Category Archives: Reflections

Celtic supporter dishes on new Latics signing Shaun Maloney

Posted by Ned in News, Reflections and tagged with , , , , ,

Few people are better positioned to provide insight on new Wiganer Shaun Maloney than David Harper, of Celtic fansite Lost Bhoys. The little winger spent the better part of 10 years wearing hoops over two separate stints. What you are about to read is Harper’s assessment of Maloney — his two spells at Celtic, his playing style and attitude, and his chances of success with Wigan. David has also kindly agreed to answer questions about Maloney in the comments section below this story, so please do take him up on the offer!

Shaun Maloney aka Bupa

Howdy Wiganites, sorry I have no idea what you call someone from Wigan please excuse my ignorance. Ned asked me to put together a small piece about former Bhoy and new Latic Shaun Maloney. Iʼm a regular blogger and editor on http://www.LostBhoys.com and co-host of the weekly HomeBhoys Celtic fans phone-in show. I started following Celtic home and away from the age of 14 in 1987 so Iʼm pretty well placed to give you a brief rundown on the last of the Seville team to leave Celtic (management team excluded).

Shaun broke into the 1st team in 2001 and if I recall correctly he made his debut at Ibrox against ʻthemʼ. Originally he was deployed as an out and out striker and for the next couple of seasons mostly made appearances from the substitutes bench. It wasnʼt until Gordon Strachan took over the reigns that Shaun found his best position as an attacking left-midfielder which is still his natural position to this day.

Thatʼs when heʼs fit of course and those occasions have been few and far between in his second spell at the club. Heʼs a player that has divided fans ever since his return up north from Aston Villa. Many many fans myself included didnʼt think Maloney should be afforded a return to Celtic after the way we felt he had let us done badly when he left for Villa Park.

Shaun had suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury and despite the fact nobody was sure if he would return the same player Gordon Strachan fought to get the board to offer him a new contract. Celtic were very good to Shaun in this time and when he came back from injury he had his best spell winning both Scottish footballs player and young player of the year.

The disharmony came to be when Shaun played hardball over a new contract and eventually left under a cloud for Martin OʼNeillʼs Villains. Personally I think Maloney was due us a bit more loyalty considering we had taken a chance on him while injured and this was the reason many eyebrows were raised upon his ʻgloriousʼ return. His second spell has been a disaster for the player and a quick check shows he only played 55 games in the last 3 years. Maloney is constantly injured. Iʼll be absolutely astonished if he plays 20 games this season. Actually whenever I hear his name David Bowie singing China Doll creeps into my head. It would seem his hamstring is made of glass.

On his game heʼs a fantastic player who loves to drift in from the left onto his right foot and has a good eye for goal. He certainly isnʼt an out and out winger and isnʼt the kind of guy who will hit the byeline but rather step inside and play neat one-twoʼs around the box. Heʼs often been described as a buzzbomb as he is very busy but heʼs lost a bit of the pace he had when he was younger. Heʼs by no means a slouch though. Ned asked me if heʼs the kind of guy that will get stuck in. Flying into tackles no but heʼll certainly track back and has a good engine to get up and down the flank. I would say one of his biggest assets is heʼs a very intelligent player and reads the game extremely well.

There is no doubt in my mind if he can stay fit and if this is the position Wigan are looking to fill heʼll be a great signing but again I canʼt stress enough his fitness is a major problem.

There is also a myth surrounding him being a dead ball specialist. In his first spell he was quite prolific with free-kicks but this ability seems to have alluded him on his return. Frustratingly his seniority in the team (was stand in captain for a period) often seen him push better candidates to the side before he sailed one harmlessly over the bar. Most notably when Nakamura was in the side who was a real free-kick expert.

You may think reading this that Iʼm being overly harsh and my opinion has been tainted from my disdain at him letting us down. Believe me itʼs not Iʼm being as honest as I can. I think youʼll find most fans have actually forgiven him his sins but at the same time everyone knew it was time for him to move on. Money is tight in the Scottish game and Maloney being one of the larger earners at the club who spent the majority of his time in the physio room was a pay packet that could be better utilised. In saying that heʼs fit and raring to go at the minute so weʼll see how he goes.

Iʼm not sorry to see Shaun go but I wish him the very best of luck in the rest of his career. Heʼs a pretty laid back guy with no billy big boots airs or graces about him and I pray he can get a real run of games under his belt for you. Iʼll watch his career now from afar with interest.

I hope this has been a decent insight into what you have bought and hope I havenʼt panicked you too much with the injury woeʼs. If anyone would like any further info I can be contacted at LostBhoys@gmail.com.

Iʼd like to wish Wigan and Maloney all the best for the season ahead, most sincerely.

Hail Hail

David Harper

http://www.LostBhoys.com

1932 and all that — is Wigan a rugby town?

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

A twelve year old boy went to watch his first football match on August 27th, 1932. It was the beginning of what was to become a life-long addiction to his hometown team and in his later years he would still talk about that match with great affection, although the result was not favourable. It was the opening league game for Wigan’s new football club: they lost 2-0 to Port Vale Reserves in front of 6,000 people. It was during the time of the great depression. Wigan Borough had folded the previous year, following the familiar pattern set by other clubs who had been set up to represent our  ‘Ancient and Loyal’ town in the football world.

That boy was my Dad. Although he was a Latic fanatic he was also proud of our rugby club, although the rugby matches he actually attended were few. However, I do remember him going to Central Park to watch Wigan rugby league club’s highest attended  game when they met St. Helens in March,1959. The recorded crowd was 47,747. Latics were drawing crowds of one to two thousand those days.

As a kid I was brought up around the corner from where George Orwell lodged in Sovereign Road when he started writing “The Road to Wigan Pier”. He chronicled the misery of life in Wigan at the time. It was superb documentary, way ahead of its time.  It is totally chilling and gives you a real feel of how hard life was at the time. The year was 1936, a handful of years after the great depression. It was the forty second season of the Northern Rugby League (NRL). Wigan RLFC finished fifth that season, three points behind the fourth placed team Liverpool Stanley and nine behind champions Salford.  There were 29 clubs in the NRL that year (there were 35 clubs in the three divisions in 2010-2011). That same season  Sunderland won the First Division for the sixth time and Arsenal won the FA Cup for the second time. The Football League was composed of 88 clubs in four divisions.

The early thirties was a tough time for any football club to be born. Wigan Athletic were fighting against the odds  then, as they continue to do now. Wigan remained economically depressed for decades. Could a town of its size and economy support two professional sports teams? Could both clubs co-exist and survive economically?

According to Wikipedia:  “Wigan are the most successful club in the history of British rugby league, having won 19 League Championships, 17 Challenge Cups and 3 World Club Challenge trophies. Wigan enjoyed a period of sustained success from the late 1980’s to mid-1990’s which included winning the Challange Cup eight seasons in succession and the League Championship seven seasons in succession.”

Wigan Athletic’s record is quite different. They were a non-league team for their first 46 years. During that time they won the Northern Premier League twice,  the Cheshire League four times and the Lancashire Combination four times. Since entering the Football League in 1978 they have gained promotion four times, winning their division twice in the process. They reached the League Cup final in 2005-2006.

Wigan Athletic continue to defy the odds. Despite being in a so-called rugby town the fact is that they consistently pull in superior attendances than their historically more successful counterparts do. This despite having struggling teams, fighting to avoid relegation. Since they got into the Premier League their average attendances have been around  the 18,000-20,000 range. According Wikipedia they have been:

2005-06                20,160

2006-07                18,169

2007-08                19,046

2008-09                18,413

2009-10                18,006

Those of Wigan Warriors rugby  team in the Super League have been around the 14,000-16,000 range during the same period (Wiki figures again) :

2006                       14,404

2007                       16,040

2008                       13,955

2009                       14,080

2010                       15,181

From 2000-2005 their attendances were lower, the highest average attendance being 13,894 in 2005.

Is Wigan really a rugby town?  Can it support two teams? Let’s take a look at the statistics.

Since entering the Premier League Wigan Athletic’s attendances have been significantly higher than those of the Warriors every year. However, it is to be noted that the Warriors’ attendances too have shown a positive trend since Latics got into the higher echelons.

Providing both clubs can balance their books with those attendance levels and maintain their status in their current divisions then the answer must be that the town can support the two. Things have changed a lot since the 1930s. Football clubs used to base their budgets on gate revenues, but now the reality for Latics is that the gate receipts are a relatively small part of their overall income. The Premier League is marketed worldwide and gets revenues which are way beyond those of any other football division in the world. Latics may be a small club by Premier League standards, but economically they can compete on more than just an even footing against their rugby counterparts.

Wiganers have  a choice: to support a club that is  a big fish in a small pond or to support a smaller fish in a giant pond.  Or they can support both. Wigan Athletic are an example to the football world. The rugby team’s  performances and attendances do not need to concern them. There is room for two teams, but the tables have turned. This is not the 1930s. The football team is now the more dominant economic force in the town, in terms of revenue and scale of operation. The myth of Wigan being a rugby town needs to be put to bed.

From Harry to Hugo — What happened to goalscoring?

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

Goalscoring

Match day at Springfield Park, early sixties. The smell of meat pies and the familiar marching band music before kick off. Standing in the paddock ready to hear the clip-clopping of the boots as the players emerge from the tunnel. That familiar smell of oil of wintergreen. There must be two thousand here today. The excitement is buliding up: will it be Harry Lyon or Peter Higham at centre forward today? It was a cause for debate between me and my Dad at the time. The to-become-legendary Harry had arrived from Burscough and the classy Peter Higham’s place was now threatened. Which one was our manager, Johnny Ball, going to pick? Higham was a fine centre forward, leading his line with determination and skill, his “league” experience showing through. Lyon was a raw recruit from a tiny club on the railway route to Southport. “Leading the line” was not his great strength. Scoring goals was what Lyon was all about. Ball tried something different for a little while by playing Higham at number 9 and Lyon on the left wing. I can remember Harry scoring a header from that position: a cross to the far post and there he was, having drifted in from the wing. The experiment did not last long. Strikers in those days relied on service from the wings and Lyon could not provide that for Higham . Besides he was wasted there. He was to get a Lyon’s share of goals – 68 in one season – so many of them coming from the crosses from wingers like Walter Stanley.

Times have indeed changed. Latics were in the Cheshire League then, after having left the Lancashire Combination with its “big boot” approach. We would deride teams like Chorley for playing “kick and rush”. Latics were more sophisticated than that: they tried to play good football (although not always succeeding). Alf Ramsey was to step in and win the World Cup for England with his 4-4-2 system: the wingless wonders. The winger became a dying breed, wide midfielders becoming the norm. The game became more defensive worldwide and the number of goals per game in the old First Division dropped.

So what’s new? Well the Latics are now in their seventh season in the Premier League. Hugo Rodallega is our most recognized centre forward. He has scored 22 goals in 89 appearances for the Latics and rumour tells us that Arsenal now want him. But he only scores one goal every four games, a far cry from the days of Harry Lyon. Yes the game has changed since Harry’s time but shouldn’t our centre forwards be scoring more? Jason Scotland couldn’t score goals for Latics, neither could Mauro Boselli, despite their previous successes in other leagues. Henri Camara could but then he lost it. Even the legendary Emile Heskey only scored 15 goals in 82 appearances for us. Why can’t our centre forwards score more goals? Are they not good enough or are they not getting the service they need?

The role of the lone central striker is not much fun. You have two giant and speedy centre halves ready to crunch you as soon as you get the ball. You have to be super-fit and resilient. You have to ”lead the line”, holding the ball up for teammates. Then when you are wiped out from doing that you are expected to score goals too! Latics’ tactics are not dissimilar to those of Barcelona. Even David Villa plays on the left wing sometimes, as does Hugo. But Barcelona score around three goals per game in a pretty strong league. Villa scores a few, whether he plays centrally or wide. So why can’t Rodallega (or Sammon or Di Santo) get more goals? Is the most important aspect of the role of the Latics centre forward to score goals or to lead the line? Di Santo is pretty good at the latter, but one never expects him to score. Sammon poses more of a goal threat but is raw and does not have the Argentinian’s ball skills. Rodallega can do both, but so many times he looks a forlorn figure.

Unlike Lyon, Rodallega is unlikely to get lovely crosses from wingers to get goals (don’t get me wrong, Harry also scored a lot of goals by getting in where it hurts). The wingers are there to turn inside and shoot. The overlapping full back is the better bet. Boyce’s passing and crossing has hugely improved since Martinez took over. Figueroa too can put in a nice cross. What a beauty he put in for Rodallega at Stoke last season! If you put more men forward you have more chance of scoring. However, when you have a porous defence you need to hold back your midfielders for protection. Look at Barcelona – they do not have the best defenders around, but their defensive record is excellent. I read a statistic recently that their right back, Dani Alves, spent more time last season in the opponents’ half of the field than his own. I doubt that will be the case with Boyce and Figueroa. So how do Barcelona defend so well? They defend from the front, often pressing defenders in their own half. They attack and defend as a block. Their movement is fantastic. Every time one of their players has the ball there is a player in space, ready to receive it. They retain the ball and by about sixty minutes the opposing team is tiring from chasing it. They also have players like Xavi and Iniesta who can put in that defence-splitting pass, something we sadly lack. The hope is that players like McCarthy and Diame will eventually have the poise and confidence to do this. Maybe David Jones? If not then I cannot see Rodallega or whoever plays centre forward getting a better goal ratio.

The Martinez project remains a work in progress. He has changed the approach and shows great long-term vision for the club. Latics players have clearly learned something about “movement” (aka “running off the ball”). Hopefully they will mature this season and really get it together as a unit. There has been so much promise but we have lacked consistency in the delivery. Oh for that telling pass or cross for the centre forward!