at least some do), but at the same time we need to see some outlay by the club.