Category Archives: Fan Views

An Everton fan’s view of Callum Connolly

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

 

Callum Connolly made an instant impression on Wigan Athletic fans when he scored two headed goals to beat to beat Burton Albion on Saturday. The expertise with which Connolly leaped for those headers suggested he is a player the opposition will have to mark closely when Latics have set pieces. Connolly can play anywhere across the back four or in midfield. Last season he scored seven goals for Everton’s under 21 side.

The 19 year old comes from Litherland, five miles north of the Liverpool city centre. An Everton academy graduate, he has represented England at under 17, under 18, under 19 and under 20 levels. Roberto Martinez gave him his first team debut in mid-April 2016 when he came on as a substitute for Seamus Coleman after 60 minutes against Southampton. Prior to that he had been on a month’s loan at Barnsley where he made three starts in League 1.

Connolly has been signed on loan until the end of the season. His contract at Everton runs until the summer of 2019. On signing for Latics he commented that “I got the call up on Thursday morning, I shot down the motorway, had a couple of days of preparation with the lads and settled in well – the lads and gaffer have been great with me.The gaffer was at United last season and he has seen a lot of me in the last couple of seasons and liked me so I am just glad that I performed on my debut. I would like to think of myself as a versatile and hard-working player who just wants to do well for the team.”

In order to learn more about Connolly we contacted Lyndon Lloyd of Everton fan site Toffeeweb  (http://toffeeweb.com/).

Here’s over to Lyndon:

Regarding Connolly, only those who regularly watch the U23 games will know much about him because he’s only made that one first-team appearance to date. 

 He is certainly highly regarded in what is a very good crop of emerging youngsters at Everton, though, and he didn’t look out of place at all when he came on as a substitute early in the second half of our draw with Southampton last season.

 Everton were in the middle of a difficult period under Roberto Martinez so they weren’t the easiest circumstances in which to make your debut… although the way the senior side was playing, it was actually refreshing to see some young blood come in and put in a good shift!

 Though he’s primarily a defender or defensive midfielder, he does have an eye for goal (he scored a few for Everton U21s and U23s over the past couple of years) as he proved in his debut for you. Hopefully there’s more where that came from and he can prove really useful to Wigan between now and the end of the season.

A Reading fan’s view of Jem Karacan

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

 

It appears that Wigan Athletic are about to sign 27 year midfielder, Jem Karacan. Karacan is a free agent, having been released from his contract at Galatasaray by mutual consent.

Jem Karacan was born in London to a Turkish father and English mother. In his early teens he played at Wimbledon, declining an offer to join Galatasaray, his father’s favourite club in Istanbul. He went on to join the Reading youth system.

Karacan signed  a professional contract with Reading as an 18 year old in the summer of 2007, but spent most of the 2007-08 season on loan at Bournemouth and Millwall. He went on to make 155 appearances for Reading between 2008 and 2015, scoring 11 goals. This included 21 appearances in the Premier League in 2012-13.

In September 2013 Karacan had been badly injured in a game against Leeds, suffering damage to his anterior cruciate and medial ligaments. The injury kept him out of action for a year. He returned to first team action in January 2015, but received another injury set back that put him out for a couple of months. He went on to make 8 appearances in that 2014-15 season.

On the expiry of his contract in the summer of 2015, Karacan joined Galatasaray. He made one start and one substitute appearance for Gala before being sent on loan at Bursa, some 2 hours drive from Istanbul. Karacan went on to make 6 starts and 3 substitute appearances for Bursaspor after joining them in February 2016.

Should Latics sign Karacan it will be a gamble, given the player’s past injury problems. However, Karacan was held in high regard at Reading and if he could regain the form of those earlier years could prove a shrewd signing.

In order to learn more about Karacan we asked Dan Wimbush, editor of Reading fan site The Tilehurst End Blog (@TheTilehurstEnd) to respond to a few questions. Here is Dan’s response:

1. What type of midfield player is he?

He’s great at a variety of roles but ideally he’s the terrier in a pair or a three through the middle. Jem brings real energy and passion to the side but he’s more than just a dogsbody to do the running as he’s got a tough tackle in him as well as being able to grab the odd goal. 

I wouldn’t have him sitting in front of the defence or in a 10 role but in old-world terms he’s a perfect No 8. 

2. Strengths/weaknesses

Strength wise, his energy and passion are certainly up there. He formed a great partnership with Mikele Leigertwood between 2010 and 2012 that saw us reach a play-off final and win the league and if you can find the right partner for him at the DW he’ll do really well. As mentioned he’s not to be ignored creatively either and in his final seasons at Reading he was just beginning to show what he could do when given more freedom, until a horrific injury against Leeds nearly ended his career. 

Weakness wise and he’s not amazing in the air, and his recent injury struggles can’t be ignored. However, as he told us himself, he never picks up small niggles, it’s always big nasty injuries, so I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing!

3. Effort/Popularity with the fans

Jem was well loved by the Reading fans and was a popular choice for Captain despite being injured at the time. He came through the Reading Academy and always gave 100% for the club. He had a few minor moments in his youth where he rubbed fans up the wrong way on social media but that’s very much in the past, he’s grown up and has a very mature outlook for someone still in their late 20’s. He’s happy to engage with fans on social media and always spoke well in the media. 

4. Why did he leave Reading? Effect of injuries?

Injuries and finances really. He’d been out for 15-months and Reading were waiting to test his fitness before offering him a significant long-term deal. By the time they were convinced, one of his boyhood teams, and his Dad’s team, Galatasaray had offered him a big deal he just couldn’t refuse. The two sides parted on good terms though and fans understood his decision to take financial security and the chance to play in the Champions League.

5. Would you re-sign him for Reading?

In a heartbeat, though I’d be wary of a long-term deal until he’s got some regular game time back under his belt. If he gets back to the level of play we saw just before his injury in 2013 then he’ll be one of the best in this division but after injuries and barely any game time in Turkey it might take him a while to get back up to speed. 

 

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Fan views – Part 6 – Jake Buxton and Dan Burn

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

We  occasionally republish articles from our archives, that some may not have seen. We ask our long-established readers to bear with us on this. We will continue to put out our stream of current articles.

Our site stats have shown that our readership has been particularly interested in perspectives of Latics players from fans of their previous clubs. Thanks to contributions made by bloggers on the fan sites of those clubs for these articles.

A Derby County fan’s view of Jake Buxton

Photo courtesy of bbc.co.uk

Photo courtesy of bbc.co.uk

 

Fan view by: Ollie Wright at the @derbycountyblog

Published: July 27, 2016

 

 

No sooner had Jake Buxton signed for Wigan Athletic but he made his debut last night at Oldham. The 31 year old central defender, who is 5 ft 11in tall, has joined Latics on a three year contract.

On acquiring Buxton’s services Gary Caldwell said that: “Jake adds great experience and competition to our defence and I am delighted to be able to bring him here, Not only will he be an asset to us on the field, but Jake will also add to the great character within our dressing room and I feel he will fit into our group perfectly. He’s a top professional with over 300 Football League games to his name and he’s chomping at the bit to add to his tally.”

Jake Buxton was born in Sutton-in-Ashfield, a Nottinghamshire market town. He started his career four miles away in Mansfield coming through the youth ranks, making his first team debut as a 17 year old in a Football League Trophy game against Crewe in October 2002. Buxton was to made captain at the age of 21 in the 2006-07 season and was to spend 6 years at Mansfield Town, making over 160 appearances.  However, on the club’s relegation to the Football Conference in 2008 he left by mutual consent.

Following a trail at Crewe, Buxton joined Burton Albion and they went on to win the Football Conference title under Nigel Clough. Buxton was voted Player of the Year for the Brewers in that 2008-09 season, after making 40 appearances.

Clough was to join Derby County the following season, taking the out-of-contract Buxton with him. Buxton went on to make 139 appearances over 7 seasons for the Rams, scoring 11 goals.

Here’s over to Ollie:

Jake Buxton arrived at Derby County from Burton Albion in 2009, following his manager Nigel Clough in transferring from the Brewers to the Rams.  Given that Derby had not long been relegated from the Premier League and Burton had only just been promoted to the Football League, the signing was met with widespread incredulity – but Clough had faith in Buxton to make the jump, based on his work ethic and character.

 Clough was big on character.  In the same way that his father would have no truck with ‘sh..houses’, Nigel prioritised and was loyal to men that he could trust.  Buxton proved to be worthy of Clough’s faith.  

 He is not tall for a centre back, nor is he particularly quick.  He is, however, rabidly competitive, blessed with a street fighter’s determination and not above using a few of the ‘dark arts’, at times. Raised in the lower leagues, he loves to fight for every ball.  It would be unfair to write him off as a rudimentary clogger, because he can pass, but it’s undeniable that his game is based on the simple core virtues of ‘heading and kicking it’, to quote Clough.  

 Buxton continued to play regularly under Steve McClaren, who also extended Buxton’s contract. He was a key member of the side which reached the play-off final in 2013/4, but that season proved to be his peak at Derby, with injuries and the arrival of Jason Shackell reducing him to the role of bit-part player in the past two seasons.  

 This is the right time for Buxton to move on from Derby, but at 31, he has plenty of time left.  And a cursory scan of Twitter will reveal the real affection most Rams fans have for ‘Bucko’, who will be missed by all of us. 

 

A Fulham fan’s view of Dan Burn

Dan_Burn

 

Fan view by: Peter Grinham through Facebook

Date: July 1, 2016

 

 

 

 

 

Wigan Athletic have announced the signing of 24 year old Dan Burn. The 6 ft 7 in central defender was out of contract with Fulham.

Gary Caldwell is clearly pleased to have signed Burn and the club’s web site reports him saying that “He fits our profile exactly, young, hungry and with experience at this level and the desire to progress with us. He is a powerful defender, but he likes to play as well and adds tremendous competition to the squad.”

Dan Burn was born in Blyth but came up through the youth ranks at Darlington, making his first team debut at the age of 17.  He went on to make 14 appearances for the north east club before moving to Fulham in the summer of 2011 for a fee of around £350,000.

In September 2012 Burn went on an initial short term loan to Yeovil, but the loan period was to be extended to the end of the season. He made 41 appearances for the League 1 side, scoring three goals. Burn was to be sent off on another loan in July 2013, this time to Championship club, Birmingham City. He made 28 appearances for the Blues, scoring one goal, before being recalled to Fulham in January 2014. He made his debut for the Londoners on January 4th 2014 in an FA Cup tie at Norwich.

Burn went on to make a total of 69 appearances for Fulham scoring two goals.

Here’s over to Peter:

Your fanzine editor asked on a Fulham Supporters website about Dan Burn and a view on him. I am a Fulham supporter of many years going back to the days of our legend Johnny Haynes (Fulham and England captain) and been part of the roller coaster ride during those years, so no Johnny Come Lately! I watch every Fulham 1st team home game, a few aways and every home U21 and U18 game, so I have seen a lot of Dan Burn.

Dan is a product of the North East and came to us from Darlington. He is about 6’ 6” tall and has always played centre back for us. He is left footed and, unsurprisingly, prefers to play left centre back. He had 2 loan spells at Birmingham and Yeovil respectively. I don’t know about his Yeovil experience but the Birmingham management thought well of him and were interested in extending his loan at the time with a view to signing him.

Dan is full of enthusiasm and has admirable leadership qualities but only in respect of drive and determination. He is said to train hard. He takes the game seriously and nobody could ever accuse him of not giving 100% in every game. This alone made him popular with many Fulham supporters. He is physically strong which is what you expect in a centre back. However, some of his decision making is questionable and if players run at him his legs buckle with fast jinky players, as his reading of those situations is poor and he is often left floundering on his backside.

His aerial ability is somewhat mixed. From a defensive point of view he is strong in the air at defending crosses but often he does not get good purchase on the ball and in some situations the ball seems to loop of the top of his forehead when it needs to be powered away. This rather poor technique can be attributed to the fact that, like some tall players, he does not jump highly and has probably never had to at junior levels because of his height. This puts him at a disadvantage if a forward builds up a head of steam on the run and can either rise above him or equal his height. He should have scored more goals from set pieces but the same heading restrictions impede that part of his game too.

I always thought that Dan would benefit from better coaching because unless he is a slow learner – and I have no reason to believe that – he could improve a lot on his technique and decision making. However, Fulham have not been blessed with decent coaching since the destructive Magath arrived and decimated our club, Kit Symons followed but was not allowed experienced coaching staff, having to make do with U21 coaches (NB: A big step up without a mix of 1st team experienced coaches). We now have some decent 1st team coaches but they obviously don’t fancy Dan.

Whilst I have never met Dan, everyone Fulham fan that has likes him immensely. One thing that I do know is that when he signed the Wigan contract he will be genuinely devoted to the cause and not be false in the usual footballers speak of ‘great to be here’. If he sad that he would mean it and give all for the cause. I genuinely wish him all the best in his career and I hope that he is a late developer who will prove some people wrong.

Hope this insight helps. Good luck with the new season.

A Bradford City fan’s view of Reece Burke

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

reece_burke_may_2015

The 20 year old West Ham United defender Reece Burke joined Wigan Athletic last week on a season long loan. The 6 ft 2 1⁄2 in Burke is essentially a central defender but can also play right back.

Latics manager Gary Caldwell clearly has a high opinion of Burke, commenting that:

“As soon as we were made aware of Reece’s availability, we worked hard to get him here as we knew there was interest from a number of Championship clubs. He’s about to turn 20 and the experience he has already is impressive, having played in the Premier League for West Ham and also his successful spell with Bradford last season.

The fact West Ham have signed him up to a four-year-deal tells you how highly they rate him and we are pleased that they believe the best place for him to develop now is with us here at Wigan Athletic. He brings good quality on the ball, but most importantly he’s a solid defender who can deal with big crowds and the league environment, as he proved at Bradford.”

Reece Burke was born in Newham and joined West Ham when he was nine years old. He has represented England at under 18, under 19 and under 20 levels. He made his senior debut for the Hammers in January 2014, in an FA Cup match at Nottingham Forest. His next appearance came the following August in a League Cup tie at home to Sheffield United. He had to wait until April 2015 to make his Premier League debut in a goalless draw at Queens Park Rangers. This season he played for the Hammers in their ill-fated Europa League match up with Astra Giurgiu at the London Stadium.

Last season Burke was loaned out to Bradford City, where he made a major impact, winning the Player of the Year award.

In order to learn more about Burke’s time at Bradford we contacted Bantams’ fan Stuart Black through Twitter  (@blackmeister).

Here’s over to Stuart:

We made a poor start to last season. Late player recruitment had damaged our summer plans, caused by the protracted and ultimately failed takeover of Bradford City by Gianni Paladini. The alarm bells were ringing amongst the fans after a weak pre-season, a poor start to the League and being dumped out of the Capital One Cup by York City.

Reece made his debut in the Yorkshire Derby away at Barnsley on 25th August 2015 where City drew 0-0 gaining us only our second point of the season. From then on he played in 34 fixtures at Centre half and was named as our Player of the season.

Reece settled in well next to experienced Rory McArdle and as the season progressed and as our performances improved he certainly gained confidence.

He has a fantastic coolness about him on the ball that not many centre halves have and on many occasions he would take the ball forward skilfully beating opponents reminding us of a Bobby Moore/ Rio Ferdinand type.  The last player I can remember being so cool in possession from that position for Bradford was the late Dean Richards who ended up at Spurs.  His modern day comparison would be John Stones.

He is fairly quick and athletic but strong for his age. With further improvement in his heading and tackling ability he will be playing Premier League football within 1-2 years without a doubt. 

It was widely suggested by City fans that we will one day see Reece Burke in an England Shirt as a full international as he has all the ability in the world to do so. Let’s hope his career continues to blossom at Wigan and he becomes as much of a favourite with your fans as he is endeared by ours.  

A Bolton fan’s view of Kaiyne Woolery

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

 

The 21 year old Kaiyne Woolery has signed for Wigan Athletic from Bolton Wanderers for a fee of around £200,000. The pacey forward, who is 5 ft 11 in tall, has signed a three year contract.

On signing Woolery, Gary Caldwell commented that: ”Kaiyne is someone we are really excited to bring to the club. We have been looking at him for some time and been impressed by what we have seen. He is still young but has great potential. He has pace, an eye for goal and we are looking forward to being able to see him develop in a Wigan Athletic shirt.”

Woolery was born in the London borough of Hackney and began his career at Maidstone United, playing in the Isthmian League South as a youth. In the summer of 2013, as an 18 year old, he moved to the midlands, signing for Conference Premier League club  Tamworth. He was loaned out to Stafford Rangers of the Northern Premier League for the first half of the 2013-14 season, then back to Maidstone in January 2014.

In the summer of 2014 he signed for Bolton for a fee of £10,000. The following January  he was sent on loan to Notts County, where he made 5 appearances, before making his debut for Bolton in late April. He had come on for Adam Le Fondre as a 79th minute substitute in a defeat at Bournemouth.

Last season saw Woolery make 20 appearances for Bolton. He scored two goals including a last minute winner against Rotherham in February. He has made three appearances for Bolton this season, scoring a stoppage time goal against Blackpool in the League Cup to put the game into extra time.

To learn more about Woolery’s  time at Bolton we contacted Chris Mann of the Burnden Aces fan site http://www.burndenaces.co.uk (Twitter @BurndenAces ).

Here’s over to Chris:

Kaiyne Woolery’s departure came as a surprise, with the general attitude surrounding the move a little mixed.

 A £10,000 arrival from Tamworth in 2014, Woolery was a low-risk signing by Dougie Freedman and got his break as a late substitute in defeat at Bournemouth in April 2015, before getting more regular opportunities during our struggles of last season.

 Woolery is lightning quick and has undoubted potential, but there are major flaws that need working on.

 First of all, somebody, whether it be he or the Wigan coaching staff, need to decide on his best position. He was billed as a winger upon his arrival, but was utilised in a more forward role as his time at Macron Stadium progressed.

 Woolery is still somewhat raw and desperately needs playing time. He would probably have received that at Bolton this season, which is why his deadline day move to the DW Stadium raised a few eyebrows.

 I’m not so sure he’s Championship standard right now. Sure, he could be in the future, but he’s reached the critical stage where he needs to impress and avoid becoming another false dawn. Fingers crossed he gets that time with Latics, but I do fear it’s the wrong move at this moment in time.