Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'I’m going into this season in a good mood, content with where we are, with an open mind...and I suggest you do too...'

Martin Tarbuck:

I’ve never known a football season to be so calm as this one. I’d like to think that, with all we’ve been through, people are a little bit more measured, safe in the knowledge we can handle whatever is thrown at us. Of course, the first thing we have to deal with is an eight-point deficit on 23 other teams. That is not going to go away overnight, unless they start awarding 12 points for a win. There’s an idea, award variable points for a win, depending on how good/annoying the opposition are. Probably one of the more sensible ideas to get passed across the EFL table, that. I jest, but I do foresee a bit of a hangover, which might take a few months to clear up. You can’t outpoint other teams when there’s only three on the table each week, and we’ve got four hard games in our first five in Derby, Northampton, Carlisle and Barnsley. But we’re in no rush, are we? There’s 46 to play, and we know what our expectations are. The bottom line is we need to turn the ship around on the pitch, ensure we stay in this division, and stop the rot. It feels like we are doing it already off the pitch, with Shaun Maloney really being that breath of fresh air we really need. Even though there is an absence of formal directors and CEO at the club, the new guys seem to be doing the right things in a professional manner and, on the face of it, we are starting to look like a properly functioning football club again. As I frequently state, we’ve bumbled our way up and down the divisions so much, it’s hard to know what our natural home is. The Championship is probably a little bit too big for us right now, but we have the support and infrastructure to be a competitive League One club with the potential for much more. The words that new signings make when they join speaks volumes...this is a club that can and will go places. If we can manage a few years of stability and an absence of the utter turmoil that has plagued us in recent times, that will do for me. For now, let us stop looking at what other teams are doing and just inhale the serenity of one normal season watching Wigan Athletic Football Club.

The squad numbers have been released and make for intriguing reading. A whopping 40 names, albeit half of them will probably have to take some time out during the season to revise for their GCSE’s. That first 15 or 20 names looks the part though. A heady combination of the heads we’ve brought in, star players who we’ve retained, with outgoings not too damaging, all bolstered by young, emerging talent we’ve found down the back of the couch. It all perhaps suggests those expectations should be pitched a little higher. And you know what? It’s fine to jump off the sofa and get excited about our prospects but please, let’s refrain from criticism and abuse online on the occasions where we fail to make the grade. We’ve got to be realistic enough to realise that giving youth an opportunity can yield some brilliant results, but it might also expose some flaws and shortcomings. Some of these will be overcome, others will get a one-way ticket to Curzon Ashton. But while they wear the shirt, let us give them all the support and encouragement they need in every game. That’s it from me really. I’m going into this season in a good mood, content with where we are, with an open mind...and I suggest you do too. It seems like we can get back to 'The Good Life', and 'The Nightmare on Anjou Boulevard' is over. No more sat cowering on the settee, peering through your fingers as to what happens next in the horror show. There’s a football club which needs our bums on its seats, so let’s pull up a pew and enjoy the spectacle. We’re back and ready to roar. I don’t think we’ll bother using the 'Phoenix from the Flames' analogy for a while, mind you….

Statto:

Even by Wigan Athletic standards, it's been one hell of a week. But come Saturday, it will be interesting to see Shaun's starting XI and formation, get behind the lads, and 'Let Latics Gel'. The nine-month rollercoaster starts here, and let's hope the players deliver. Stay safe.

Matt Auffrey:

Pre-season 2023 is in the books. We’ve gained a lot of clarity about the make-up of this season’s squad since the lads left for training camp in Hungary just over six weeks ago. We’ve filled some holes - most notably in midfield - while we’ve also lost some of our biggest contributors from the past few campaigns. Our young lads have been given a wealth of minutes over the course of our numerous friendly matches. A handful of these players will have rightfully earned the opportunity to contribute at the first team level over this next month - especially as a sizable contingent of our more experienced lads still recover from injuries. Regardless of who comprises our first starting XI of the new season on Saturday, there should be little doubt it will be a side fit to compete. We’re no strangers to opening the League One campaign with a big away atmosphere against one of the division’s biggest clubs. There was Ipswich away in 2020 followed by Sunderland away in 2021. Derby away this weekend will present no less of a test than any of our other season openers at this level. When you consider the hardships that many of these lads have had to face through the first half of 2023 as employees of Latics, the challenge awaiting at Pride Park Stadium may not seem very daunting at all. As a fan, I am champing at the bit to get this season underway. Forget the points deduction. Forget the bookies who say we’re far more likely to get relegated than get promoted this season. Forget what this team would have looked like had we been able to keep a hold of players like Max Power, Will Keane, and Jack Whatmough. Forget everything that has held this club back in one way or another over the past year. All of those things go out the window prior to that first kick of a ball on Saturday.

Shaun Maloney has stood by this club through the absolute worst of the worst since being appointed manager in January. Our greatest starlets in Charlie Hughes and Thelo Aasgaard have committed their long-term futures to Latics by penning contract extensions over the summer. Eight new players have taken a leap of faith by signing on for this season and pledging to give their all for a club that is desperately seeking some sustained success. If you can’t get excited for this new era of Latics, then that’s strictly a ‘you’ problem. My most pragmatic self says we’ll lose a narrow contest against a strong and ambitious Derby side. The optimist in me hopes we can pull out a draw. The dreamer in me will certainly not let go of a vision that includes a stoppage-time winner and absolute mayhem in the away end. Maloney has explicitly stated the goal for this season is to simply ‘stay in the division’ and build from there. As fair as that target may be, there’s no harm in imagining a more glorious destination that rewards our efforts come the end of April. We are still less than two months removed from a very dire situation involving our club’s status and future. We may as well be playing with house money for the entire course of this season. No matter how the dice fall, we’ve already won in many ways. Let’s add on to that winning feeling with three points this weekend.

Ed Bazeley:

Hello all from Carroll County, Ohio where I am currently working as an international staff member at a children's summer camp and having a great time! As such, my focus has not often been on Latics these days. However, I am using my limited spare time here to write this ahead of Latics' opening fixture in the upcoming League One season. Firstly, after a horribly turbulent season, let's look forward to this new era in which the club is beginning to naturally fall into Shaun Maloney's mould, with his new signings of many youngsters and the youth players who have graduated into the first team. It's nice to see the club finally seems like it's being run with sustainability in mind too. Hopefully, these signings - along with that of Latics legend Callum McManaman - will see Wigan's ways return to a Martinez-esque style of play which is easy on the eye. Obviously the points deficit we are starting on is wholly non-ideal, but we have 46 games which can be used to fill that gap. Derby away is possibly the hardest fixture any League One side could have as their opening outing, so it will be a good reality check as to where this squad really is. Although we are used to seeing Latics breeze through League One with ease, we mustn't have outlandish high expectations this time round, given the age of the squad and the fact the club has only just got back on its feet. A mid-table finish would do me nicely, and would be a decent result in terms of sustainability. However, as proven under Leam Richardson's stewardship, anything is possible with Wigan Athletic in League One. And in any case, surely promotion wouldn't be as harmful as it was last time. Hope you're all having a great summer. See you back at the DW when I return to the UK in September.

Alan Rogers:

Right, full disclosure, a couple of days ago we got a new puppy...and none of us have slept since. So if these scribblings make even less sense than usual, then I apologise in advance. I actually meant to start this week with another disclosure, which is I won’t be travelling to Derby this coming weekend. That’s no big shock to anyone who knows me, but I just wanted to give one or two people the chance to say 'they come on here, spouting their nonsense, and they can’t even be bothered to go and watch us play away! They aren’t real supporters!' Yawn. Seriously, the away support is vital for the team, but we all try our best to support the team, in different circumstances, in our own way. I’ll hopefully catch every home game and some away days, but will cheer on the other matches remotely this season. I’m normally a glass half full person when it comes to the beginning of the season, predictions etc. But (and this may come back to bite me) I’m quite hopeful this year. I’ve even gone as far as having a substantial bet we will be promoted at the end of the season (fairly sure my wife won’t be reading this). I don’t think it’s any one thing in particular that makes me so confident, it’s just a gut feeling the feel-good factor around the place may actually lead to something special this season. It was, however, a blow to lose Jack Whatmough this week – whatever the circumstances. I’m not going to get into the rights and wrongs of the situation. I do have an opinion, but may get into trouble if I say what I really think. Good luck to Jack and to PNE, I hope they get what they deserve from the coming season. So the new season is almost here. It’s a bit like a mixture of Christmas Eve and the night before a big exam – really excited, hopeful and feeling sick all rolled into one. Good luck to everyone, safe journey to all supporters travelling to Derby, and hopefully we can show all the merchants of doom just how wrong they are!

George Chilvers:

Are we nearly there yet? Only a few more sleeps and we'll be back to normality. If there is such a thing in LaticsWorld. I'm more excited than I am when bin day is approaching. The start of a new season, there's nothing like it. We all know the first couple of games off by heart, as we've studied them for seemingly ages, but it's here and we can go back to 'who are we playing this week'? I've already dipped my toe into proper competitive match watching this season, with our now traditional trip to watch The New Saints play an obscure European team in European early qualifying rounds (this time it was against Swift Hesper in the UEFA Conference League). Pretty poor stuff to be honest, 1-1 and TNS got knocked out in the second leg this week, but a match is a match. But Saturday is the real start. Tickets and coach booked for Derby, and with 2,000 Tics there it should be a great day out. Neither team is deeply enamoured of the EFL, so I am prepared to bet on 'that' song making an appearance from both sets of fans. But we both have lived to fight another day, and we are seemingly in a good position even with minus eight on the board, and we will look to make a quick start out of the blocks. My son and grandson will once again have to get used to 'who is that?', and 'not that mon, but yon mon', and 'where did he come from?' as I struggle to recognise our players. I doubt they would recognise me either, so there's no hard feelings. Games then come thick and fast with Wrexham on the horizon, with another big Tics following booked in. The future is bright. I'm looking forward to it. A bright new start. I can feel it in my bones, although at my age it may just be arthritis. Are we nearly there yet?

Tony Moon:

Well ladies, and gents, whodathowt this time last year we’d a) be starting this season back in League One, b) had our third bash at going through three managers in a season, and c) amazingly lost out our wonderful (as we all thought at the time) owners? Credit where credit’s due, when Latics mess things up, they don’t do it by halves. But all that’s done and dusted now, and we’re about to embark on another brand new season, and yes, probably another circuit on the roller coaster. But don't worry, cos there are certain things we can count on … just like the cuddly toy on the Generation Game conveyor belt, the speedboat on Bullseye, and Roy Castle getting a tune out of a kettle on Record Breakers … whatever happens, there’s bound to be some beggar having a moan. The formation, the tactics, team selection, substitutions, the price of a pie and a pint, the pies and pints, the refs (obviously), … all will no doubt be certain targets. The only question to be answered is … how long are we going to give the manager? Being eight points behind from the start, and some fairly difficult opening few games, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility we might be still bottom (or at least still in the relegation zone) by the end of September … surely no-one would start calling for his head by then … would they? Of course they would. There’s nowt as fickle as folk, and some of the ficklest seem to watch our team. So, we wish the very best of luck to you Shaun … but let’s hope you don’t need it.

Sean Livesey:

We’re back, and we’re ready for it all over again! No, not Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 general election, but Wigan Athletic. I’ve spent the last few weeks talking about how we very nearly didn’t make it here, but make it we did thanks to the hard work of many. It’s going to be a unique season. For a club that had never had a points deduction in its history prior to 2020, we’ve had to get used to issues off the pitch affecting our league position. It will be the first time we’ve ever started a season in a minus state and, as such, many of the preview pieces written about us have us down as early favourites for relegation to League Two. Which I think puts too much weight on those eight points we need to make up. Eight points need not be terminal. With a decent start, we could be back in the positive points total by the end of August. With 138 points to play for, there’s a lot of time to make up what we’ve had taken from us. I’m not expecting promotion this season, far from it. Although there are still areas where we look light in the squad, it’s a far better proposition than we imagined at the end of last season. Our backline looks extremely strong, even with the departure of Jack 'I love this club' Whatmough to Preston, and having to make do without Jason Kerr until the end of the year. Midfield looks to be where we look light. This is where the young lads - be they on loan or from the Academy - will be expected to step up. We’ve spoken about not signing journeymen and denying chances to our young lads...well this is their time. On the wings, Steven Humphreys and Callum McManaman have looked in good form in pre-season and, as Shaun Maloney insinuated last week, they’ll be expected to take the burden of the early few weeks of the season, until Jonny Smith and Jordan Jones are fit again. Up front, Charlie Wyke looks to have fought his way back into the side and, according to the manager, is in the best shape of his career. Wyke’s issues over the last few seasons are visible for everyone but, if he can get back to anything like the form he showed in our last League One campaign, he’ll be a forward that many sides would be happy to have. The same can be said for Josh Magennis. The battle-hardened Northern Ireland striker has had a stop-start career with Latics to date, but he impressed Maloney last term and, in League One, is far more likely to get goals than in the Championship. Keep him fit, and he and Wyke could well fill the gap of Will Keane’s goals. At the other end of the pitch, Sam Tickle seems to have won the battle for the No.1 spot. He’s looked excellent in pre-season, and it’ll be another proud day for the Academy when the spine of the side - from goalkeeper to forward - is made up of youngsters who have been developed here.

I’m not sure what to make of the rest of the division. It feels like some of the stronger sides - certainly in terms of spending power - have been promoted in recent years, but that doesn’t really matter this season. As Maloney has stated, survival is the aim this season. After that, there is a three-year plan in place to return to the Championship. Doing it organically with youngsters from our Academy, a manager who has played for us and understands us, alongside an owner born and raised in the town...what more could you want? This is where we come in. We need to fill those seats home and away. We need to give them our support, not turn on them when we hit a bad run of form. I guarantee if we do that, we’ll get it paid back in spades. It’s the approach to running our football club we’ve wanted for years, and we’ve a golden opportunity to make it work now. Let’s not waste it. I can’t wait.