Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man PART ONE - "There are glimmers of sunshine. That sunshine we love and nearly lost. Don’t ever take my sunshine away..."

Our panel of 12th Men are still trying to believe the light at the end of the tunnel looks to be here...the Spanish are coming!
Latics fans outside the DWLatics fans outside the DW
Latics fans outside the DW

Martin Tarbuck:

How to sum up the mood in one word? I’d say relief, for now, as opposed to euphoria. Things are never straightforward at Wigan Athletic, so until the exchange is completed and our prospective new owners have passed the rigorous (sic) EFL fit and proper persons’ test, then I’m holding back a wee bit of elation for now. That’s the surreal element of all this. The people who now hold the keys to saving us, were also complicit in our destruction three months earlier due to their own lack of controls. I suppose, it does all support the adage of the importance of being nice to people, because you never know when you might need their help. The last few weeks haven’t been particularly pleasant on the old socials, in stark contrast to the supportive way fans rallied around after the initial shock of going into administration. Of course, the administrators themselves have come in for continual criticism, some of it deserved due to conflicting messages and lack of transparency but, as someone who has maintained a civil dialogue with one of them throughout, I can also see their perspective. I think the last few weeks in particular, the vitriol has been awful and directed towards people who really don’t deserve it. I’ve had a bit of stick myself but nothing compared to the Supporters Club and one Barry Worthington, due to them having direct involvement in the process and speaking to Begbies. This perception that the angry man on the street would ‘ask the difficult questions’ that us club puppets are afraid to always tickles me. Firstly, I will admit I am not a trained interviewer, but I have been a fanzine editor for over 20 years and interviewed dozens if not hundreds of people over time. I like to prepare and structure such things, but also know you have to be adaptable to the answers. However, secondly and more importantly, you can ask all the difficult questions you like, but if someone doesn’t want to answer them – or they give you an answer someone else doesn’t believe – then there is very little you can do about it. Then there was the protests, or rather the lack of them. As was reported, a group called the Grievance Society held a peaceful protest outside Begbies HQ which garnered positive media attention. Did it help the cause of selling the club? I don’t know, but I do know they stepped up and did it.

Elsewhere on social media, we have had weeks of fans slagging off other fans along the lines of ‘State of our fans! At any other club, there would be riots!’ Possibly a bit of an over-reaction with hindsight but, nevertheless, if every fan complaining about the lack of protests had actually got off their backsides and started protesting themselves, there would have been a really decent sized protest! Enough of the post-mortem, but I’d just like to repeat what I said a few weeks ago: be nice to each other for Liddell’s sake. We all support the same club. It has been an intensely difficult period and I get everyone responds to it in different ways, but can we please call a truce and stop turning on each other? We’ve got a football club to rebuild here. I’m sure fans of every football club in the country feel like they have suffered at the hands of Covid-19, but very few have suffered like us. Macclesfield fans would disagree and it is a terrible shame, but they will resurface I am sure. Just like we would resurface if the worst happened. Because ultimately, it is the fans who pick up the pieces. It seems strange, suddenly feeling lucky again after feeling cursed for the last few months earlier, but we must never, ever take this football club for granted again, having been so close to it disappearing from existence. I only ever wanted three things out of this: 1. Our football club to survive, 2. Our academy to remain intact, as it has really started to bear fruit; and 3. Our stadium to remain in our possession. If all goes through, we will have this under the new ownership and I will be delighted. This might sound strange because this is what we have always had and yet, suddenly I feel grateful for it! Again, this is because I have perhaps taken for granted what we all hold dear. It is only when it comes so close to being taken away from us that we really remember what it means to us. I think in the new world, we will all have to work harder, and spend a few quid more (if you can) to support the club. Not just the team but the club. Our club. I’ve already noticed a lot of people buying replica shirts, who perhaps haven’t done in years. Once we get season tickets on sale, I hope they are taken up in good numbers, albeit it might get a bit tricky how to price them, given there are no fans allowed in grounds for the foreseeable. And yes, virus permitting, let’s use the stadium more, open it up to the community, use the facilities as and when we can to do social things and events, not just on matchdays.

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Maybe we’ll finally get our proposed fans’ bar / glamping tent? Many moons ago, Latics used to run a scheme called Blue Chip, where you paid a monthly fee and got entered into a draw to win prizes. We simply haven’t needed that kind of thing since Dave Whelan took over but, now we need to consider a sustainable future, maybe it is time once again. If you can get 1,000 fans putting in £25 or £50 a month to win a cash prize, or a meat pack, like you do at the bingo, then that is up to half a million a year towards club coffers. Of course, this is all going to be determined by our incumbent owners, who I believe will prioritise sustainability, rather than splashing the cash. And having been through what we have been through the past few months, I would hope every fan would be 100 per cent behind that and look to support the club every way they can. We are somewhat guilty of living beyond our means (as the Barnsley bores would have it), but it was only in the last few months of the past 20 years, when we were owned by unscrupulous individuals, who sanctioned that spending money on one hand, and pulled away the cheque with the other. So a season of mid-table mediocrity will do me fine, even though League One doesn’t exactly hold much to fear. However, we must also not forget we are Wigan, we punch above our weight and we always have done. We will do so again in future too, this is what makes our football club so special. In the last few weeks, I have gone from watching a bunch of mostly random players wearing our shirt and it not feeling like Wigan Athletic at all, to watching those performances against Liverpool and Pompey and the warmth coming back. A team of leftovers from last year, young kids and random misfits, thrown together and playing for the shirt and absolutely getting every last bit of what this club is all about. We are not out of the woods yet, a few nervy weeks lie ahead, but there are glimmers of sunshine. That sunshine we love and nearly lost. Don’t ever take my sunshine away.

Paul Middleton:

Assuming you don’t actually remember the end of World War 2, or the moon landings, 2020 has been a year for the ages. A killer virus running amok (or not, depending on your viewpoint) would have been plenty to be going on with, but right in the middle of pretend-lockdown came the news Latics had been put into administration by a largely anonymous professional Hong Kong gambler who had no idea when to hold ‘em and even less idea when to fold ‘em. Since July 1, it’s been a terrible time to be a Latics fan, by and large. In an administration that has always seemed to be more about Gerald Krasner being paid than it has about actually saving a football club and the associated business, we’ve had one non-starter takeover attempt after another. But, at last, it looks like there actually is light at the end of the tunnel with the latest bid. An as yet unknown Spanish consortium, we are told, has bid a “significant amount” for the club and bricks and mortar assets. This includes the stadium and Christopher Park, which means Ian Lenagan and the squatters will continue to be just that. The bid deserves cautious support just for that reason alone. But, make no mistake, we shouldn’t be celebrating just yet. We know nothing about the prospective buyers at this stage, and have no idea what their intentions might be. It’s all fingers crossed for a benevolent ownership that actually wants the club not just to survive, but also to thrive. But it’s a brave man who takes on any business when there’s no chance of even having, let alone maintaining, any level of income for the next six months or more. To take on one in such a perilous position as a traditionally loss-making football club like Latics is even more remarkable. That’s why, for now, I’ll be keeping my powder dry on declaring what it means for the future of the club. Better out of administration than in, obviously, but we’ve seen already what unscrupulous owners can do to a club at the drop of a hat. Or at the drop of an unregulated loan through a tax haven, at any rate. I’m optimistic, albeit with some reservations until we have more information, and that’s about as cheery as I can be for the moment. Sin miedo, pero con precaucion.

Statto:

After what seems to be forever there’s a bright light at the end of this long dismal dark damp tunnel. A few hoops to jump through with the EFL and then it’s all aboard the Spanish Revolution ‘Tics. We don’t know who these people are yet but who cares. At this moment in time, their vision and plans are for another day. One thing this has taught us is never take your club for granted, and I wouldn’t wish the last couple of months on any fanbase. It looks like we got lucky just in time, with a season of no fans looking certain we could have so easily been Bury or Macclesfield. Up The Spanish ‘Tics! Stay Safe.

David Naylor:

At this junction, we know very little about the preferred bidder from Spain. All we know is the offer that’s been accepted deals with not only the sale of the club but also allows the payment to non- football creditors to avoid the 15-point penalty this season, and that a substantial deposit has been received. This announcement has felt like it would never happen. Three months of hell has followed from the club entering administration. Relegation, the decimation of a potential promotion-winning squad, the sale of future young stars like Alfie Devine, Jensen Weir and Joe Gelhardt, and the selling of a multimillion pound training complex for the price of a packet of peanuts and a whoopsie pork pie has caused so much anguish and heartache for us fans. But at last a knight in a shining sombrero has come riding to our rescue! The future for the first time since July 1 looks bright. It was refreshing to read some positivity on the WAFC hashtag for once, and of course the usual photoshop comedy dreamt up by our more imaginative fans made a lot of us smile again. The potential new owners have made it plain they do not wish for their details to be made public until such time as the sale is completed, and so we as fans are none the wiser of who the new owners are or could be. As we don’t know who they are I just want to say a massive thank you to whoever you are for saving my club – OUR club! You may not have inherited the largest fanbase in the country, but you have certainly inherited the most loyal and most supportive fan base in the country. A quick check of the fundraisers can evidence that fact for you. During the current situation fans can’t attend games but be sure that, when we can, we will be there to thank you in person and show our support for the new regime. We want to get behind the lads before we all filter down to the concourse for our half-time pie, pint and paella. Viva Espana! Up the ‘Tics.

Martin Holden:

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The day we never thought would arrive has now come and gone. The announcement by the joint administrators came as a massive relief and a shot in the arm for the Latics fanbase who were starting to think the worst. We have a bidder who has committed to signing the contract, and more importantly has provided funds. Only the EFL can stop the process now (and let’s be honest, who knows what their view on all this will be, but you have to think they are happy to let it progress). The admins, as usual, were very careful in their wording of ‘a preferred bidder from Spain’. Of course everyone has jumped on the likelihood of the Latics now having Spanish owners, but we don’t know that just yet. It appears they are based in Spain, but the actual identity and nationality and even the make-up of the consortium remain a mystery. Of course, all the fans will take any consortium right now, but who knows what kind of owners they will make in the long term? However, after months of seeing miserable, depressing news day after day, Wednesday was a real bright spot, and spirits were lifted. We can now almost say Wigan Athletic FC live on (assuming of course the O&D test goes through). There still remains lots and lots to discuss and lots and lots to learn about the future plans for the club. We also need to understand what really went on with Choi/Au Yeung/Begbies, and of course the roles all the main characters at the football club played throughout this process. That hopefully will come in time. The clock is ticking now at EFL headquarters to get the deal over the line in time for the transfer window – the existing squad needs firming up and bolstering with stability the main goal for all concerned. We also wait to see what role, if any, the Supporters Club can play and how that would work in practice. But for once, it is all positive and exciting stuff to think about. I can’t finish this little piece without crediting the players though (again) for that performance and result at Portsmouth last week. The youngsters, particularly Alex Perry and Chris Merrie were absolutely superb, and I think there is a genuine excitement to watch them develop over the course of the League One season ahead (yes, I think we can say that now).

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