Author Archives: JJ (Tony)

A lifeline for Malky? Reading 0 Wigan Athletic 1

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Match reactions and tagged with , , ,
Jason Pearce celebrates hsi goal with james Perch. Photo courtsey of Daily Mail.

Jason Pearce celebrates his goal with James Perch. Photo courtesy of Daily Mail.

‘It’s a brand new group over the last three weeks. It closes the gap. There are a lot of points to play for. It’s about personality and character and we’re beginning to show that”.

So said Malky Mackay after his team of scrappers had thrown him a lifeline, with the reemergence of Dave Whelan breathing down his neck. The beleaguered Wigan Athletic manager was delighted – not just with the 1-0 win, but with the fight that his players showed.

After seven games without a win it had looked like Latics were going to be marooned in that relegation zone, with little indication that a lifeline would appear. They are now six points behind Brighton in 21st place and the Seagulls are due to visit the DW on April 18th. Will that be a crunch match or will things have changed significantly by then?

There are now 15 games remaining. They include four away ties for Wigan against clubs hovering close to them in the relegation zone – Blackpool, Fulham, Millwall and Rotherham.

Once again Mackay did not include new striker Billy McKay in the starting lineup, the goal-shy Marco Fortune being preferred. Another hamstring injury to Leon Barnett and the departure of Liam Ridgewell led him to introduce a new central defensive pairing in the combative Harry Maguire and Jason Pearce. They are the types of uncompromising defenders that bless so many Championship clubs. At 6 ft 4 in the 21 year old Maguire is not surprisingly good in the air and he was given lots of practice last night. For once the centre of defence looked solid.

Ironically Latics’ other 6 ft 4 in central defender, Thomas Rogne, has not played in a single league game this season. Rogne might not be as physically imposing as Maguire, but he is certainly good in the air and his presence might have prevented some of the “soft” goals that Latics have given away to high crosses. One wonders what the Norwegian has done to upset the powers that be at the club. He continues to languish in the development squad

Maguire and Pearce are not going to allow burly opposition strikers to dictate play, as has been too often the case for Latics this year. One wonders if Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson would have been able to run round them in the way he did at the DW ten days prior. The test for the partnership will come when they play the more skillful teams and Latics have a home encounter with Derby County and an away game at Middlesbrough to negotiate still.

McKay was once again brought on in the second half, this time in the 81st minute. What is it at the club that has them treat their strikers this way? Fortune has his attributes and plays his part as a tireless worker. However, goal scorer he is not and never has been. However, he has already seen off the challenges of Andy Delort and Oriol Riera. Will McKay be the latest in the line of Wigan Athletic strikers who have been badly handled? He has come into the club in good goalscoring form in the SPL, as did Delort and Riera in France and Spain, so why not put him in the starting lineup?

The victory at Reading still leaves Latics a steep hill to climb. A win against Charlton at the DW on Friday night would give cause for genuine hope of avoiding relegation. Last time Latics won a game – a 2-0 win at Leeds on Boxing Day – they followed it up with an abject 1-0 home defeat by Sheffield Wednesday.

Fans will therefore be wary of building up their hopes too high for Friday. However, the win at Leeds could be described as somewhat fortuitous, with a bizarre own goal putting Latics ahead. Most Latics fans who saw last night’s match would say that the victory was well earned, despite some of the reports on national media. They hope it will be the springboard for a genuine rally.

Who knows – another win on Friday might even provide the impetus for the “Believe” motto to blossom again.

But at the same time it could be another false dawn. Let’s hope not.

 

Whelan’s final fling

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

Whelan

Sometimes we lose sight of things that happened not so long ago.

“He is the man to lead us back into the Premier League.”

Looking at Dave Whelan’s comment when Malky Mackay was appointed brings perspective. The chairman was looking at salvaging a season that had gone awry under the leadership of Uwe Rosler. He had acted in a timely manner to keep the promotion dream alive. How could he have expected that fourteen games later Latics would stand second from bottom nine points from safety?

Whelan has spent almost £100 million on Wigan Athletic over the past two decades. Only the naïve could argue that Latics could have achieved what they did without his funding.

But Whelan did much more than that. His vision and leadership turned a struggling lower division club into an entity to be respected at national level. It was the driving force that is not so apparent now as it was before.

Wigan Athletic’s success has brought it a larger fan base than could have been imagined twenty years ago. Wigan was a rugby town – at least in terms of attendances – when he first took over, but he turned it around. The football club’s attendances over the past decade have consistently bettered those of their rugby counterparts.

Moreover support has not just grown inside the town, but the club has become known on a global basis. Eight years in the Premier League and reaching the League Cup Final helped, but winning the FA Cup was the icing on the cake.

However, through those successes, expectations heightened. Latics wisely courted the young supporters who would provide the backbone when their more senior equivalents would no longer be around. But the younger support was brought on Premier League football. They were not there when Latics visited the likes of Prescot Cables and Earlestown. They don’t expect the club to be struggling to stay in the Championship division.

Whelan pumped so much money into the club for so long. In recent years he has insisted on the club balancing its books and his Chief Executive Jonathan Jackson has played a major role in making that happen. Old timers will know of his father Stan, ex club President, who did so much for Latics in his time. It could be said that Stan Jackson’s greatest achievement was persuading Whelan to buy the club those years ago.

The traditionalists will say that a football club belongs to the fans. But the reality is that, at the highest level of English football, the fans take the back seat. There are no clubs who can challenge in elite circles without massive financial backing. Some clubs have become supporters’ trusts, but they too have face financial reality. The concept of fans owning a club is appealing in many ways, but the reality is that those clubs continue to struggle.

There is a large degree of uncertainly this moment in time at Wigan Athletic. People are waiting for leadership from Whelan. Where is the club heading now? Will he be selling up or handing the reins to his grandson?

Above all, what is his vision for the club’s future?

At 78 years of age, and after achieving more than could have possibly been imagined, does he have the energy for one final fling? The “racism saga” with the FA must surely have taken a lot of out him.

In the coming week he might well make the decision to relieve Malky Mackay of his duties. But what would follow if he did?

Maybe Whelan has had enough and is ready to pass on to someone else. That would be perfectly understandable.

However, if that is to be the case, can he please set some direction beforehand?

The direction would identify what kind of club Wigan Athletic should be in the future. Without big financial backing it would surely need to be a club that can be self-sufficient, holding its own but surviving economically on selling off its top talent.

Where is the club heading? Not only for League 1 but the non-fulfillment of the Academy scheme at Charnock Richard?

Dave Whelan has enabled amazing things to happen at Wigan Athletic, but it could well be that the time has come to pass the reins to someone else.

However, let’s hope that it will not be the immediate case.

Whelan’s final fling could well involve the dismissal of Mackay and the appointment of someone who could motivate and organize the players into saving this sad season for the club.

Anything more than that would be a bonus.

Can we “Believe” under Mackay?

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Match reactions and tagged with , , , ,
Mackay's record makes sad reading: W1 D3 L10. Photo courtesy of Sky Sports.

Mackay’s record makes sad reading: W1 D3 L10.
Photo courtesy of Sky Sports.

“Certainly off the back of tonight’s performance, there is going to be a couple of changes. It’s back to the training ground, we’ve got another few players into the club over the last couple of weeks so they’ll certainly be players getting their chances.”

So said Malky Mackay after arguably the worst performance of a depressing season, a 3-0 loss at Nottingham Forest.

Mackay had chosen a team with one change from that which lost against Bournemouth. Chris Herd came in for the injured Chris McCann. Billy McKay remained on the bench.

Mackay clearly had a plan to smother Forest’s fire by playing ugly. With Leon Clarke playing a lone centre forward role there was clearly going to be little goal threat from Latics unless the midfield trio of Cowie, Kvist and Herd got up to support him. With all three being defence-minded players that was unlikely to happen. Somehow Latics scrapped it out for 33 minutes until Britt Assombalomba opened the scoring, heralding a disintegration of order within the Wigan side. The only surprise is that Forest scored only two more.

One win in the last 16 league matches is the most dire of statistics. Moreover there is little likelihood of it changing soon as Mackay is likely to  bring in more players who have never played together before, some of whom will be lacking match fitness as has been the case with Herd and Kim Bo Kyung in the past couple of games.

The loss of Emyr Huws for the rest of the season is a hammer blow for Mackay. Moreover the absence of Chris McCann last night left him desperately short of midfield cover.

Looking at the Wigan lineup before the game gave one a sense of foreboding. There just was not the talent in the starting eleven that we have become accustomed to over these years. The family silver was sold off and the side is now desperately short on quality.

Mackay has signed in only two new players on permanent contracts, Billy McKay and Jason Pearce. Clarke – who has played for 14 clubs – and Herd are players whose contracts expire at the end of the season, coming to Wigan on loan, unlikely to be offered extensions by their parent clubs at the end of the season. Kim’s contract at Cardiff was cancelled, as was Gaetan Bong’s at Olympiakos. They are on short term deals until the end of the season. Harry Maguire and Sheyi Ojo are young players coming from Premier League clubs, the former having minimal experience of Championship football, tghe latter none.

Ironically the two players who have been signed on permanent terms have been low on the totem pole.

Pearce is yet to appear, despite the poor form showed by Leon Barnett, who now looks a mere shadow of the player he was a year ago. Mackay once again persisted in a back four of Perch, Barnett, Ridgewell and Taylor. One would have expected that that quartet would have built up some mutual understanding following several games as a unit, but the way Forest were able to slice them open suggests that was not the case.

Mackay will be forced to change his back four in the next game at Reading, with Liam Ridgewell returning to Portland. Andrew Taylor is another whose form has been below par and he might well be replaced by Gaetan Bong. The most likely formation at Reading will be Perch, Pearce, Maguire and Bong. Not an ideal situation at this time of the season to have a new team of back four players.

McKay sadly seems to be following in the footsteps of Andy Delort, having come on last night after 88 minutes, although he did play the full second half against Bournemouth. Despite scoring 10 goals in 23 Scottish Premier League games his manager does not deem him necessary in the starting lineup. Let’s hope he will be better treated at the club than the Frenchman, who is now back at Tours, the rumours being that Latics continue to pay his wages.

Both Kim and Herd arrived at the club short of match fitness. Kim played the first 45 minutes on Saturday and only 9 minutes more last night. Herd’s stats are 59 minutes and 63 minutes respectively. Putting in unfit players when the team is struggling is hardly ideal.

However, with an absence of technically skilled players in the squad Mackay probably felt Kim was worth the risk. Ojo showed his skills on Saturday, but is unproven at this level. Can he put those skills into effect over a whole game? Mackay was forced to play Herd at right back against Bournemouth in the absence of Perch. Last night he was pushed in to shore up the midfield.

In the days of Roberto Martinez the “Believe” motto became the standard that raised the team into achieving against the odds. The manager himself had clear belief in his players and they responded on the pitch.

Under Mackay “believing” is much harder for us fans. His record up to this point as Latics manager is unbelievably bad. Will Dave Whelan pull the plug and bring in someone else to try to salvage the season, or is he already resigned to the club being in League 1 next year?

The likelihood is that Mackay will stay at least until the end of the season. He has come in as a hatchet man, chopping away at the squad, but he has not been allowed to bring in hordes of new players on long term contracts.

If Mackay stays next season, albeit in League 1, what can we expect?

The Scot is clearly a better manager than his results at Wigan suggest. His record at both Watford and Cardiff stands close scrutiny in terms of team performances. However, his teams have not been known for their entertainment value. Attendances will plummet, but the club will be cushioned by a continuing parachute payment of some £9 million. The pragmatists would continue to support him providing he got the results good enough to bring the club back upmto the Championship. If the results did not come then his situation woukd become untenable.

it is a bleak near future that lies ahead for Wigan Athletic. Will we ever get back to the point where we can “believe” again?

 

Kvist – the best of Rosler’s signings

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

 

He is among the most eloquent of footballers, a real professional and an inspiration in Wigan Athletic’s fight against relegation. William Kvist finally got the recognition he deserved on Saturday, when he was named captain of the team that lined up against league leaders Bournemouth.

But why did it take so long for Kvist to get a regular place in the starting lineup? What was in the minds of managers Uwe Rosler and Malky Mackay in leaving him out for so long? The Denmark captain has played in the Bundesliga and the Premier League, let alone making 53 appearances for his country over the past eight years.

The cynics might say that Mackay has brought the Dane in from the cold mainly because of his ability to launch long throws. But Kvist is much more than that. He brings stability to a midfield that had struggled to maintain possession. You will invariably see him as the last man in front of the back four, strong in the tackle and his reading of the game allowing him to make important interceptions. Kvist is not the kind of player who will play box-to-box and it is rare that he scores a goal. He keeps things simple, organizing the midfield from behind, rarely wasting the ball.

Kvist has been part of the rollercoaster ride that has characterized Wigan Athletic’s season. His signing at the end of the summer transfer window was overshadowed by those of Andy Delort and Adam Forshaw, plus the announcement of Emyr Huws being signed on a permanent basis. However, it looked like Rosler had done a good job in the transfer market and hopes of promotion were once again on the table.

Five months on and Latics are in a dire situation. Second from bottom and seven points adrift of safety. Many fans blame Rosler’s signings for what has happened. After all, last season’s team was good enough to reach the FA Cup semi-final and the Championship playoffs. Surely it was the arrival of Rosler’s new men that brought the club down?

There may well be some truth in their assertion. Rosler had inherited players from the Martinez and Coyle eras, who had adopted his “high pressing” philosophy to some degree. Latics took a lot of teams by surprise last season by that tactic, even if they weren’t able to hold it for more than the first thirty minutes in most games. It was often enough to get ahead in the first half and hold on to that lead by the skin of their teeth. But it produced results, at least until the other teams got wise to it.

Ironically Rosler brought in ten players of his own, but neither they nor the others seemed willing to buy into the high pressing approach. In the absence of high pressing there was little else remaining as Latics were then lacking a consistency in approach. Bouts of nervy defenders playing the ball across the back were interceded by hoofs from the goalkeeper to the lone front man.

Sadly Rosler’s new men did not appear to be supporting him on the field. Many of those from previous managerial regimes at Wigan certainly weren’t.

Many of those fans who blame Latics’ current demise on Rosler’s signings will say that most of them simply were not good enough. Delort, Forshaw, Oriol Riera and James Tavernier have all gone, having been unable to establish themselves in the starting lineup. Huws is out injured for the rest of the season. Aaron Taylor-Sinclair has been injured for some time and it looks like he is now way down on the totem pole with the arrival of Gaetan Bong. Martyn Waghorn has been only on the fringes, despite having made a good impression last season.

But Andrew Taylor has started in 25 of the 29 league matches this season, and Don Cowie in 21. The cynics will say that the two are automatic choices for Mackay, having played under him at Cardiff and Watford. Neither has a high popularity rating with the DW crowd.

That is not the case with William Kvist. His recent all-action performances, together with his leadership skills and positivity about Latics getting out of their current predicament, are making him into the kind of player that fans really appreciate.

If Latics do avoid relegation then they would do well in securing a contract extension for the Dane, who clearly has much to offer.

At this point in time he looks like the best of Rosler’s signings.

 

Other Amigos articles on William Kvist:

Kvist is back – but for how long?

A Danish fan’s view of William Kvist

 

A Cardiff fan’s view of Kim Bo-Kyung

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Fan Views and tagged with , , , ,

 

The 26 year old Kim Bo-Kyung is Malky Mackay’s latest signing and made his debut against Bournemouth on Saturday.

The South Korean moved to Japan as a 20 year old, signing for J League club first division club, Cerezo Osaka. On his arrival he was soon loaned out to Division 2 side, Oita Trinita, where he scored 8 goals in 27 appearances. On his return to Osaka he was to establish himself, scoring 15 goals in 41 appearances.

In July 2012 Malky Mackay took him to Cardiff City for £2.5 million. He was to make 28 appearances for the Bluebirds in their 2012-13 Championship winning side, scoring 2 goals. He made 31 appearances in the Premier League the next season, scoring a last-minute header in a 2-2 draw with Manchester United.

Kim was marginalised from the Cardiff side this season. His contract was cancelled by mutual consent on January 24.

He has made 30 appearances for his country, scoring 3 goals.

In order to learn more about Kim’s time at Cardiff we reached out to Benjamin James of the View from the Ninian fan site.

Here’s over to Ben:

Kim Bo Kyung came to Cardiff City with much promise. We had, supposedly, beaten both Borussia Dortmund and Celtic to his signature. His early appearances showed glimpses of what he could do and as he settled into the Championship, he grew as a player. He’s a classy footballer who can pick a pass, take players on and score goals.

 His early days in the Prem showed more of what he could do. He’s very comfortable with the ball at his feet but his defensive fight is lacking somewhat. He’s a slight lad and can get brushed off the ball easily. But I really rated him. I felt he deserved more game time. Mackay nor Ole really knew how to get the best from him. Is he a winger or a central midfielder? I think he would be best deployed behind the front two or a lone striker.

 I really hope he succeeds at Wigan. He has, no doubt, got bundles of skill and ability. I just hope he can fulfil the early promise he showed at Cardiff.