Category Archives: Specials

A look at Latics’ Europa League opposition – Part 1: Zulte Waregem

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

Europa

Wigan Athletic’s first match in their Europa League campaign commences on September 19th, with a trip to Belgium  to play Zulte Waregem.

SV Zulte Waregem lie in second place in the Belgian Pro League, currently known through its sponsor’s name as the Jupiler League. They are unbeaten in the first six league games, beating Anderlecht  4-3 at home this afternoon. In a stormy game Anderlecht had two men sent off compared with one for the home team for whom Thorgan Hazard – brother of Eden – was on the score sheet.

Last season Waregem finished in second place behind Anderlecht in the Jupiler League play-offs. That put them into the third qualifying round of this season’s  UEFA Champions League but they were to be defeated by PSV Eindhoven of Holland.

Waregem is a Flemmish-speaking town about 40 miles west of Brussels. Its population is around 36,000.

The original club from the town, TSV Waregem, was founded in 1925. Their major achievements were to win  the Belgian Cup in 1974 and to reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1985-86. In 1996 they were relegated to the second division, falling down into the third division in 1999.

In 2001 financial problems led to the Waregem club merging with Zultse VV, from the neighbouring town of Zulte. The new club was to be called Sportvereniging Zulte Waregem.

The new club was soon to climb up the leagues, winning promotion to the first tier in 2004-05.

Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Brussels

Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Brussels

Zulte Waregem play their home league matches at the Regenboog Stadium, the home of their predecessors TSV. It has a capacity of 10,200. However, the ground is not up to UEFA standards and they have played their recent Champions League and Europa League games at Anderlecht’s ground, the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium in Brussels. Their home kit is all red.

Zulte Waregem come to the group stages of the Europa League following their exit from the Champions League. In the third qualifying round of the Europa League they made resolute performances against  APOEL of Nicosia.  A gutsy display gave them a somewhat fortunate 2-1 away win in the first leg in Cyprus. A tight 1-1 home draw was then enough to see the Belgian team through to the group stage.

Although Zulte Waregem are not well known at international level they will be hard to beat They have prior experience in Europe and are excelling in the Belgian Pro League.

It will be a demanding opening game for Latics in their first European campaign.

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A West Brom fan’s view on Marc-Antoine Fortune

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

Fortune

Marc-Antoine Fortune has made a promising start to his career at Wigan Athletic. The 32 year old forward from French Guiana arrived at Wigan following a three year stint at West Bromwich Albion.

We reached out to Iain Bate, editor of fan site westbromwichalbion-mad, for his views on the player. Our thanks go to Iain for the interesting article below.

I’m glad to hear that Marco is doing well at Wigan. I was a little surprised that he dropped down a division into the Championship – although a two-year contract was more than Albion were offering.

Fortune was a good player at Albion – although the more I think, I struggle to remember any real outstanding performances or memorable moments from him. He was always a hard working individual and a team player. But, If I’m honest, he probably lacked that extra bit of quality you need to excel at the highest level.

When he originally joined the club under Tony Mowbray we were desperate for a striker. He joined in January and did well. He scored 5 times in 17 appearances. I remember his debut against Middlesbrough and he ran himself into the ground. He trundled off to a standing ovation with his socks around his ankles. Fortune’s link-up play has always been good. However, he never really offered a goal threat. I wouldn’t say he’s a natural goalscorer – despite his goals from January to May. He was unable to prevent the club from being relegated.

When Fortune came back to the club after a spell in Celtic, he never really reached the level of performance he had when he was at the club the first time around. In fact, he struggled to get in to the side first under Roberto Di Matteo and then Roy Hodgson. His time at The Hawthorns seemed up. He went on loan to Doncaster Rovers in order to get some game time and he came back with renewed vigour and purpose. By this time, Hodgson had moved Fortune away from the centre to the right-hand side.

Marco was intelligent enough to adapt his game and did well as a right-sided forward. He always tracked back and put the required effort in. In fact, he earned himself an extra year at the club. But once Hodgson had moved on he found it difficult to get in the side under Steve Clarke. The arrival of Shane Long, Romelu Lukaku and Markus Rosenberg meant that Fortune wasn’t even considered in a central option any longer.

Fortune didn’t really feature in the first half of last season as Peter Odemwingie and Zoltan Gera kept him out of the side. But, as both either dropped out of favour or were injured, he got his chance to earn himself another deal. He performed well and scored the odd goal. Albion earned him a one-year contract, but he chose more stability at Wigan.

I don’t think you’ll find any Albion fan which would have a bad word to say against Fortune. He maybe lacked the quality to perform regularly at the highest level, but he always tried his best and was liked by the fans. Hopefully we’ll see him at The Hawthorns again soon.

Fortune favours the brave!

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A Sunderland fan’s view on James McClean

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

McCleanAs the Owen Coyle revolution continues so too does our coverage of Wigan Athletic’s new signings. This week’s insight comes thanks to Martyn McFadden and Matthew Wear of Sunderland fan site “A Love Supreme”.

Matthew shares his views on most recent signing James McClean. He likens the player with Marmite- an interesting comparison!

Here is Matthew’s article:

In his time with Sunderland, there was a lot of side-taking for the Irish International. He was a little like marmite, either you love him or you hate him. He signed for us for a mere £300,000 from League of Ireland side Derry City, and under Steve Bruce it was seemingly a signing for the future.

However, due to his impressive performances in the reserve side he was placed on the bench but didn’t appear till Martin O’Neill’s first game in charge, which wasn’t until December, and many credited McClean for changing the game around in our favour.

For the rest of the 2011-12 season, McClean was in fantastic form as it seemed he had no fear taking on defenders from the top teams in the land and not being put off by them. Many SAFC fans believed we had unearthed a gem in McClean who would shine for us for years to come.

 In his first half-season he played 29 games, scoring 6 goals and putting in some fantastic displays. With a great season behind him McClean was called up to the Republic of Ireland squad for Euro 2012 but only making a substitute appearance against champions Spain. Many fans criticised Giovanni Trapattoni as they felt McClean warranted more game time than what he actually got during the tournament.

As the 2012-13 season rolled about fans were expecting as good as, if not better performances from McClean. But throughout the season, his off-field antics overshadowed his time on the pitch. The controversy surrounding the poppy situation lead to death threats from many fans across the country as he refused to wear the Sunderland shirt with a poppy sewn into the kit and instead chose not to. A lot of our fans then turned their backs on the Irishman, which subsequently lead to a loss of confidence on the pitch.

However it was later revealed that 6 people from the estate he grew up on, were shot by the British Military in 1972. But despite this he was unable to shrug off the booing, which despite what he has done, wasn’t warranted in my opinion.

This all culminated with a very, very poor season by the whole of the SAFC  team, but the majority of the blame fell onto McClean as he was in the middle of the controversy with the poppy. However, his form did drop dramatically in comparison to his debut season as he was labelled a ‘one trick pony’ by many fans and in 41 games he scored 5 goals. Lots of SAFC fans believed he had been found out and his success in the previous season was only because no one knew who he was or how to defend against him.

But despite all this, personally I wish all the best to the lad as I feel that in a new club like Wigan, who themselves still have some quality players who have played in the Premiership, he will thrive and possibly help them push for a place back in the top flight.

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Stateside Latics fanatics savo(u)r US tour

Posted by Ned in Other, Specials and tagged with , , , , ,

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Wigan Athletic’s first ever USA tour is not just proving a success in terms of conditioning and team bonding — it has set the perfect stage for the beginnings of a US-based supporters club, as fans from all over the country communicated on Twitter and Facebook to meet up, get to know one another, and support the team.

Jon Sicotte, known on Twitter as @spikechiquet, is one of them. A sports copy editor at the Toledo Blade in Ohio and a freelance writer for TheCup.us, he started following the Latics three years ago after some web and FIFA-gaming based research, and hasn’t looked back since. He traveled to both Columbus Crew and Dayton Dutch Lions matches, and was kind enough to contribute a write-up and photos of each experience for the Amigos. Thanks Jon!

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Columbus Crew 1 Wigan Athletic 2

Although this Wigan trip was about the new squad limbering up for the Football Championship campaign, it really was a chance for Latics fans to find out that they are not alone. Through Twitter and Facebook, fans from all over the United States connected and got together to share stories, laughs (a few ales) and talk of their love of WAFC. Last Saturday, a group of us decided to go to the 4th St. Grill in Columbus, about a mile from Crew Stadium. It’s a Crew bar, but we were welcomed and had a great time (the bar’s Two-Hearted Ale/Chipotle sauce on boneless wings is fantastic).

The backgrounds of the fans were all over the board: a retiree from Illinois who has lived in the States for 35 years; a Texan who has been in the U.S. since 2005; a Canadian; an American with Wiganers in his family; and even some born-and-bred Americans that just happened to pick the Latics. A few of us tailgated right before the game and met a girl who lived in the area and was wearing a Liverpool kit, although she was from Wigan originally and was happy to see her town’s team playing in Columbus. She was waving a Union Jack proudly out of her car.

Crew fans and staff welcomed us with open arms and event security looked the other way as our group sat together despite having tickets all over the stadium. We may have been small, but we were mighty and we let the Crew know we were there! The array of kits was fun to watch. We met QPR fans, a few Manchester United, Man City and England National team fans in our journey. Michael, one of the guys I met while there, grew up playing youth games under Graham Barrow and the two got to catch up on old times before the match as well.

After the match, Ben Watson and Emmerson Boyce stopped by to chat with fans along with Roger Espinoza. Some of the other guys were down by the bench. A Wigan assistant coach handed up Wigan FA Cup posters as well. It was nice to meet Ben, I remarked I was happy to get to take a picture of the forehead that won Wigan the cup.

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Dayton Dutch Lions 1 Wigan Athletic 6

A few days later, I ventured to Piqua High School’s soccer field and assumed I would be alone since many of my “Twitter Crew” couldn’t make the second game. I was happily wrong. I was tapped on the shoulder by a teen named Chole. She, her mum, brother and boyfriend had been in Columbus, but also made it to Piqua for the Dayton vs. Wigan match…a three-hour trip from Louisville. They introduced me to Joe, who believe it or not, lives just down the road from me here in Perrysburg, Ohio. I also met a few more fans around us (I believe our crew stood eight strong or so) and we all braved the 90+ degree heat and humidity.

The players felt the heat as well. In fact, they stopped to take a water break at the 30th minute. The pitch’s grass seemed long and dry and dead, making it slow playing. Wigan was sloppy as well and tried to fool around at times instead of trying to be technically sound. Still, the second half was full of exciting goals and a few good shows of sportsmanship. Late in the match, after scoring a goal already, newcomer Grant Holt collided with Dayton’s keeper nearly outside the box. The goalie fell and was in pain near his knee. Instead of driving to the net, Grant kicked the ball out of bound and let the team tend to their keeper. A minute later, after a penalty kick was awarded, Wigan offered the services of Lee Nicholls to play the penalty instead of the injured keeper. (Dayton only had one keeper at the match). After Holt scored against his teammate, Nicholls stayed and finished the match for Dayton (I wonder if Mr. Whelan will get a few bucks for the transfer fee).

After the match, the players came up to our little group to take pictures and sign autographs. We caught a few more guys before they got on the bus to head back to Columbus. The team even brought out a few boxes of pizza to share with us and many young kids hanging around to meet some true professionals of the beautiful game.

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Latics to go straight back up?

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

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“This year gives us our best opportunity to get back into the Premier League. Financially we have an advantage over the other clubs because it is a significant amount of money. We want to get back first time for a number of reasons. But financially it makes sense.”

Chief Executive Jonathan Jackson has got the media communicating by speaking good common sense.

He is correct. No better time to get back up than when Latics have an advantage over the majority of the teams in the division through parachute payments that are reported to be worth £16 million.

Up to this point Owen Coyle has made financially shrewd movements in the transfer market, signing seven players for no more than the price of Arouna Kone’s transfer fee to Everton. Moreover James McCarthy is 99% certain to leave and Latics will be hoping for a bidding war for a complete midfield player who will make it at the highest level. It could be good business.

The likelihood therefore is that Latics will make a healthy profit on their transfer dealings. Together with the parachute payment it should leave them in good financial shape over the next year.

Over the past eight years the revenue gained through gate money was dwarfed by the income received through television rights. The loss of that huge amount of television money from the Premier League is going to leave a hole in the finances. However, the total spent on players’ salaries will be reduced compared with last year, despite needing to have a bigger squad.

Through winning the FA Cup,  Latics qualified for the group stage of the Europa League, from which they can expect to receive well over £1 million from UEFA , even if they do not go further.

Having won the FA Cup and spent eight years in the Premier League has unquestionably changed the way outsiders look at Wigan Athletic. As we have seen over the last couple of weeks players are now much more likely to come to come to Wigan. Playing in the Europa League is going to be another giant step forward. The FA Cup success put Latics on the world map and Europa League participation is going to take things further.

Coyle’s activity in the transfer market is likely to be curtailed by the pre-season trip to the United States. Reports have suggested he has been trying to sign Ghana winger Albert Adomah from Bristol City as well as Zambian striker Jacob Mulenga from FC Utrecht. He will also be looking for players on loan, but such business is likely to be done after the big clubs make their overseas tours.

The centre of defence is an area in which Coyle is likely to seek an important new signing. Gary Caldwell and Ivan Ramis would make an excellent partnership if both were fit, but it is doubtful both will be ready for the start of the season. Thomas Rogne is promising, but short of experience. Coyle has the option of switching Emmerson Boyce to centre back, but he will almost certainly be looking for an experienced central defender to supplement what he already has.

Coyle has already put together the nucleus of a squad ready to challenge for promotion. He has done it without spending a lot of money so far. Having at least 6 games to play in the Europa League plus 46 to play in the Championship – compared with 38 in the Premier League – means that he is going to need a big squad. A few more players will be coming in before the transfer window closes.

Jonathan Jackson is right in saying that the coming season represents the best opportunity for Latics to get back into the Premier League. However, with so many new players and the Europa League on top of that, it is a tall order. Tough, but not impossible.

Whatever happens, Wigan Athletic will be in good financial shape. If they don’t make it this year there will be enough of a fiscal base to ensure that they will continue to have the advantage over most clubs in the following year.

Despite relegation, the future is looking bright for Wigan Athletic.