Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man (part 1): 'Choi...you’ve picked the wrong club if you think we’re going to roll over and let you tickle our bellies...'

Craig Wigan:

It’s a crazy time at Wigan Athletic at the moment...the scandal, dodgy previous owners, heroes on the pitch... I sometimes have to take a step back and realise I’m not watching Harchester United in ‘Dream Team’, and this is actually my club this is happening to. I’ve read a lot recently, constantly refreshing my twitter feed to find out another piece of ‘information’ that leaves me with more questions than answers, but recently I was reading people expect us to be a more attractive club to purchase if we’re in League One. Now as a fan I just can’t get my head around this. If we go down to League One, with our current wages and excelling squad, we’ll surely be doing a firesale similar to the transformation we had under Gary Caldwell in League One, where we only retained one player from the previous season. Except this time we won’t have Premier League parachute money to rebuild with any great quality. I worry we’ll disappear into mid-table League One obscurity or worse, and it spells a bleak future for our beloved club. Now, ultimately, having a club to support is the biggest worry at the moment, but it’s even more gut-wrenching when we are on the cusp of the next level. We have a young talented squad starting to click, and we’re not having them all return to parent clubs at the end of the season, like when we lost Reece James last summer. I honestly think if we can keep the squad together, improve with one or two, and Paul Cook continues to adapt to management at this level, we could break the top half or higher next year. If our 2020 form is anything to go by, it could even see us fighting for a return to the Premier League. Now wouldn’t that be a kick in the face to those that abandoned us? These two contrasting scenarios, for me, depend solely upon the results in the next three games. Our players look tired – in legs and in mind. But the spirit is there, and we’ve got to start adding the class we saw just after restart to get the goals needed to keep us up. Injuries are already a worry. I’m confident in Kal Naismith dropping into the back four and maintaining the solidity there, but I don’t see the creativity up the other end of the pitch. I don’t think Gavin Massey is the answer, Joffy looked like a player that hadn’t played many minutes in the last four or five months on Saturday, and Kieran Dowell and Jamal Lowe have played a lot recently, and would probably benefit from a rest to get them firing again. So head is saying we need a bit of rotation up that end of the pitch to get the best out of our squad in this run-in, but we simply don’t have the numbers right now. Also asking Cook for any serious rotation from a team not losing is like asking Stanley Choi for an honest explanation of what’s happened to our club. They just ain’t going to happen. Hull up next at the DW tonight, then Charlton away on Saturday. Both winnable, both fighting for their own lives. I believe we’ll have the fight to match, but can our quality shine through to get the six points we ultimately need? I’m dreaming of a scenario where we do enough this season to stay up despite a deduction, we get a smashing local owner to take us forward, this squad kicks on next year and is challenging for the play-offs or better, and we end up back in the Premier League before we know it. So we can give two massive fingers up to those who thought Wigan were a bad investment, ultimately because they didn’t do the one thing we do in Wigan...’Believe’.

Paul Middleton:

Three weeks ago we were as good as safe. Now, we’re right back in trouble, both on and off the field, through the fault of nobody at the club. I include the mysterious Kenneth Wai in that, as he’s not actually at the club and likely never intended to be. Things being what they are, it would have been easy for the players – who have only been paid a small percentage of the wages they are owed – to switch off and start planning where they’ll be next season. But they haven’t. Instead of chucking in the towel, they’ve come together and got us to the point where we might actually survive, even with the 12-point deduction. For a team that was bottom at Christmas, and literally odds-on favourites to go down, that is no mean feat. I’ve been critical of the manager in the past, but he’s done an outstanding job of keeping the players focused and their minds on what’s important. This is no longer about a game, a season, or even a relegation. It’s about saving a club from potential extinction. Latics have, for years now, been the most fan-engaged club in the country. It had always been a community-driven club, but the real changes started when a group of fans were invited to a Q&A with Roberto Martinez. From that point we had Northern Soul being played at games, the senior management got to know us, community work grew rapidly, and survey after survey showed we had the youngest average fan age in the country. All was looking good for the future. We knew there would be bumps, but nobody ever imagined for a second we’d be in a fight for our very existence. Despite everything, if we beat Hull on Tuesday night and Luton fail to beat QPR, we’ll be 12 points clear of third bottom but with a much better goal difference. The lack of support from the EFL, who seem determined to see us off, looks like it has had the opposite effect, and has brought everyone – fans, players, management – together, with a burning desire to stick it to them. We appealed Danny Fox’s red card, rightly in my opinion, and it was a shame to see it rejected. It was never a red card, unlike Antonee Robinson’s tackle, which should have been a straight red all day long. The cynic in me says the ref knew he’d messed that one up, and so he was desperate to put things right. In the end, 0-0 was about right, and a point when down to 10 men is okay. And so to the game against Hull tonight. We actually have one of the easier run-ins, so we have good reason to be hopeful. It’s entirely possible we will be safe before we come to play promotion-chasing Fulham in the last game. If so, then it will truly be our greatest ever escape. We’ll worry about next season in a few weeks. The sale of Jensen Weir will put much-needed cash in the bank to pay the wages of the players and remaining staff, and so we should at least get to the end of this season. After that, well, we can just hope that the new owners are better than the last lot.

Statto:

The remarkable work and generosity of fans of Latics and the wider football community in raising over £150k is absolutely brilliant. Off the field, we just have to let administration run its course. We only know of one bid being made public, while others are being kept private. It will be sad to lose young Jensen Weir, but it has to be done and he probably won’t be the last. On the field, can’t really say anymore about the group of players and management team the way they are approaching and performing games. Stay safe.

Caddy from the 5:

Now my initial anger has subsided (a bit) about this whole sorry situation the EFL and Stanley Choi have put us in, I’m going to concentrate on the positives since administration. The club’s fans, backroom staff, players and management, hearing the numerous tales of what people are doing to keep our club afloat really is amazing. I really do support the best club in the world. The Supporters Club starting the fighting fund (£150k and rising), Jimmy doing the brick wall (£5k and rising), kids raising £400 in a garage sale, lads cycling from Wembley to Wigan, auctions, 10k’s, marathons, cut-outs of famous fans...hahaha, I really could go on. Our supporters, and many others from all over the football world, have rallied round to hopefully help us retain this great club of ours. Paul Cook ringing the staff made redundant all day before the QPR game showed his class, and there’ll be no shortage of passion coming from our management team with that attitude. Now the players...I salute every single one of them, absolute heroes. Whatever the outcome this season, they’re leaving everything they’ve got on the pitch, and all for 20 per cent of their wages. Not one of them whining, just fighting for a common cause, the survival of Wigan Athletic. Another massive mention to the staff behind the scenes, working for free to try and help us, unbelievable dedication. I know one thing, Choi...you’ve picked the wrong club if you think we’re going to roll over and let you tickle our bellies. This is OUR Wigan Athletic, OUR club and OUR future. And we’ll do anything to protect it. We’ve three more games to hopefully beat the drop – even with the 12pt deduction! God I hope we do, sticking two fingers up to the EFL and Choi will be a great day, only beaten when we get bought, soon hopefully. I’m raising a ‘Bow to every single person associated with Wigan Athletic, bar the obvious...KEEP THE FAITH AND LET’S HANG ON...UP THE TICS!