Monthly Archives: June 2015

Keeping your key asset

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Player profiles, Reflections and tagged with , , , , , , ,
Emyr Huws

Emyr Huws

With less than a week to go to the first training session of the new season the summer sell off at Wigan Athletic is starting to gather momentum. Scott Carson has already gone to Derby and it looks like James McClean is off to West Bromwich and Rob Kiernan to Rangers. The latest rumour is that James Perch will be joining McClean and Callum McManaman at West Bromwich.

The demand for ex-Premier League players like Carson, McClean and Perch was always going to be there. They were to be the three most likely to attract transfer income  for the club, as meanwhile it will ease its wage bill by some £20,000 per week or more for each of them. Keeping the three of them would have entailed using up around £3 m of an anticipated wage bill of £8- £10 m.

Behind them in the domestic transfer pecking order come Leon Barnett (29 years old), Don Cowie (32), Chris McCann (27) and Andrew Taylor (28) who have played in the Premier League, but are also experienced Championship division campaigners. Although their potential transfer values may not be high, the club will try to move on most of them, given their Championship-level salaries. Transfer fees will be waived as necessary.

The pairing of Andy Delort and Oriol Riera cost a total of around £5m in transfer fees last year. Sadly Delort was not able to regain his old goalscoring form after rejoining Tours on loan in January. He hit the back of the net only twice in fourteen starts. Reports from the French press suggest that there are Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs interested in him, but it is doubtful whether they would be willing to pay the kind of transfer fee that Latics paid last September. Reports from Spain suggest that Deportivo La Coruna would like to keep Riera, but are unwilling to match the kind of transfer figure that Latics would like.

Latics face a dilemma with the two players. Sell them off for maybe a combined transfer input of  £1m, signifying a £4m loss, or bring them back and have to use up 20% or more of the total wage bill for a squad of around 24 players, on their salaries alone. The option remains of a further loan period for each, relieving wage bill costs, but leaving the door open for the future.

However, media reports suggest that Latics are actively seeking strikers from other English clubs. It therefore looks like they will take the first option and sell the two players off at a significant loss.

All of the players mentioned so far are those for whom salaries are an issue for a club facing a change from a £30m wage bill to one of around a third of that within a year. However, there are also the cases of the younger players such as James Tavernier (23), Martyn Waghorn (25), Aaron Taylor-Sinclair (23), whose salaries will also have to be taken into account, together with the Malky Mackay signings Billy Mckay (26) and Jason Pearce (27), whom one assumes will be staying.

David Sharpe talked some time ago about needing up to fifteen new players. The implication is that the majority of the players signed prior to 2015 will be encouraged to move on.

However, if players are to move on they need a club not only interested in their services, but willing to get close to matching the salaries they have been receiving. In Grant Holt’s case the options seem slim. Ostracised by Uwe Rosler, Holt faded out of the Latics’ scene.  He was sent off on loan to Aston Villa and Huddersfield, where he received an anterior cruciate knee injury that kept him out of action for the second half of last season. Holt is 34 years old and with that ACL injury he is unlikely to attract the interest of clubs who can afford to pay a salary probably well in excess of £20,000 per week.

Critics will say that Owen Coyle should not have been allowed to offer a three year contract with a lucrative salary to a 32 year old. At the time it appeared to be not such a bad bet, getting a player with proven goalscoring pedigree for a relatively low transfer fee. Little did we know that just two years later the club would be in League 1 and the player’s salary would be like a millstone around their necks.

Injuries certainly affect the marketability of a footballer. Holt’s injury while playing on loan at Huddersfield will most likely prove to be the factor that will mean him staying at the club. At 34 and past his best, recovering from injury, but playing in a lower division can he be a key player? Can he win back the fan support that he lost before he was dispatched to Villa Park?  The likely scenario is that Gary Caldwell will have to find ways of motivating a player who has had a difficult time at the club, into being part of a successful set-up.

The injury to Holt did Latics no favours, but the ankle problem that prevented Emyr Huws playing in the second half of last season might well prove to be a blessing in disguise.  The 21 year old Huws was initially signed on loan from Manchester City, but Rosler signed him for a fee in excess of £2m last September. Not long after Huws injured his ankle while playing for Wales and suffered a series of niggles with it that prevented him reaching top form.

However, it was an incident in training in early February that caused Malky Mackay to report that “Emyr’s rolled his ankle badly, we’ve had it looked at and he’s going to need operating on. He’s going to be out for three or four months, and that’s a real disappointment. He came back in for a couple of games, he grabbed his chance and did really well, and it’s a real blow for us and him.”

Mackay clearly rated Huws and the young Welshman was one who avoided the huge January sell-off. Midfield was to prove a problematic area under Mackay and one can only speculate what might have happened had Huws been fit.

Because of his injury Huws might well avoid the cull that will happen in the coming weeks. Big clubs will bide their time and see if he can overcome his injury and realise his full potential. Moreover Caldwell might consider him a key player, well worth paying a salary above the League 1 norm.

Huws showed what a quality player he can be when on loan at Birmingham in 2013-14. He has shown flashes of his quality at Wigan, but niggling injury has held him back. However, he has all the attributes needed to become a top midfield player. He is combative in the tackle, has a cultured left foot, good dribbling skills and the technique to score spectacular goals from distance.

In League 1 Huws is capable of being the kind of imposing midfield player that Latics have lacked since the departures of the Jimmy Macs, McCarthy and McArthur. Moreover in shedding players who have played at higher levels there is a danger of a lack of class in the team. Huws can provide that.

Who knows how many of the players from Coyle and Rosler’s days will be at Wigan come August? So many will be shed because of economic necessity.

But Emyr Huws could prove to be the asset most worth keeping from that 2014 squad.

Only time will tell if Gary Caldwell thinks the same.

Getting the right kind of player

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Other

Sharpetweet

English football’s close season lasts too long for me. World Cups, European Championships and Copa Americas can all make entertaining viewing, but there’s nothing like the buzz that you get when your own team is playing. Latics played their last game of the season on May 2nd at Brentford.The League 1 campaign starts more than three months later on August  8th.

These recent weeks have been hard to bear, skimming the internet for transfer gossip, much of which is pure speculation. Does someone actually make up some of those stories? I can’t wait for the new season to start.

The other day a friend asked me what I thought Latics’ chances were of getting promotion this year. I had to reply that I had not the slightest idea. It would have taken too long to explain to him about the implications of the SCMP and parachute payments, together with ditching almost all of the top wage earners on the playing staff. Plus how a rookie chairman and rookie manager were going to turn around a club that had been losing its direction. Given the circumstances was I being an eternal optimist in thinking that Latics could actually reach the lofty goals for the season set by David Sharpe and Gary Caldwell? Up to then they had signed just two players on free transfers. Was my optimism unrealistic?

But then on Thursday came that tweet from David Sharpe:  a freshly grassed DW pitch and the promise of more good news later in the day. My mind started to race. Were Latics about to announce the signing of a dynamic up-and-coming young striker who could make all the difference? Or was it that they had signed left sided midfielder Sam Clucas from Chesterfield, a young player who had made a big mark on his club’s season. Moreover he qualified for Sharpe’s professed criterion of being between 23 and 27 years of age.

Then the news came through that Latics had made another free agent signing. The announcement of the procurement of 29 year old Craig Morgan from Rotherham was somewhat underwhelming. Morgan had previously played for four other clubs in the lower divisions prior to joining the Millers.

But his arrival was certainly welcomed by Caldwell:

‘He has great experience, having played internationally, but he also knows the division inside out. He is a quality defender, a real leader on the pitch who has been a captain, with a superb attitude and we are delighted to have him on board.’

Caldwell did not mention that Morgan has played 23 times for Wales.

Moreover the player had chosen to join League 1 Wigan despite receiving a similar financial offer from Rotherham. But he had also turned out an approach from Bolton Wanderers, who seemed far from happy that Morgan had gone to Wigan. One Bolton fan site posted a particularly vitriolic piece. In an open letter to the player the writer says: “We’re glad that your particular brand of mediocrity has found a home. We ourselves have spunked many thousands and millions of pounds on average footballers over the years, and we are all grateful for your decision to join Wigan causing us to avoid falling into the same trap yet again. It’s interesting to us that you chose Wigan. We know that you attended a medical at our Euxton training ground, and we know that you had your Bolton Wanderers contract drawn up and ready to sign on Thursday afternoon.”

Morgan himself commented “I had offers from teams in higher leagues, but I chose to come here because of the opportunity and potential here, I didn’t want to just mull around in the Championship. I want to be part of success with this club, I have done previously and I’ve enjoyed it so much that when Wigan came in for me I jumped at the chance because this club is the place I can see myself being successful at once again. The changeover of the Chairman and the manager last season seems to have given the club a fresh start for this new season.”

Sharpe was clearly pleased with the acquisition of Morgan. One wonders if his pleasure was derived as much from depriving the near neighbours of a player they sought, as much as landing an experienced and capable lower division central defender.

The practically simultaneous departure of Scott Carson to Derby County was no surprise, given the signing of Richard O’Donnell and the contract extension for Lee Nicholls. However, it does signify the beginning of the exodus of many of the other eighteen players still under contract from the Championship days.  Caldwell and Sharpe will endeavour to shift on as many of the higher wage earners as they possibly can, replacing them with either experienced players on short term contracts or up-and-coming youngsters. Parachute payments last two more years. David Perkins, 32, has been given a one year contract, Craig Morgan two years, and the 26 year old Richard O’Donnell three years. It looks like Caldwell sees O’Donnell and the 22 year old Lee Nicholls as his goalkeepers for the years to come.

Put simply Latics need to shed a lot of players to make room for others to come in on contracts more in line with those of other League 1 sides. James McClean’s departure also seems imminent, whether it be the New York Red Bulls or a Championship side in England. McClean has been his usual forthright self when asked about his future with Latics. Like several of his colleagues he is unwilling to drop down to League 1, not ideal for the future prospects of an ex-Premier League player. At the same Latics will be happy to get his relatively large salary off the payroll, hoping to recoup some of the transfer fee they originally paid for him. The same will be the case for others such as Andy Delort, James Perch and Oriol Riera .

Latics’ players are due to report back for training on June 25th. It remains to be seen what proportion of those players will be with the club by late August. Although financial considerations are the main driving force for the imminent departure of so many players, the lack of performance by so many last season also comes into consideration. There will be some degree of backing from the fans for the clear-out of players that they felt did not compete as much as they might have while wearing a Wigan Athletic shirt.

Ideally Caldwell would be able to decide which of the players remaining from last year’s squad would be staying. However, the reality of finding other clubs for players on relatively lucrative contracts will tie his hands to some extent. If he is unable to move on players not in his plans he will face financial constraints which will restrict his possibilities for bringing in more dynamic new blood.

In the meantime we will await more signings who will by Sharpe’s preference be  “young, hungry players between the ages of 24-27, ones who have done it before, who know what it’s like to win promotion, who are willing to learn and put in the hours, and buy into Gary’s brand of football”.

Although he does not fit the age criterion Morgan has “done it before”, having played in a Rotherham team that won promotion.

However, although it would seem to be a good bet to sign players who have already been in promotion winning sides it does not necessarily correlate with success. Owen Coyle brought in the likes of Leon Barnett, Grant Holt, Marc-Antoine Fortune, Chris McCann and James Perch, all of whom had played in sides that won promotion out of the Championship. Uwe Rosler was to do the same with Don Cowie and Andrew Taylor.

It is those young, hungry players that Caldwell be primarily focused upon signing, although he will surround them with a core of experienced professionals. But more than anything else he will be looking to sign “the right kind of player”, one that will wear the Wigan Athletic with pride.

Forgetting the past

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Other and tagged with , , ,
Alex Cribley (left) with Dr Mike Ashworth.

Alex Cribley (left) with Dr Mike Ashworth.

“Last season is still a bit of a mystery for me. Having a poor season is one thing, it happens to a lot of teams. But for us to have got relegated was unthinkable. I’ve got my own opinion on what happened, but that’s all history now. We just need to let it go and be ready for the challenge of bouncing back next season.”

The words of Graham Barrow speaking to the Evening Post.

Many of us would be interested in hearing Barrow’s opinion of what happened last season, but he seems unwilling or unable to make it public. Barrow rightly wants to move on and focus on next season. However, despite saying that last season is all history now, he moves on to talking about his role in Latics’ Freight Rover Trophy win thirty years ago.

The Chorley-born Graham Barrow has had a long association with Wigan Athletic. He was the most rugged and determined of midfield players, sometimes used as a centre forward, signed from Altrincham for £10,000 in August 1981. He was to become a key component in Larry Lloyd’s team that won promotion from the fourth tier and made 179 appearances, scoring 35 goals, in his five seasons at Wigan. He was “Man of the Match” in that 3-1 win over Brentford in that Freight Rover Trophy final.

 

 

Barrow moved on to Chester at the age of 32 and suffered five bookings in his first seven games for them. However, he was to make 248 appearances for them, scoring 17 goals. In addition to being captain on the field of play he became assistant manager to Harry McNally, then player/manager from 1992-94. As Latics’ manager in 1994-95 he helped them avoid relegation to the Conference. He was to go on to manage Rochdale, before a short lived return to Chester, subsequently taking the reins at Bury.

Barrow was brought back to Wigan as first team coach by Roberto Martinez in July 2009. On Martinez’ departure in summer 2013 and the arrival of Owen Coyle his future seemed in the balance. New managers tend to bring in their own right hand men, but although Sandy Stewart came in as Coyle’s assistant, Barrow continued as coach. He was to become assistant manager under Uwe Rosler, keeping the position under Malky Mackay and Gary Caldwell who were to follow.

Alex Cribley played in the same Larry Lloyd team and that Wembley final against Brentford. In fact he made 328 appearances for Latics over eight years. Cribley had been signed on a free transfer from Liverpool by Ian McNeill in November 1980 and his versatility made him a key player. His best position was probably in the centre of defence, but he was a solid right back and could lend a hand in a midfield holding role. Cribley went on to become club physiotherapist, being connected with the club for 35 years.

Cribley is perhaps one of the more unsung of Latics icons. However, when Mike Ashworth retired as club doctor in April after 33 years of service he spoke of his colleague:

“One thing I will miss more than anything is Alex Cribley. He was there as a player when I started so he’s been there longer than me, then he became a physio. He’s been a fantastic friend, a fantastic support, a proper professional and Wigan Athletic has been very lucky to have him over the years. I’m going to miss that day to day contact with Alex but I’ll keep in touch, I’ll still go to the games and hopefully get a season ticket now and go back to where I started.”

A couple of weeks ago a rumour went around the social media and message boards that Cribley had left the club. Soon after the kit manager, Dave Mitten, tweeted that he had been made redundant. Ironically Mitten still appears on the Who’s Who on the official club site, but Cribley has disappeared.

Given a drop of two divisions in a space of years and an almost 80% potential dip in revenue compared with the life at the top, Wigan Athletic have to cut their coats according to their cloth. It entails not only a mind shift  in terms of the kinds of players they will look to acquire, but also a fundamental restructuring of the auxiliary and administrative staff  at the club.

Put simply Latics cannot continue with a Premier League infrastructure in League 1. It inevitably suggests a huge cut in the total costs of players’ wages, but also a general downsizing within the organisation.

There are fans who will question the outgoings over the next couple of months, not only players but support staff. The club will look at getting the best possible infrastructure in place, within its new financial situation, for the start of the 2015-16 season. It is going to be a painful time for so many within the club, as redundancies will be announced.

David Sharpe is in an unenviable position in having to oversee the culls. He currently has the support of the majority of fans, despite the poorly handled departure of Emmerson Boyce. There are fans who will question the exit of such as the kit manager, citing that what he was earning was a pittance in comparison with what a player would earn. Those questions will continue as the downsizing continues.

However, past commitments and service to the club should at least be acknowledged, if not celebrated. Boyce spent nine years at Latics in their heyday and deserved more thanks than he got from a club that has not been strong in the human resource management aspect. It is sadly the norm in football clubs across the country, Latics probably being no better or worse than most.

Football clubs need to look forward to the future, but at least recognise people who have put in so much in the past.

We await news from the club on Alex Cribley.

Looking back at MAF’s time at Wigan

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Other and tagged with , ,

 Fortunemiss

“The centre-forward is often a tall player, typically known as a target man, whose main function is to score the majority of goals on behalf of the team. The player may also be used to win long balls or receive passes and “hold up” the ball as team-mates advance, to help teammates score by providing a pass (‘through ball’ into the box); the latter variation usually requiring quicker pace. Most modern centre-forwards operate in front of the second strikers or central attacking midfielders, and do the majority of the ball handling outside the box.“

I had been looking for a description of the role of the centre forward and after a bit of searching I found the above on Wikipedia. It sums up more or less what I thought the role involved. But why didn’t I trust my own judgment in the first place? After decades of watching football surely I knew what a centre forward should do. But events over the past year or so had clouded my judgment.

My boyhood hero as a centre forward was Harry Lyon. Lyon was by no means a giant, but he had the jumping technique to out-do defenders on high crosses. He certainly scored the majority of the goals for Latics in his heyday. In fact he netted a remarkable 67 times in the 1964-65 season. But the following season saw his goalscoring tally drop, when he scored less than his strike partner Bert Llewellyn who got 49.

Lyon was a scapper, lacking elegance in his tussles against opposition defenders, but he would always chase the long ball and fight hammer and nail to hold possession. Memory fades, but I don’t recall Harry as the kind of player to provide through balls into the box, but his strike partner would be there sniffing for the rebound of one of his ferocious shots. Llewellyn and his predecessor at Wigan, Carl Davenport, were good at putting those loose balls in the net.

But football has changed since Lyon’s day. Defenders are much fitter and most teams have a couple of large guys in the centre of defence who are very good at clearing the ball, especially if it is in the air.  For decades after Alf Ramsey brought in 4-4-2, teams used that system. The twin strikers would tussle with the twin central defenders of the opposition, but after a while the fashion changed.

Perhaps it had become too easy for those central defenders. Marking for them had been straightforward – you take one and I take the other being the order of the day. They were later to be faced with just one central striker, with support coming from the flanks and the midfield. Their roles became more complicated, sometimes confusing.

In the higher levels of English football not so many teams now play 4-4-2. The job of the centre forward has become an almost thankless task, extremely physically challenging in having to chase balls and hold up against often two big defenders. Then he has to have the energy and enthusiasm to mount attacks on goal. Not surprisingly good centre forwards are hard to come by in this day and age. Some are good at scoring goals, but not so efficient in chasing lost causes and holding up the ball. Others are the reverse. The average goal tally for a centre forward has not surprisingly dropped, given his onerous other duties.

However, this does not mean that modern day systems don’t work. The top teams have midfield players moving into the “hole” behind or to the side of the centre forward, notching opportunist goals. Those typically towering central defenders have a hard time coping with their runs.

Uwe Rosler was clearly a disciple of the “modern” approach. In his first season he often used MAF – Marc-Antoine Fortune – in that lone centre forward role, with two players wide of him. Fortune did a good job in holding up the ball and worked hard. MAF had been used sparingly by Owen Coyle, with Nick Powell being on the scene, but Rosler often used him as the target man following Powell’s loss of form and Grant Holt’s fall from grace. Over the course of the 2013-14 season,  MAF was to make 17 league starts, with 20 appearances off the bench. He scored four goals.

Rosler had clearly decided that MAF would not be his first choice centre forward when he signed Oriol Riera before the beginning of last season. This was underlined when Andy Delort was signed just before the close of the summer transfer window. But neither of the two overseas players could settle in their roles. MAF was brought back in.

In Malky Mackay’s first game in charge in late November, Latics were home to Middlesbrough. MAF was given the lone centre forward role, with Callum McManaman and Shaun Maloney playing wide. MAF was to become a regular fixture in Mackay’s teams, even when he switched to 4-4-2. Fans had been hopeful that more goals would come with a switch to the system that had done Latics proud in their heyday. However, Mackay was to pair up MAF with James McClean, a winger playing as a central striker, or Leon Clarke, a journeyman who rarely delivered. Mackay had scorned the idea of linking him up with Billy Mckay or Martyn Waghorn. By the end of the season, MAF had made 27 league starts, with 8 appearances off the bench and scored one goal.

MAF had become a feature in the Mackay era through his ability to chase those lost causes and hold up the ball. Although he offered a minimal goal threat the team often suffered when he was not on the field. MAF had become an important cog in Mackay’s long ball tactics.

MAF was like Marmite to Wigan Athletic fans. You either loved him or you hated him. Despite his whole-hearted play and willingness to sacrifice for the team, few loved him. MAF had become synonymous with the most disappointing season in living memory for most fans.

At Wigan MAF had become the target man, not always his role at previous clubs. Indeed at West Bromwich he had often been played wide. Perhaps Latics would have got more out of the player if they had done that. MAF’s career record as a goalscorer was weak when he arrived at Wigan as a 32 year old, but playing as a lone centre forward helped make it even worse. Moreover his concentration could lapse and he could too often be caught offside.

We might well ponder what might have happened if Latics had persevered longer with the overseas strikers, Delort and Riera. Had they been written off by the coaches or was it an economy measure to send them off on loan in January? On top of that, the reluctance of Mackay to give Waghorn and Mckay a genuine chance was hard to fathom, given the impotent strike force he was regularly fielding. There are fans who even suggest that Latics have avoided relegation if Mackay had not so often fielded MAF.

MAF sadly became the scapegoat of an awful season. Unlike Harry Lyon he could not score goals. Neither could he make assists.

MAF is by no means a bad footballer, neither does he shirk in his duties. But he is not a goalscorer.

We wish him well in his next move.

Wigan Athletic’s future – can shrewdness outweigh cash?

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Financial and tagged with , , , ,

swissprofitand loss2013-14

In the 2013-14 season of the Championship only three clubs made a profit. They were Blackpool, Wigan Athletic and Yeovil Town. Each has since been relegated from the division.

At the time Queens Park Rangers had made the biggest loss of the promoted clubs (£70 million), with Leicester City losing £21 million and Burnley £8 million. Since then QPR’s loss has been cut to £10 million due to a write-off of shareholder debt of £60 million by chairman Tony Fernandes and his associates. Without that they would have faced a massive fine on their return to the Football League in 2015-16.

Many Wigan Athletic fans have written off the last two seasons in their minds, as a succession of bad decisions made by the club led to a slide into League 1.

Those decisions include the appointments of hapless managers in Owen Coyle and Malky Mackay and the departures of no less than thirteen players in the January transfer window of 2015. The result was a squad left short of quality that would have struggled to survive even if the manager had not been the seemingly oblivious Mackay.

In fact the 2013-14 season had turned out to be a relatively good one for Latics, despite a poor start under Coyle. It remains open to conjecture whether they could have challenged for an automatic promotion spot if they had made a different initial appointment.

The obvious choice would have been a manager who could have built upon the foundations left by Roberto Martinez, fine-tuning the playing style and philosophy as required. Ironically it did happen some 22 months later when Gary Caldwell was appointed, but sadly almost all of the players who had proved themselves under that philosophy of play had by then left the club.

It could be argued that apart from the appointment of Coyle, the season was a success in terms of a transition from the Premier League to the Championship. Shrewd financial management and the appointment of Uwe Rosler kept things on track. In comparison Blackburn Rovers were to make a loss of £42 million over a season in which they were to finish in 8th place. With a 5th place finish, a narrow playoff defeat and a valiant loss on penalties in an FA Cup semi-final, Rosler had made a very positive impression.

The 2014-15 season might well go down as the most memorable in the club’s history, albeit for the wrong reasons. Three managers, the selling off of the family silver, Dave Whelan’s awful happenings with the national media and his subsequent stepping down as chairman was to eventually lead an unhappy club to relegation to League 1.

In both the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons Latics were able to be competitive in the transfer market. This was partly due to incoming transfer fees, but more significantly down to parachute payments of £24 million in the first season and £18 million in the second. That meant that they were able to cope with a player wage bill of around £30 million, drastically cut down to around £20 million (on an annual basis) in January 2015. The Europa League campaign in 2013-14 and the FA Cup runs in both seasons added to the coffers.

However, in 2013-14 Latics’ gate receipts of around £4 million were close to the median for the division, whereas a paltry £1 million from commercial revenue was the lowest.

According to the Swiss Rambler the club had a net debt at the time of £23 million, significant but dwarfed by those of Bolton (£195 million), QPR (£158 million), Brighton (£131 million) and Ipswich (£86 million).

Swissdebt

For the coming season Wigan Athletic will have the advantage of the £9 million parachute payment over the other clubs in League 1. However, under the SCMP version of FFP used in Leagues 1 and 2, there is considerable amount of freedom for an owner to make cash injections.

If David Sharpe adopts the approach of recent years at the club he will run it on a tight budget and will not spend the kind of money that his grandfather splashed out some thirteen years ago when Latics were in the third tier. Latics will now be competing with clubs like Sheffield United, with higher match day and commercial revenues, but also with those with wealthy benefactors.

However, Latics are now in the hands of a young brigade that is optimistic about the future. Sharpe has talked about getting in “the right kind of player” after the nightmare of the season recently passed, when so many of them just didn’t seem to want to put in an effort commensurate to their salaries. If Latics are going to have future ambitions of getting back up there with the big guns a lot is going to depend on the recruitment team’s ability. Recruiting the “right kind” of hungry, talented young player from the lower leagues or Scotland is going to be the order of the day. A few hardened and seasoned pros are likely to be added to find a suitable blend, mostly on short term contracts

When Latics were in the third tier in the 1980’s they made some inspired signings of young players. So many were sold to keep the club afloat: a reflection of the club’s circumstances at the time. Most made their mark in higher levels of football.

It is that kind of expertise in picking out those young talents that is what Latics currently need. Sharpe might allow Caldwell a small number of players on higher salaries who have played in the upper echelons, but Latics will surely look to sign those up-and-coming players who can make the difference.

But even if Wigan Athletic can get promotion back to the Championship a year from now, what will be facing them?

The gap between the Premier League and the Championship continues to widen. Two of the three promoted teams were propelled back into the Championship, the third surviving with a “miraculous” end of season run, inaccurately paralleled with that of Latics in 2011-12 by the national media.

Moreover the massive increase in television money secured by the Premier League’s latest deal means that parachute payments will be much increased. It will be more difficult than ever for clubs without first or second year parachute payments to compete.

With shrewd management Latics can get promotion back to the Championship this season. Without it they are likely to be doomed to meandering in the lower leagues for years to come.

However, even if they are back in the Championship a year or so from now the picture will be vastly different than it was in 2013. They will be facing so many clubs with much bigger financial resources.

Can shrewdness outweigh cash?

It is the shrewdness that will make the difference.

Let’s hope that the young brigade currently running Wigan Athletic Football Club can show the kind of shrewdness that will be needed.

The jury is currently out.