Forgive me for my absence the past few weeks but rest assured, this just means I now have even more to say than usual, to be met equally with cheers and groans. As ever, there’s no sacred cows and here’s seven things I’ve decided to get stuck into whilst I’ve been away:
Maloneyball. There’s no denying this has hit the skids a little bit this year. Is it due to a more cautious approach, or losing many of our experienced players? The low chance creation is something that has been retained as a stick to beat Maloney with, from his limited time at Hibs. However, we also know that it can quickly change, as we saw in many games last season, against many of the better teams. I’m sure he doesn’t go out and tell them to just pass the ball around at the back all game and create nothing. Rather, he tells them to pass the ball around at the back until we create something, and find an opportunity, but when there’s another team on the field trying to stop us doing that, well, there’s only so much you can do in training to predict what the other team does. It will get better; precedent tells us this. But if it doesn’t, we’re in for a long, frosty winter
Transfer dealings. It seems clear that we didn’t exactly get what we wanted. Or maybe we couldn’t afford what we wanted. We have got a few good young players in but I’m probably only the 865th person this week to point out the gaping lack of experience in the team, in fact I asked Maloney about it directly on Radio Manchester last month. We are left to watch a young team grow and develop. If you watch the body language, on the extremely rare occasion that we score a goal, it seems there is no underlying malaise. They are a happy camp that is struggling. But with the bulk of the summer signings also being relatively inexperienced and untested, it is still going to take time for them to resemble anything like a team. Just as well, the fans aren’t on their back already eh?
The Crawley game. See this is where I am conflicted a bit. Notwithstanding the points made above with Shaun Maloney and the squad, you have to take your hat off to Crawley and their manager Scott Lindsay. He has had a side ripped apart and replaced at low cost over the summer, and he has got them playing exciting, attacking, gung ho football. So why can’t we do the same? To answer my own question, we seem to be methodically succession planning. In order to sell players on at a profit, we have to play a more cautious, possession based game that could translate to a higher level, both individually and collectively. You may recall that bloke up the road, who is also getting stick at the minute, seems to be an advocate of this too, claiming his team would take to the Championship like a mallard on a mere, if only they could stop telling everyone how superior they are and perhaps concentrate on getting there. In summary, I wouldn’t want to adapt all of Crawley’s play, which resembled a playground game of ‘everyone follow the ball’ (even their keeper was near the centre circle at times) but their quick, neat, FORWARD passing was a sight to behold and shows what can be done in a short space of time, if you release the shackles.
The FAB. Didn’t go, wasn’t invited. Had no idea I had to apply. If the club would prefer to solicit feedback from fans’ groups set up in the past year or so, and ignore the views of a fanzine which has been running over 20 years, has thousands of readers and a social media reach of over 8,000, then who are we to judge? I also constantly hear from online snipers that it is “always the same faces” attending these things (usually the ones who put themselves forward, and devote many hours of their free time to the club), so I’m happy to stand aside. Go wild people, put that club in their place. Ask the tough questions, us club patsies have constantly failed to do over the years. It is time that myself and my fanzine co-editor, Migs, who have continually been called cuddly club puppets, amongst other things, by people who have clearly never met us, will return to the sidelines and lob stones from afar. I’d be interested in speaking to a full-time Chief Exec as and when we revert to the same set up 91 of the other 92 clubs have and actually decide to appoint one though. The bottom line is we run a fanzine, which is independent, and dare I say, we’ve reached a point where we may need to be a little bit more critical of the club once more. Although having seen the output of the first FAB, it seems reasonable – in fact when I have met with club officials, it always feels reasonable, there are perhaps some things that just don’t feel right at the minute and we will never been afraid to call this out. Yet, I also acknowledge that there is an endless stream of ideas, but a limited supply of people, time and money to execute them. You will never satisfy every Wigan Athletic supporter, as many of them can never be appeased, no matter what the club does, in what has become commonly known as the Olivier Giroud Syndrome.
Morecambe. “We shouldn’t be losing to dross like Morecambe” the online masses wailed. It’s almost as if the previous 92 years of Wigan Athletic never took place. You know, all those games over all those years where we constantly overachieved and beat better teams than ourselves. Sometimes, we end up on the receiving end, and as I say, if you aren’t acutely aware of the challenges we face on and off the pitch by now, then you never will be. It’s not the end of the world, we just lost a football match, one which most of our fans couldn’t be bothered attending. Including me, but I was in Majorca to be fair.
Internet rage / exaggerating / attention seeking. It is only going to get worse. We seem to have masses of online fans who claim this is the worst team and manager we’ve had for 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 years. The truth is that 80% of them were probably never around during our darkest days, at least not regularly. When we faced our biggest threat to oblivion in the 1993/94 under Kenny Swain and nearly dropped out of the league completely, our average gate was 1,591. That included away fans, and dare I say, a significant chunk of home fans who were regulars then, have sadly passed away. Our crowds increased dramatically once Whelan started pumping in the millions, and now that our financial means are more balanced, it seems that many of our fans who claim to have witnessed more austere and challenging times following the club, are now getting mightily upset about it and threatening to walk. It’s almost like they didn’t sign up to this. We’re Wigan Athletic, HMS Romp The League, not Wigan Athletic, perennial lower league strugglers. Guess what? All those years of success was was nearly all achieved with someone else’s money! If you can’t stick around during the bad times, then you were probably only here for the good times.
Maloney Out. Of course, the inevitable has happened, mainly on Facebook and a certain forum. But the question is, who comes in? Who takes over and works under the extremely challenging circumstances that Maloney signed up to? A shoestring budget and moving goalposts. For all the criticism Maloney gets, it was he and Gregor Rioch who convinced Mike Danson to buy the club, so without those two, we wouldn’t have a club. Someone on Facebook the other day claimed Maloney was “stealing a wage”. Are we talking about the same Maloney who didn’t even get paid for several months, when other players and backroom staff were walking away in their droves? Who knows, maybe if you get your wish and Maloney either walks or gets sacked, the ownership will do the same as they have done with the CEO role and appoint someone part-time with limited background in football. Or give the job to a handful of players? Be careful what you wish for, especially when you are incapable of thinking things through.
In the interests of balance, there is plenty to be concerned about around the future of the club but aren’t we all just making mountains out of molehills? Mike Danson bailed us out from being extinct in 24 hours, and understandably isn’t keen in ploughing in millions more for scant return. That is the way it is, and a breakeven, moderately loss making, Wigan Athletic is a lower half League One side at best. If we were getting 20,000 fans on, then maybe we’d be right to demand change but we don’t. We can control very little other than our support. So, you have a choice, either to walk away and make us even more meagrely supported or, you get on with giving this young side and young manager all the support it needs, in times of adversity. The constant negativity and whining from certain sections of the fanbase is exhausting. You certainly wouldn’t want them in the trenches with you. We’re not fighting for our life, we’re just a bit in the doldrums right now. It might last a few years, which I’m fine with, given the above circumstances. But given the way some people are losing their minds after a few games, well, there really is a bit of perspective needed and my only objective here is to try and add some.
Article first published in Wigan Today’s 12th Man column on Friday 6th September 2024