Stephen Warnock recalls Wigan Athletic spell with fond memories - 'I loved my time at Wigan'
Former England international turned pundit Stephen Warnock has looked back fondly on his time at Wigan Athletic, describing his time at Latics as an enjoyable spell in his long paying career.
Speaking about his experience under former Latics boss Gary Caldwell and the bond he formed with the club, Warnock revealed how close he came to extending his time at the Brick Community Stadium in a player-coach role, and explained why his affection for Wigan still runs deep today, almost a decade on after he was at the club.
By the time Warnock joined Wigan on loan in 2016 from Derby County, he was an experienced professional who had already represented the likes of Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa and Leeds United. Opportunities on the pitch were starting to become limited, but a phone call from his old pal Caldwell came at the perfect time, with Latics giving Warnock ‘a new lease of life’.
“I enjoyed my time at Wigan,” Warnock told the Wigan Post when representing Adventure Gamers.
"It was the ideal time in my career where I wasn’t playing, and I knew Gary Caldwell from a younger age when we actually crossed paths when he came on trial at Liverpool.
"We sort of stayed in touch, and every time we saw each other, it was a nice thing. Then, when he called me and said there was an opportunity to bring me to the football club and he wanted to do that, for me it was absolutely perfect, and it gave me a new lease of life.”
Warnock’s long-standing relationship with Caldwell attracted the Ormskirk-born defender to the club, and that connection helped the left-back settle in almost immediately into the dressing room.
Having spent a decade in the Premier League and represented his country on the international stage, Warnock wanted to bring leadership and experience to Caldwell’s side.
After making his loan move from Derby performant ahead of the 2016-17 season, he rarely missed a game in the Championship campaign, after helping Latics win promotion from League One the season before, whilst on loan.
“I came in the season before when we got promoted, and to get promoted was brilliant,” he said.
"Just to go into that team and gel within the changing room straight away, push on and get promoted… I think sometimes when you go into a changing room that’s flying, there’s an element of you not wanting to upset the apple cart, and if we start losing a bit of form, me getting blamed for it!
"But winning promotion was brilliant. I loved it – it was an absolutely brilliant achievement from the group of players and working alongside everyone.”
After helping Wigan get back into the Championship, Warnock became one of Wigan’s leaders, captaining the side on a number of occasions. He wanted to remain with the club for longer, despite suffering relegation back to League One that season.
“To be honest with you, I didn’t want to leave the football club, even when they got relegated from the Championship,” he admitted.
"I’d agreed on a new contract and agreed on things, and then the club decided to go down a different route the next year, so I was a little bit devastated, to be honest.
“Sometimes it’s (a) manager’s opinions or the ownership decide to go down a different route – obviously it is part and parcel of football, but I went and sat down with David Sharpe at the time who was the owner, and he just said what I’d like to do is offer you like a player-coach role, and for me that was absolutely perfect. I was like, yeah, I could sort of see myself doing that, learning about the other side of the game and maybe transitioning into that side of it, so for me, there was a little bit of a pathway into what would happen after retirement, and I was excited by that.
"That was probably about a month out from the end of the season, and then at the end of the season, he just said that they’d re-evaluated everything, looked at things and decided that they wanted to go down a different route and I was gutted at the time because I was looking forward to that, but I loved my time at Wigan, I thought everyone at the club was brilliant.”
Despite only spending one full season with Latics in 2016-17 after his loan spell the season before, making more than 50 appearances, Warnock looks back on his time with the Tics with fond memories, and the respect he has for the club and its supporters remains to this day.
The League One promotion-winning season in 2015/16 remains a fond memory for Wiganers, but also for the players who were part of the journey.
"I came in the season before when we got promoted, and to get promoted was brilliant,” Warnock said when asked about his highlights with Latics.
“Just to go into that team and gel within the changing room straight away, push on and get promoted… I think sometimes when you go into a changing room that’s flying, there’s an element of you not wanting to upset the apple cart, and if we start losing a bit of form, me getting blamed for it!
"But winning promotion was brilliant, I loved it, it was an absolutely brilliant achievement from the group of players and working alongside everyone.
"You always create bonds within the changing room and keep in touch with people, but it’s strange that when you leave a changing room, those messages become fewer, but then when you meet back up with the players, it’s great.
"I still see Wigan fans out and about now, and when you chat to them, that year when we got promoted, they absolutely loved it.”