It is reported from reliable sources that Wigan Athletic are in the process of signing Swedish defender, Markus Holgerrson.
The highly-rated Holgersson is 28 years old, 6’2” tall and can play at right back or in the centre of defence. He comes from New York Red Bulls as a free agent, having allowed his contract to run down. He has one international cap for Sweden, having played against Qatar in January 2012.
Holgerrson started his career in 2005 with Swedish second division side Ängelholm, from a small town located on the south west coast. He played 89 matches for them, scoring six goals in his four seasons there.
He moved to the neighbouring town Helsingborg in 2009, joining first division side Helsingborgs IF. He played 80 matches and scored five goals during his three year stay there. In 2011 he was part of a Helsingborgs team that became the first Swedish club to gain the treble, winning the Swedish League, Cup and Supercup.
Holgerrson left Helsingborgs in January 2012, after allowing his contract to expire, joining the New York Red Bulls of the MLS. At the time of his signing coach Hans Backe was quoted as saying that “We need a strong physical back on our team.”
Holgerrson was to prove to be just that. He was named the Red Bulls defender of the year in his first season, making 31 starts, more than any other defender at the club. In 2013 he was to make 32 appearances in a successful season when the Red Bulls won the Eastern Conference before going out to Houston Dynamo in the quarter finals of the play-offs.
A Leicester fan’s view of Martyn Waghorn
Thanks to englandfootballblog.com for the photo.
As I mentioned in my last post “Rosler’s loan signings can make a difference” Latics’ recent loan signings have been greeted with less than universal approval from fans.
Of the four loanees it is the signing of 24 year old Martyn Waghorn from Leicester City that is the most controversial. Why would Uwe Rosler want to sign a player from a rival club who has been sent out on loan although his contract expires in summer?
Is Waghorn capable of being a success at Wigan, given his inauspicious record at Leicester?
In perusing the fan’s forum on the Leicester City fansite http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/ we came across this fascinating piece from a certain Mark_w.
It is with kind permission of the Foxes Talk site that we are publishing it below.
Mark’s article gives us a glimpse of what Waghorn has achieved in the past and his potential for the future.
For the benefit of lurking Wigan fans (I ventured over to their forum and some have decided he’s rubbish based on posts in here and his goal scoring record so) I’m going to repeat what I’ve been saying for the last few years. Feel free to skip it.
Martyn Waghorn did a very good job during his loan spell at the club, in the Championship. Injury and misuse (being played on the wing when he isn’t a winger) has prevented him from performing to the level we saw during his loan spell. However his performances in the run of around ten games he had for us last year and the reception from the Millwall fans on their forum after his loan spell would suggest that he is very capable of recapturing that form.
It’s not going to be for us because this season Jamie Vardy has proven that he offers as much as in terms of work rate with a superior goal scoring record and with Nugent and Wood as well, it’s pretty clear that Waghorn isn’t going to get a look in and it would be a very silly decision on his part to sign a new contract with the club.
His commitment and passion for football rather than his ability are the reason he’s revered by a surprisingly large number of Leicester fans, myself included. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of becoming a very good footballer. If he is given a prolonged run as a striker by a team in the Championship, for the first time since his loan spell, then there’s every chance that he can perform to level he did during his loan spell and at the age of 24 there’s still plenty of time for him to develop and improve.
Unfairly written off by some of our fans, I imagine because of impatience, an inability to recognize that he simply hasn’t started enough games to make the same impact he did while on loan (fewer starts since signing permanently than he made during his loan spell and those have been in short bursts rather than one prolonged run) and increased expectation because we pretty clearly paid way too much for him.
Will be an incredible free signing for anyone who takes him on in the summer and gives him game time, if he gets that I’m sure we will see the Waggy of old, I think we’ll be at a level where we won’t need to kick ourselves about it, but if he does succeed elsewhere then I’m sure that many people will be saddened that circumstances have conspired against him time and time again since he signed permanently.
I really hope he gets his career back on track and is given the opportunity to show to those who have written him off that he is capable of once again reaching the level he was at three years ago and there’s no reason he can’t surpass it in the future. Good luck to him, clearly cares about playing football and gave me a lot of great memories during what was probably my favourite season supporting Leicester City until this year (I’m young).
If Pearson hadn’t left and we had still been able to sign him then I’m sure things would have been very different, I’m delighted that we’ve got Pearson back and are on the up again. Hope that the same can happen for Waggy on loan at Wigan and in the future, hopefully at a club that isn’t Millwall.
Not the greatest player to play for Leicester City during my life time but easily one of the most likeable.
A Brentford fan’s view of Rösler – Uwe will go far
Billy and Uwe at Brentford
Uwe Rosler has made a very positive start to his Wigan Athletic career. Since his arrival good football has returned to Wigan and the future now looks much brighter.
Rosler spent his formative years as a coach in Norway, where he learned the trade. However, it is at Brentford that he made a major impact.
We reached out to Billy of the excellent Brentford fan site www.beesotted.co.uk to get his insight on Rosler’s time there.
Thanks to him for this superb article.
I remember exactly where I was when Wigan made an approach for Uwe Rosler. I was setting up the equipment at Hounslow Civic Centre for Beesotted fanzine’s first ever live YouTube video broadcast.
Evolution over revolution as Wigan welcomes Uwe Rosler
Despite an awful run of form resulting in the club’s lowest league position in the better part of a decade, the formal unveiling of new boss Uwe Rosler at the DW Stadium earlier today appears to have injected a welcome breath of positivity at Wigan Athletic.
Flanked by chief executive Jonathan Jackson and club chairman Dave Whelan, the German hit all the right notes during an insightful half hour press conference. His approach serious and considered, Rosler did much to suggest he will embrace the groundwork set in place at the club by Roberto Martinez, while tweaking the finer details in playing style to suit his own brand of football.
He referenced a high-tempo passing and pressing game employing a 4-3-3 formation, similar in some ways to the Spaniard’s preferred system, but different in others — hinting that there would be an emphasis on pace and energy, and a commitment to pushing bodies forward in attack. Although we will have to wait and see exactly how these changes manifest themselves, the comparison between the Martinez and Rosler blueprints does not sound far off the transition Swansea underwent from Brendan Rodgers tikki-takka to Michael Laudrup’s skill-based but more direct approach.
Whelan once again commented on the hiring process, reiterating the goal of a Premier League return as soon as possible, and backing his new man to be a huge success at Wigan. When asked about specifically about Callum McManaman and James McLean, Rosler described them each as exciting, fast and direct players that would fit his system, while reserving a diplomatic word about room for improvement in McLean’s final pass. He also opined that the change in management and style, plus the fixture congestion with the club taking part in the Europa League group stages, posed huge challenges to the club earlier this season.
There was a quiet resolve and confidence about Rosler’s delivery that is already generating optimism amongst supporters on social media outlets. The hope is that he will be able to swiftly convey it to his new players and that such desire will manifest itself on the pitch in coming weeks. His description of the opportunity as a “dream” to join “such a big club” will likely please many but also felt genuine, while his long-term views and discussion of player development suggest he is in it for the long haul.
More immediately, he made it clear that next weekend’s Championship fixture against Bolton will be the priority, but that the midweek trip to Maribor was a winnable contest. It should also provide him a good chance to get to know some of the personalities in the squad as the Latics embark on their final Europa League group stage adventure as a squad.
Interestingly, the new manager spoke about having developed a relationship with Martinez since Rob Kiernan joined Brentford on loan in 2012, but confirmed that he had not consulted the Spaniard before taking the position over the weekend. In a curious twist of fate, Martinez himself was today in Wigan being honoured at Wigan’s “walk of stars” for his achievement in winning the FA Cup last season. Chairman Whelan, also being honoured at the event, was several minutes late to the press conference as a result.
All of which may have been pure coincidence, but you do get the sense that this was an appointment made with Martinez in mind. Whelan was displeased by Coyle’s rejection of the style his predecessor had spent three years implementing from the youth teams all the way up through the first team. With this appointment, the chairman has made clear his hope for a period of evolution rather than revolution at Wigan Athletic.
Latics’ Young and Global Fanbase
In the early 1990’s we lived in Colombia.
Friends in England used to ask why we would choose to live in a dangerous place like that. That was a hard question to answer.
How can you explain what a country is really like to someone who has never been there? I would mention the warmth of the people, the climate and the countryside – part coastal paradise, part jungle, part Andes mountains – so colourful and diverse. It never seemed to convince people that it was a good place to live. They probably thought I would catch a stray bullet and that would be the end of me.
My son, Ned, started watching live football when he was six years old. We were living in Mexico City at the time. Twice a week I would take him to a match – usually to watch America, Cruz Azul or Necaxa play at the huge and impressive Aztec Stadium. Sometimes we would go further afield to the Olympic Stadium to watch Pumas or to the stadium in the centre of that vast city, where Atlante played. We went to two playoff finals at the Aztec Stadium with crowds in excess of 120,000. The stadium capacity was 105,000 but counterfeit tickets added extra people to the crowd.
Colombians and Mexicans loved football as much as we did in the UK. The difference was that in both countries attendances could be sparse for run-of-the-mill games, but the big matches would fill the stadia. But then again football filled the air waves – there was always football to watch on tv.
Our visits to England in those days were limited by the cost of flying. However, whenever we got there we would visit my father in Wigan and take a trip to Springfield Park. Ned probably cannot remember watching Bryan Hamilton’s Latics team in a visit to England from Colombia. His most impressive recollection is later – watching the Three Amigos play in a pre-season friendly, with Roberto Martinez scoring a well taken goal.
From an early age, Ned had become a Latic fanatic. Every week my father would send us cuttings of match reports and features on Latics from the newspapers. It helped to keep us updated in those pre-internet days.
Ask a Colombian in their thirties which Italian team he likes best and he will probably roll out the usual suspects – AC, Inter and Juventus. But you will also find Parma high on the list. Why Parma?
Faustino Asprilla joined Parma in 1992 and helped them win the European Cup Winners Cup in his first season. The following season they signed Gianfranco Zola. Practically every Parma match was shown on Colombian television and people were glued to their sets, watching their footballing hero Asprilla. The combination of Asprilla and Zola was to tear defences apart and little club Parma was to win the UEFA Cup in 1994-95. It was the era when those people who are now in their thirties were in their teenage years.
A lot of people get hooked on a team when they are in their early teens. Last May when I was living in Jakarta most teenagers in Indonesia liked Man U, Chelsea or Man City. Fake replica shirts of those clubs were rampant on the streets. However, the expat enclave had a high proportion of Liverpool fans. Hardly any of them were actually from Liverpool – many were Scandinavians in their forties. The successes of Liverpool in the 1980’s must have impressed them as teenagers, let alone that Liverpool have had a fair share of good Nordic players over the years.
In January 2010 the Daily Mail quoted Latics manager Roberto Martinez saying that: ‘In terms of the future we have the highest number of youngsters as season tickets holder in the Premier League. I think it is about 20 per cent of Wigan’s population at under 16 are season ticket holders, so there are many, many positive signs.’
Even kids on the street in Indonesia are likely know the name of Wigan Athletic right now. Winning the FA Cup has put Latics on the global map.
When I was on holiday in Saigon in January I saw a young Asian man wearing a Wigan Athletic shirt. I went over and asked him if he was a Latics fan. He was Vietnamese and had taken a liking to Latics after seeing them play on television. He had been looking for a replica shirt for some time and managed to find one when he went to Singapore for a holiday.
Some of the young Indonesians would probably buy a Latics shirt too, if they were available in their country. Indonesians are crazy about English football and with a population of 250 million there are huge marketing opportunities. Once Manchester United signed Park Ji-Sung they won a lot of followers in Korea, selling lots of expensive replica shirts in the process.
Football continues to adjust slowly to the modern world. Video technology has still not been embraced as it has in all other major world sports. However, clubs have started to realise that they have not just a national, but a global, audience. Being relegated from the Premier League means that Latics’ overseas fans have much less access to watching games now. Surely the day will come when all their matches are streamed live overseas through pay-for-view internet? There is money to be made there, let alone in following up on the interest created by selling club merchandise.
Making contact with the local community is becoming more and more important for English football clubs. There was good news last week that the Wigan Athletic Community Trust has been given a £270,000 grant to help up to 70 local primary schools with their football and PE programmes. Latics have a lot to gain from such an arrangement, building up an early bond with potential young supporters and in providing further links for the club’s Academy to identify young local talent for the future.
19 year old Tim Chow. Thanks to Wigan Athletic official club site for photo.
Wigan Athletic have not been particularly successful in nurturing young players from their own back yard, more often than not relying on picking up youth players released by big Premier League clubs in the north west. It is good to see Wigan lad, Tim Chow, currently coming through the ranks in the under 21 team. There need to be more like him.
Year by year while they were in the Premier League, Wigan Athletic were gradually building up a global fan base. When Ben Watson’s header went in at Wembley it magnified the club’s image on a global level. Being in the Europa League is also giving them more exposure.
Wigan Athletic have turned the corner as far as support is concerned. Their potential fan base is far greater than it has ever been before.
There is a young core of supporters who will remain fans for years to come. As the club steps up its involvement in the local community more and more people will be drawn to the DW Stadium.
Moreover it now has a global following, that if nurtured, could reap dividends.
LOS THREE AMIGOS 