Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'I’ll always feel aggrieved at what’s happened, and at the actions that have put us in this mess. To dwell on it forever, though, would be a mistake.'

Paul Middleton:

As daft as it sounds, I wish I could say I was disappointed at the appeal result. I wasn’t – not really – but only because it was always something in which we were never going to be allowed to prevail. It can be claimed the Arbitration Panel was completely independent of the EFL, but that just isn’t possible when the EFL are literally paying them to reach a decision. But still I held my breath, just like everyone else did, in the hope a miracle might happen. It is, of course, the hope that kills you. Nobody really knows what happens now. We know we’re in League One, but little else. Players will be leaving at a frightening rate, due to the administration creating a situation where new contracts cannot be offered, and the wages of the full-time club staff needing to be paid. I have no doubt we would have come straight back up, had we been able to keep the core of the current squad. Instead, we could end up struggling to field a team of any kind at all if the takeover becomes a long drawn-out affair. For all that, though, there’s a bigger issue. Enough jobs have already been lost for administration to be catastrophic for those who relied on their income to pay the bills. I will support Latics however we come out of this, regardless of whether we’re competitive in League One or uncompetitive in the Cheshire League. But it’s easy for me, as I don’t work for the club, at a time when the world has too few jobs for too many people. We need to survive at this level for those who have no idea if they’ll even be in a job next month. It isn’t ideal, and there will be massive issues putting a decent team together. But if it meant the people still employed at the club get to keep their jobs, I’d willingly take another relegation next year. We’ve been in the bottom division before and, despite the despair many younger fans will feel, it isn’t the end of the world. What’s done is done. I’ll always feel aggrieved at what’s happened, and at the actions taken by both Stanley Choi and the EFL that have put us in this mess. To dwell on it forever, though, would be a mistake. We’ve shown, as a club and as a town, what we’re made of, and that will see us through even the darkest times. The loyalty and togetherness will be severely tested in the coming month, but we will win out in the end, one way or another. We have to, because we’re Latics.

Mike Goodman:

I’ve seen a lot of anger directed at the EFL about our situation and, while they have simply followed their old-fashioned rule book and stuck to the letter of their law, they could have done so much more to help the club. Releasing a statement 45 minutes after the club went into administration, announcing a 12-point deduction, was extremely poor. They could have at least waited until the end of the day, or the next day, to confirm it. They could have added to the statement that the situation we find ourselves in is extremely shocking and that, while a points penalty needs to apply based on the current rules, they would investigate just how this has been allowed to happen, and how they can prevent this from happening in the future. They could have offered club staff and the fans mental health support – being a partner of Mind – noting the shock and uncertainty of the situation. But they haven’t. They could have offered support to the 75 people who have unfortunately lost their jobs through this mess but, as far as I’m aware, they haven’t. They’ve shrugged off the blame from themselves, and said it’s the clubs who make the rules and they simply oversee matters – which is an absolute joke. They should be taking the lead on this, and seen our situation as a breaking point which, in fairness, should have come following the debacle at Bury. Rick Parry...you and your organisation need to stop passing the buck and protect the clubs that operate in the EFL. You talk about the difficulties of updating the ‘Owners and Directors Test’, but that’s your job. So find a solution to it. No club should ever go through what we’ve gone through, what Bury have gone through, what Blackpool and Bolton have gone through. Unfortunately, I can’t see any changes happening in the near future. And I won’t forget Au Yung Wai Kay and Stanley Choi in all this. They tried to kill our football club, and that matter cannot be allowed to rest. The work that fans have done in collecting information on these two has been outstanding, and if any legal proceedings are ever brought against the pair of them, no doubt the hard work from the fans will have played a part. I imagine most fans thought winning our appeal would be a long shot, and so did I. But I did have a glimmer of hope we’d get some form of justice. It wasn’t to be, and we must now prepare for League One. Hopefully, this should now speed up the process of finding a new owner as, personally, I just want a club to support in the future. It’s going to be a long road to recovery ahead, and I imagine there’s more pain to come. But we’ll get through it and, when we’re eventually allowed back in the DW to attend matches, that first game back will be something special – I cannot wait for it.

Andy Carey:

If ever there was an underdog punching above its weight and defeating Goliath on many occasions, then Wigan Athletic is that underdog. However, after being wounded by Choi, Yeung and Co, the appeal was a battle too far. To be honest, I never really thought we could win it on ‘force majeure’ alone, but would’ve been equally frustrated had we not given it a go. Although they’ll never admit it, the EFL know they’ve many questions to answer about our owners and how we’ve been able to be put in this position. So League One it is, or so we hope. For anyone who knows me, they’ll be aware I’m possibly one of the most optimistic supporters going. But to be quite honest, at the minute I’m in full pessimist mode. Until we have a buyer, every day feels like another day toward the end of Wigan Athletic as we know it. The youth set-up is being stripped to fund the immediate bills. The first team squad are, let’s face it, generally too good for League One, and there will be many clubs who will take advantage of a knockdown price. The administrators have an obligation to bring money in, so there will be sales regardless. It’s been so frustrating reading Twitter over the past few days, with supporters from our newly-found rivals in South Yorkshire taking the ‘holier than thou’ attitude because we had some losses. It’s impossible to reason with many of them in 280 characters so, for my own sanity, I’m taking a Twitter break. I hope whoever is out there looking at buying us will look beyond the immediate carnage, and see a club relatively small in numbers, but with a massive heart and soul. To a man, woman and child, the efforts of everyone to give our club the ability to fight through this has been phenomenal. What I do know is that, whatever form Wigan Athletic takes in the future, this knockback will make us stronger as a collective and galvanise us again. Let’s just hope a buyer comes in soon, and we can get back to what we do best. The day we are back in the stadium and can express our frustrations towards the EFL and support whatever team we have is going to be a special day, and one I hope is not too far away.