Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'The next few days are critical, mainly involving clutching of rosary beads to ensure we don’t lose any more players...'

Martin Tarbuck:

The term has often been used over the years but it is never more apt. Supporting Wigan Athletic is very much like being on a roller coaster, especially if you’re the sort of person who gets violently sick with a sudden shock, or if you get carried away with the occasional moment of jubilance, only to get jolted back to reality a few minutes later. The fairground of our dreams/nightmares is located every bit as much on social media these days, as it is on the ploughed furrow of the DW pitch, but again that is the sign of the times. With each new piece of information, either your heart flutters or your stomach goes into a knot.I am quite sanguine about a lot of elements on the field. Have you ever been less upset about a 5-0 home defeat than on Tuesday? Upset, a little bit maybe, but angry? Definitely not. I am only cursing myself for not putting Blackpool on my coupon, as it is evident, that any team coming up against us on a Tuesday night is going to have an easy evening. Mainly because we have no strength in depth and a team sheet that simply hasn’t been playing first-team football for very long, or for a very long time, prior to joining us. The only person to blame for this is thousands of miles away, and even if we were in normal times, he would neither hear nor care about any accusations flung at him. I have always been confident we will get an owner and we will come good towards the end of the season. Even though “good” by this year’s standards would be to win two games on the bounce, after which a point per game would probably keep us above the drop zone, given the low quality of teams around us. I am also managing my own expectations that this might not happen, after all, the clock is ticking. I would certainly hope the first part will happen, and sooner rather than later. We need an owner and it is a pretty big decision as to who it is. It will shape and define our whole future. We are told there are promising signs a resolution could be close, but we’ve been here before and that roller coaster might suddenly decide to jolt backwards and chuck us all up into the air once more.

I’ve also got this idea that if we get a new owner next month, that they will be willing and able to throw a bit of cash in to bring in four to six players in key positions to get us out of this mess. The one upside of a global pandemic and a tightening of footballing belts outside the greed leagues is that there are plenty of decent lower league footballers available on a free. That might not work though. Just like we have seen with Clough, Johnstone and Whelan, there might need to be a bedding in period, which is a luxury we don’t really have. This has been the biggest issue we - well, Leam and Gregor - have faced all season: trying to build a competitive squad, bringing players in. Only for the existing, and usually better players, to be sold or released from beneath them. It is an impossible challenge, and they must have the patience of saints. For that reason, if we don’t turn it around and we do end up in League Two, then so be it. I certainly won’t be pointing fingers at anyone other than Stanley Choi and Au Yeung. I have heard two years being used as a benchmark for a club to turn themselves round after being put into administration, so if we can turn it around this year and stay up, it will be a minor miracle. The next few days are critical, mainly involving clutching of rosary beads to ensure we don’t lose any more players before the transfer window closes in the face of some pretty derisory offers from rivals who would like to dance on our grave a little harder. Ditto Bristol City for kindly offering to take one of our best players on loan!! Tell you what, why don’t you give us Joe Williams back till the end of the season, seeing as he claims he is fit and you’ve not played him all year? It is squeaky bum time between now and the end of Monday regardless. Nevertheless, it is not and never will be the Latics way to get out of any situation easily. Who wouldn’t bet against us remaining in 23rd place until April and then winning the final three games on the bounce to stay up on the last day? Either way, we’ve had the ride of our lives prior to our whole world falling in last summer. Will there be another dramatic twist yet, or will we gently fizzle out?

Statto:

Well that was a bad day at the office against Blackpool, but let’s be realistic it was like starting the season all over again three new defender’s in the back four Lang Clough in the team it’s going to take a few games to get up to speed. Yes some goals you can point fingers at individual mistakes but that’s for the individual to sort out. One bit of positive news Adam Long signing his new contract but sadly other youg lad’s have had to be let go with administration rules still in affect. We now seem to have a front runner from Bahrain of all place’s, lets hope this is not another false dawn and the club can get on a stable footing again.

Matthew Auffrey:

What do you get when businessmen from the 152nd most populous country on earth cross paths with a League Two midfielder nursing a broken leg? A race to the finish for the prestigious prize of Latics ownership, of course! After being let down by the “Spanish sham”, which was shortly followed by the “Frampton farce”, the future of Wigan Athletic appears to lie in the hands of either the “Bahraini benefactors” or “Gibson’s guarantors”. Regardless of whether our prospective owners hail from the Middle East or the middle of Greater Manchester, we need one of these parties to separate themselves from the pack very soon and end this seven-month saga. The administrators did very little to calm the nerves of Latics fans last week thanks to some disparaging comments, but since then, things have slowly started to look up for the club’s prospects. We have added quality and depth in key areas of the pitch, have locked down another academy talent with a long term contract, and have not had to panic sell any of our most prized player assets yet. We are officially halfway through our League One fixture list and our performances on the pitch have been nearly as erratic as the recent ownership developments. We have raised our game against some of the division’s best teams with four of our five victories coming against clubs that currently sit in the top third of the league table. However, our last two league defeats, both 5-0 drubbings at the DW Stadium, show that on our worst days, we are very susceptible to an all-out collapse. We are still in a fortunate position where a win at Northampton tomorrow could lift us out of the relegation places. The prospect of that alone should give Latics fans hope that there is still a cause to rally behind for the next several months of fixtures. We’ve had 32 different players feature for us in our league matches so far this season. I have confidence we can settle on the right 11 to see us through to safety this spring. We are presumably one week closer to a more stable future, but with so many moving pieces still at play, one piece could easily go awry and set us back in an instant. At this time next week, the transfer window will be closed, and hopefully we are finally in a position to close the books on this dark yet bizarre period of Latics history.

Deb Chapman:

Very bad day at the office in midweek but Leam Richardson continues to gain my respect as our manager. He knows better than most what a struggle it is at the moment but deflects any criticism towards the players and rightly so in my opinion. Not all our players are academy players and has been said there are many reasons for not getting results week in week out. No excuses it is what it is. We’ll get there and I believe will at least stay in this division. Dare I mention the takeover again?! Maybe not but rumblings that something more positive might be on the cards. I am convinced though that things happen for a reason and although it looks like this is dragging on (it is I know!) I’m hoping that once concluded we’ll be able to get back to doing what we do best. Again let’s see what happens.

Sean Livesey:

So that’s the week that was, it’s very much one step forward and two steps back for Wigan Athletic at the moment. This is natural with a club still in the pits of administration and all the chaos that goes with it, especially a side that is so young and with such a high turnover of players. If Saturday’s match with Fleetwood was the good the heavy defeat to Blackpool on Tuesday night was most definitely the bad. It was reminiscent of that match with Rochdale last month where our young guns looked out on their feet. Leam Richardson was right when he described moments in the match going against us, to concede one before half-time was bad enough. To allow Blackpool the chance to score a second a couple of minutes later showed the naivety of this young side. If Kyle Joseph had scored that chance just after half-time to make it 2-1 it could well have been a different story but in the end Latics didn’t deserve anything from the match and it was one of those games that just have to be chalked off (as long as you learn the lessons for the future) ironically we were well in the match until Blackpool got in front. Hopefully there’ll be a similar reaction to Tuesday night’s defeat as there was to the aforementioned defeat to Rochdale last month where Latics embarked on a five match unbeaten run. That run only earned Leam Richardson’s side seven points but those young lads will know it should have been more if they had converted the chances against Fleetwood and not conceded at the death against Rochdale. If there is a silver lining to this week it’s the fact that none of the other sides at the bottom made up ground on us. It’s also another game under the belt for the new signings, we need to remember thanks to loans ending and players leaving we’re looking at a virtually new side again – certainly in defence with only Tom Pearce remaining from the back four earlier this season. There were decent signs against Fleetwood and if we can forget Tuesday’s horror show against the other side from up the coast then we can hopefully show the real Latics in the next few games. We’ve strengthened in recent weeks but we are still missing experience all over the pitch, we’re desperate for an older head among the central midfield positions and perhaps even further back in the side as Jamie Jones endured another difficult night against Blackpool.

Away from the pitch we were told earlier this week there was some light at the end of the very dark tunnel of administration. I’m not getting my hopes up, it’s a cynical view point but we’ve been told the same virtually every week since this nightmare began in July. The hope has to be that what we are being told about parties in advanced talks and already at the stage of being checked by the EFL is right this time and one of these parties can get across the line. Whoever it is that does get across the line we have to hope that the deal is completed as soon as possible and allows us the chance to at least have a fighting chance in the remaining months of the season. In a completely unexpected turn of events it emerged that the new favourites to complete a takeover were Darron Gibson alongside former chairman Darren Royle. It’s the most Wigan Athletic thing ever for the news of a Bahraini consortium interested in buying us to not be the most dramatic story of the day. But there you go, 2021 following on in 2020’s footsteps with remarkable clarity. Through a combination of work and home schooling two kids I’ve barely looked at all the rumours and conjecture. I have no idea whether D&D or a Bahrain led investment consortium would be our best bet, all I know is that this club desperately needs some stability and direction. In normal times a 5-0 defeat against our friends in Blackpool would be a source of shame, not now. Too much has changed in the last few months – it’s now simply a blip, a blip on the road to some sort of salvation. Three years ago this week we beat Premier League West Ham 2-0 in the FA Cup, we did that as a League One side. It truly shows just how far we have fallen since then. Though as people pointed out after last night’s defeat Blackpool were a club in turmoil a couple of seasons ago. They have recovered and once again are looking upwards, we have to hope the same can be said of Latics and we will rise once again. Keep the faith, it’s been an awful year but at least we’re still in there fighting. Who knows where these young lads can go if Begbies don’t sell them off before next week and if we can manage to survive in League One this season.

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