Shaq Coulthirst – his short term loan is soon to expire.
“Even with five changes from Saturday, the team played the same way – they had the same control of possession, they attacked with a real threat. It’s good to know you’ve got that back up sitting waiting to come on when necessary.”
Gary Caldwell quoted on Wigan Today regarding the 3-2 victory at Crewe on Tuesday.
Caldwell had made the maximum five changes from the previous match that he was allowed according to Johnstone’s Paints Trophy rules. The players brought in to the starting lineup were Jack Hendry, Francisco Junior, Andy Kellett, Sanmi Odelusi and Yanic Wildschut. He went on to bring Don Cowie and Grant Holt off the bench for their first starts of the season. Tim Chow also came on as a substitute, with Richard O’Donnell staying on the bench.
A total of no less than 21 players played in the last two matches for Wigan Athletic out of a squad of 29. Some players were unavailable – Jordan Flores (suspension) and Shaq Coulthirst, Craig Davies, Haris Vuckic, Kevin McNaughton and Jason Pearce due to injury. Richard O’Donnell was on the bench for both games, with Ryan Jennings and Sean Murray not making the squad for either.
The departure of Jonjoe Kenny left Caldwell’s squad looking bare at right back/wing back, but the signing of Donald Love and with Donervon Daniels showing he can do a good job in that position has eased anxiety. Moreover Coulthirst has returned to the club from Tottenham and Yanic Wildshut has been signed on loan.
Caldwell’s comment indicated his satisfaction of having strength in depth. This is certainly the case, at least in the short term.
However, having a large squad can create complications as Uwe Rosler found out last year. Is Caldwell going to run into the similar problems, having to regularly rotate his squad in order to give all of them game time?
The lessons learned from last year are still ringing in the ears of Latics fans. Is Caldwell going to have to deal with disgruntled players left out in the cold? The logistics of rotating a squad of 29 players are mind boggling, let alone not having a settled team.
It appears that Coulthirst, Davies and Vuckic are close to returning from injury. Providing no further injuries or suspensions impact upon the squad before their return it will leave Caldwell in the position to choose his strongest starting eleven from a pool of 27.
Of the 29 in the squad there are 6 players on loan. Two of those – Jordy Hiwula and Haris Vuckic – are on season-long loans. The other four – Junior, Love, Murray and Wildschut – are on short-term loans. Coulthirst’s loan expires on November 1 and Love’s a month later, those of Junior and Wildschut in January.
Bringing in players on short-term loans is a relatively new experience for Wigan Athletic. Last season Rosler brought back Maynor Figueroa for a brief spell, followed by Malky Mackay bringing in seven. Moreover many of Mackay’s loanees were young players, causing a controversy among fans whether they should be given priority over home-grown young talent.
Up to this point Caldwell has been able to manage the two. He has given opportunities to the likes of Tim Chow, Jordan Flores and Ryan Jennings within the club, whilst bringing in the short-term loanees. Caldwell got a rude surprise when Everton recalled Kenny, although the same club had allowed Junior to extend his loan period.
Kenny is clearly an up-and-coming player at Goodison and will be there long-term. Junior’s contract will be up at the end of the season and at this stage it is unlikely that Everton will renew it. Junior has impressed in the relatively few appearances he has made so far. Fitness has been an issue. Junior has made five starts, being taken off in three of them within the first 56 minutes. However, it is to be noted that Junior completed the full 90 minutes at Crewe. He has already picked up three yellow cards.
Junior has clearly struggled to attain the levels of fitness necessary to make him a permanent choice in Caldwell’s team. Moreover he has had to make a major adjustment to the physicality of League 1. Come January Caldwell will need to make a decision whether to pursue the permanent signature of the player. Junior oozes class in a League 1 setting and were he to be fit and fully adjusted to the pace of the play, he would surely be an asset Caldwell would want to keep.
Caldwell certainly has a squad with strength in depth. But he will be challenged to name a settled team on a regular basis, given the size of the squad. He might even look at reducing its size over the coming months. The strength in depth could prove to be a millstone around his neck.
Relegation from the Championship saw a Wigan Athletic fire sale that was surely unparalleled in the club’s history. Players on Championship-level salaries were jettisoned at bargain prices as the club made efforts to drastically slash its wage bill with the prospect of much reduced revenues in League 1. It was anybody’s guess who would remain from last season’s squad as the cull neared its completion.
Many of us thought they would keep up-and-coming young talent and cash in on the players with rich Championship or Premier League experience. It was therefore a surprise to see the 28 year old Chris McCann line up for the opening match of the season at Coventry. Here was a player who had appeared disaffected in the latter part of the previous season, who had not started a game since early February.
McCann could have been expected to be one of the first to be offloaded. But it was not to be. In fact, the Dubliner has played in all eleven league games up to this point. His versatility in being able to play in midfield or on the left side of a central defensive trio has been of paramount importance to Gary Caldwell, given the injury problems he has already had to cope with.
Owen Coyle must rank as one of the most unpopular managers that Wigan Athletic have ever had, although most fans would probably rank Malky Mackay even lower. Coyle lasted less than six months in charge at Wigan before he left “by mutual consent”.
Coyle was given the mountainous task of taking Latics back into the Premier League within a year, together with leading through an historic Europa League campaign. He inherited a group of players who had played under the tutelage of Roberto Martinez, but given the mass exodus of players in the summer he had a lot of recruiting to do.
Coyle’s first signing was to be Chris McCann. The Dubliner had played under him at Burnley and was available for free at the end of his contract. McCann had been at Turf Moor since arriving from Home Farm in 2004. He had an outstanding season in 2008-09, when Burnley won promotion to the top tier of English football. Sadly he sadly was only able to make half a dozen Premier League appearances for the Clarets before receiving a cruciate knee injury. McCann returned in January for a couple of games before injury ruled him out for rest of the season. However, the Irishman was to come back to start in 83 Championship matches over the next two seasons. But he was unable to once more reach the heights of that promotion season form at Burnley, with further knee problems not helping.
McCann’s early performances for Latics were solid, if uninspiring. Some said that Coyle had brought in an ex-player who was not up to par and was snubbing players from the Martinez era. However, McCann gave a fine display against Rubin Kazan in the Europa League, being tireless in defence, with his cultured passing when under pressure helping Latics keep possession. He followed that up with a fine performance at Charlton, being unlucky with a flick header that hit the crossbar. McCann had clearly now settled in and was to become an important cog in Coyle’s machine.
McCann must have wondered what would come next when Uwe Rosler replaced Coyle in December 2013. The Irishman is not the world’s most fortunate footballer and he was sadly sent off in Rosler’s first match in charge, leading to Latics being eliminated from the Europa League. Latics had been a goal up at Maribor when a shot from the edge of the box hit McCann’s upraised arm after he had turned his back to the shooter. It was clearly not intentional, but the Polish referee not only gave a penalty, but also gave McCann a yellow card. Since he already had an earlier one he was sent off.
But McCann was to become a key player for Rosler in Latics’ rise up the table and into the FA Cup semi-finals. He would usually operate on the left of midfield, where his surging runs forward, accurate passing and toughness in the tackle were a real asset. However, from time to time Rosler would play him on the left of a back line of three. He was playing in that position in the FA Cup sixth round match at Manchester City on March 9th, when he sadly fractured his knee cap during the first half of what was to be another stunning victory. Once again a serious injury had interrupted McCann’s career.
He was to make his return as a late substitute at Brighton on November 4th, in the penultimate game of Rosler’s reign. Mackay’s first match as Wigan manager saw them draw 1-1 at home to Middlesbrough, with McCann putting in an excellent performance. He became a frequent starter, although his performances had started to wane. McCann’s last appearance as a starter was on February 7th in a home defeat to Bournemouth. After that he was limited to three appearances off the bench for the remainder of the season.
McCann has staked his claim for a future under the management of Gary Caldwell. He has had his downs in his career, particularly with injuries, but continues to show his resilience. He has bounced back after appearing to be on his way out.
When McCann plays at the back Latics are pretty much guaranteed cultured passes coming in from the left hand side. Moreover at 6 ft 1 in and with a strong tackle McCann is able to cope with the physical side of defensive play. However, his best position is on the left side of a trio of midfield players. It is from such a position that his attacking abilities are most effectively employed. On occasions when he has been played as one of two holding midfielders he has been less effective.
It has been a remarkable turnaround from McCann. Although seemingly destined to leave the club he has stayed and fought his way back to a regular starting place.
Over the coming weeks, providing the injured players gradually ease their way back in, it will be a challenge for McCann to maintain his place. But then again, given the player’s resilience, who can say that he will not be a key player in Caldwell’s plans?
Wigan Athletic have signed 23 year old winger Yanic Wildschut from Middlesbrough on a three month loan. Wildschut has made 11 appearances for Boro, including two this season. He has represented the Netherlands 10 times at under-21 level.
Gary Caldwell told the official Latics website that:
“He’s something we definitely haven’t got at the moment. We’ve lacked that bit of creativity from the flanks and we were interested as soon as we found out he may be available. With his background – coming through at Ajax – he is technically very comfortable and has had 12 months to get used to the pace of the English game. He is a very powerful boy, who stands at over 6ft tall and one we have been admiring from a distance and with him not being involved at the moment, he is looking for game time. Hopefully it will be an arrangement that suits everyone. We look forward to working with him.”
The 6 ft 1 1⁄2 in tall Wildschut was born in Amsterdam and played in the Ajax academy. He joined second division FC Zwolle and made 33 appearances for them in the 2010-11 season, scoring 3 goals. In summer 2011 he signed for VVV Venlo in the Eredivisie. Wildschut made 61 appearances for VVV, scoring 8 goals before leaving them in the summer of 2013, after they suffered relegation.
In summer 2013 he signed for another Eredivisie side, Heerenveen, on a three year contract. In January 2014 he was sent out on loan to Ado Den Haag until the end of the season, making 7 appearances. Wildschut made 18 appearances for Heerenveen scoring 2 goals.
Middlesbrough signed Wildschut in September 2014 on a two year contract for a fee of around £600,000, with the option of a further year.
In order to learn more about Wildschut’s time at Middlesbrough we contacted Robert Nichols of the Fly Me To The Moon fanzine fmttm.com.
Here’s over to Robert:
Yanic Wildschut is the kind of player that draws the fans to games. He is fast, strong, powerful and direct.
When I say he is fast, let me qualify that by saying Yanic wears athletes compression socks under his football socks. He can give defenders ten yards start and tear past them. A good span of games at Wigan will help him sort out his weak spot, the finished product. Although get him running into the box and it doesn’t matter what he does with his final delivery he will cause mayhem and bag free kicks and penalties by the bucket load.
If defenders can knock him off the ball. He is, as they used to say in Mark Lawrenson circles, a very big unit.
Wildcshut has been desperately unlucky at Boro. He helped destroy Oldham away in the 1st round of the League cup. He scored a superb break away goal and was generally far too hot for the other Latics to handle. His promotion to first team action was only a matter of time and indeed we saw more of the same from him at home to Bristol City. Every time he got the ball and went on the run Bristol City were running scared. Yanic was subbed at half time in a tactical switch to allow Stewy Downing to go wide. It didn’t work but we have such a surplus of good wide players, wingers and overlapping full backs that no less than three are out on loan at present.
It was expected that Albert Adomah would be leaving but he settled his differences with the manager yet in the meantime we had brought in a talented Uruguayan called De Pena. Thus Carayol, Adam Reach and Wildschut have been allowed on loan. They need first team football rather than Development side starts.
Wildschut’s debut was as sub at Anfield in the League Cup last season. He was thrown on as a centre forward. And he caused Liverpool threats running through the centre. He scored in League action in a win away at Rotherham. But needs more starts to get consistency.
I would be very excited right now if I was a Wigan fan. Wildcshut will destroy defences with pace. He might need a few games to find a level of consistency to impact through 90 minutes. But he is worth the wait because he can split and sprint through a defence in a minute.
Synergy is defined as the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. It is something that can help football teams achieve way beyond what people would expect.
In the 1980-81 season Aston Villa broke Liverpool’s stranglehold on English football by winning the First Division. Villa had finished seventh in the previous season, fourteen points behind champions Liverpool, in the days when a win was worth two points. Nobody had expected Aston Villa to win it the next season.
What was truly remarkable, in an era of low quality pitches and refereeing that was much more lenient than that of modern day, was that Villa used only 14 players all season. No fewer than 7 players were ever-present in all 42 league matches.
It can be safely said that in this case the whole was equal to more than the sum of its parts. It was far from a team of superstars, but that team synergy made them a formidable unit. Through playing together on a continuous basis over a long period of time, with a minimum of disruptions due to injury, the understanding between the players was the key to their success.
Gary Caldwell’s current team does not have synergy. In fact the whole is probably less than the sum of its parts. The players have not yet consistently gelled together as a unit.
Caldwell has already been unlucky with injuries, which have robbed him of key players. He has used 23 players in just 10 league games up to this point. Only four players – Michael Jacobs, Reece James, Richard O’Donnell and David Perkins – have been ever-present. Those players have formed the backbone of the team, but if it had not been for injuries which other players might too have been ever-present?
The hapless Malky Mackay made only two permanent signings for the club. Billy Mckay has now left for Dundee United after being constantly snubbed at Wigan. But in Jason Pearce, Mackay signed a player not only with a successful pedigree of Football League experience, but a leader through example. Pearce was to be one of the few shining lights in the darkness of the Malky era.
Craig Morgan was Caldwell’s third signing, following Perkins and O’Donnell. The ex-Rotherham captain came in with similar credentials to Pearce. When Morgan and Pearce were named as captain and vice-captain it appeared that Caldwell was going to have a central defensive pairing as strong as any in the division. However, up to this point the two have played together only once, against Crewe Alexandra on August 29th.
Will Grigg scored 23 goals for MK Dons last season and Latics paid £1m to sign him.He has scored three goals in six starts and two substitute appearances so far. Grigg too can be expected to be part of the backbone of Caldwell’s team.
When the lineup was announced an hour prior to the Millwall game on Tuesday night eyebrows were raised. Fans who have been clamouring for twin strikers were disappointed to see just Jordy Hiwula’s name in the side. Grigg was on the bench due his elbow injury, although he did come on to save the game in the closing minutes. Caldwell had the chance to play Sanmi Odelusi together with Hiwula, but the player’s lack of form was almost certainly a factor in not including him in the starting lineup. Craig Davies was again absent because of a hamstring injury and Haris Vuckic with an ankle injury. Grant Holt and Shaq Coulthirst continue to recover from injury.
Should Caldwell wish to play twin strikers he will have the six players to choose from, providing they are all fit at the same time. Davies is the obvious choice to partner Grigg, but given his prior injury record, it is unlikely that he will manage a long run of games on a continuous basis. Davies can not only score goals in his own right, but his physicality provides Grigg with more freedom. Caldwell will surely be hoping that Holt will be able to reach peak fitness and be available to play a similar sort of role to Davies. Coulthirst, Hiwula and Odelusi have something different to offer, including pace.
In midfield Caldwell has various options. Assuming Perkins and Jacobs remain automatic choices then Tim Chow, Jordan Flores, Francisco Junior, Chris McCann, Sean Murray and Max Power will compete for places. Moreover Don Cowie is on the road to recovery from injury. Andy Kellett has the ability to play left midfield or left wing back. Caldwell has an alternative to Jacobs in the advanced midfield role in the versatile Vuckic. Or he can play them both in attacking midfield behind the central striker in a 3-4-2-1 system.
The right back/wing back position remains problematic for Caldwell following the return of Jonjoe Kelly to Everton and the injury to Kevin McNaughton. The loan signing of Dutch winger Yanic Wildschut from Middlesbrough was announced today. One wonders if the player can also play as a wing back. Playing midfielders or central defenders in that position is hardly ideal. Caldwell will surely be scouring the transfer market in January for a replacement for Kenny. For the moment, Latics’ play is likely to be skewed to the left where James and Jacobs form a strong partnership.
The starting lineup against Millwall included only four players over the age of 23. In terms of looking towards the future it is something very positive. However, in order to get promotion Caldwell will surely need to give priority to his more experienced players who have already enjoyed success in the Football League.
O’Donnell has established himself as the number one choice in goal. Morgan and Pearce will surely be the first names on the team sheet for the centre of defence, together with either Leon Barnett or Donervan Daniels. James will be one of the two wing backs. A three pronged attack of Davies and Grigg playing as twin strikers, with Jacobs coming in from midfield, would threaten even the best of League 1 defences.
The squad is laden with midfield players and Caldwell has been constantly switching them around. McCann has experience, Junior oozes class, the younger players show promise. Caldwell will look for a balance in midfield, but he must have box-to-box players who can move the ball quickly and not shirk their defensive duties. Too often we have seen midfielders passing the ball sideways or backwards and not providing sufficient solid defensive cover.
Caldwell will be searching for team synergy. The first step is to have all his key players fit, something that has not been the case up to now. He needs them playing on a regular basis, utilizing the younger and less experienced players in short spells.
Fingers crossed that the injury situation improves and that Caldwell will have the luxury of choosing what he considers his strongest possible lineup on each matchday over the coming months. Were this team to have synergy it would surely propel Latics out of League 1.
I would have loved to have gone to Chesterfield and been part of the Wigan contingent that was so deliriously happy after that stunning finale.
But it would have been a long trip from Boston to get there and I would have been shirking my family responsibilities. However, I thought I could at least settle for second best, by listening to the Neill Rimmer and Ashley Houghton commentary on WISH FM. But when it was decided by family consensus that we were leaving for an overnight stay in Rhode Island around kick-off time in the UK it seemed that my hopes were dashed.
However, son Ned and 3G technology came to the rescue. As we were being driven along the I-95 interstate highway we were able to listen to Latics Player through Ned’s phone. The score was 0-0 at halftime, when he closed his phone down to conserve the battery’s charge. It sounded like the game could go either way, both sides having had their chances.
But the second half started and Chesterfield were to score a spectacular goal a quarter of an hour later. However, hope remained that Latics could pull one back. It was a little hard to hear the phone so when we heard that Leon Barnett had scored a goal, Ned and I started to celebrate. But then came the realization that then goal was for Chesterfield, not Wigan. In an instant I suggested to Ned that he turn the commentary off to save the battery.
When we arrived at our destination I realized what I had done. I have watched Wigan Athletic since 1961 through thick and thin. I have prided myself on never having left a match before the end, no matter how dire the performance. I have always tried to see the bright side. I believed in “Believe”.
But in this case I was “he of little faith”, giving upon a game before it had finished. Fortunately Ned had more faith than me and by the time he got the commentary back the game was in its last three minutes and Latics had scored twice. When Hiwula scored in the 90th minute we were ecstatic.
Watching Latics over the past twelve months has tested the mettle of even the most fervant supporters. Being two goals behind with less than a third of the match remaining there would have been no way that last year’s team could have clawed their way back in.
In the first half of last season the team had the talent, but not the commitment. The reverse was the case in the second half. Malky Mackay was no tactical genius, but the asset-stripping that happened in the January transfer window had left him with a squad short on quality, with the few remaining players from previous eras seemingly shell-shocked by the sequence of events. Put simply, it was very hard for us to “Believe” in the Mackay era.
But under Caldwell I can at least rekindle some belief. Caldwell is viewed as a disciple of Roberto Martinez, who was a man brimming in belief. His infectious belief was always evident – he truly believed that his multicultural squad of bargain signings could beat the best in the country without resorting to dubious methods. Moreover he succeeded and his team’s league wins over Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United and the FA Cup final victory over Manchester City will be etched in our minds for years to come.
The journey was by no means easy. At times Latics looked out of their depth, characterized by a porous defence and a tactical system where the term “lone centre forward” became a reality. Martinez could be frustrating for all of us, playing seemingly one-paced football, never seeming to have a plan B. But he believed in his players and they so often played out of their skin against some of the best players in the world. He defied the odds and kept Latics up in the Premier League for three seasons before the seemingly inevitable happened in the loss against Arsenal. With Martinez one always sensed that he had a long term plan and that he believed it would come into effect.
Caldwell rightly claims he has been influenced by all the managers he worked under. But many would say that it was Martinez who influenced him most. One wonders if he is still in regular contact with the Catalan, who has provided him with two quality loan players in Jonjoe Kenny and Francisco Junior. Moreover the way he is pushing his wing backs so far up the field is reminiscent of what Martinez did with Coleman and Baines in his early days at Everton. But does Caldwell have that sheer determination that his mentor had?
As a player Caldwell was certainly determined. Joining Latics relatively late in his career, and despite with his hips failing, he was always there to be called upon. Latics had their greatest successes under his captaincy. He was the marshall of a back line, which was playing against the odds as it faced household name strikers on a regular basis. Caldwell certainly made mistakes as a player, but his commitment could never be questioned.
The “New Era”, heralded by Caldwell and young chairman, David Sharpe is now the order of the day. Largely through poor choices made by Sharpe’s grandfather, Dave Whelan, Latics have fallen down two divisions since winning football’s oldest competition.
However, nobody who has watched the club’s rise over the past two decades can doubt the wonderful achievements under Whelan. The “Believe” motto did not exist when DW told people that a struggling club in the fourth tier would be in the Premier League within a decade. It was not only Whelan’s financial backing, but his “belief” and sound management of the club that propelled things along. Now it is the era of a rookie manager and a rookie chairman, both of whom have nevertheless started their jobs in impressive fashion.
Caldwell clearly believes in the kind of football that he practiced under the auspices of Martinez. However, Caldwell has already shown his flexibility and willingness to change a tactical system if it appears not to be working. His teams have already played in a variety of “shapes” , something Martinez was loath to do. Put in a nutshell, Caldwell adheres to the Martinez notion of style, but is more pragmatic about adapting his tactical formations to get results. However, being a broad adherent of the Maritinez brand he will broadly insist on a slow build up from the back, coupled with a possession-style football.
In the days of Martinez his players were faced with the enormous physical task of containing the talents of teams they played in the Premier League. Maintaining possession gave his players the breathing space to hold their own physically against opposition that was so often technically superior.
The noticeboards of football fan sites provide a conduit for supporters to air their views. That can go both ways. I always enjoy trawling Vital Wigan’s Latics Speyk, where some really high quality stuff so often comes through, together with posts where the ventings of fans who have reached the limits of their patience are plentiful. On Saturday we heard from charlz54 who posted:
“This is pathetic Wigan……..Caldwell is too naive about tactics. For goodness sake, what are our coaching staff doing? We need to attack teams, not just sit back and what’s this over use of playing the ball out from the back? Sorry Gary, but your lack of experience is showing at the moment……..just listening to the commentary…..we are too slow!!”
Clearly a level of frustration from a fan not happy with Caldwell’s approach of patiently playing the ball out from the back. However, this fan was apparently not at the game. If he had been maybe he would have thought of joining the others who left the Proact Stadium prematurely and missed out on the last ten minutes. Up to that point it looked like Latics were heading for another 2-0 away defeat, something hard to bear for a fan base that has stayed loyal despite the awful football that they have had to endure over the past year.
Interestingly Caldwell has made every effort to play attacking football, pushing his wing backs high up the pitch. Moreover at Chesterfield he had both Michael Jacobs and Haris Vuckic supporting centre forward Craig Davies from attacking midfield positions. The wing backs tend not to tuck inside to support the central midfield, their main role being as outlets on the flanks The end result can be the two central “holding” midfielders being outnumbered by the opposition, unless the attacking midfielder drops back.
Fan frustration was certainly present during the Martinez era, especially at the beginning when the players would often struggle to translate the manager’s ideas into effect. It has been a similar case for Caldwell so far. His is a work in progress, with bad moments interspersed with glimpses of the sublime. A group of strangers on the field is gradually melding into a cohesive force. But not only is it a matter of new players “bedding in”. The club is still on its way out of a trough of depression, where not winning was the order of the day. That amazing rally at Chesterfield will surely lift the club and its players. Confidence is the key to success for Caldwell’s team.
Despite the frustrations of some fans Caldwell will persevere with a style of play he believes in. He has already shown himself to be more tactically flexible than Martinez was at Wigan, but will insist on his footballing principles.
Self-belief is a key quality in a football manager. If Caldwell can continue to inculcate his footballing philosophy into his players they will surely respond. The current season has had its ups and downs – and there are surely more of the latter still to come – but there is purpose in the way his team is playing. Caldwell is fortunate in having very few players from prior regimes at the club still present. It is much easier to set the tone of a new philosophy with a new group of players rather than with those who were entrenched through longevity and working under previous managers.
There are lots of fans who consider that it is time to leave behind the “Believe” motto of yesteryear. The days of “I’m a Believer” beaming out from the loudspeakers at the DW Stadium might soon be over. “Believe” sadly became overused for political purposes within the town.
Whether “Believe” as a motto will become a thing of the past is hard to predict. But what is crucial is that Caldwell continues to hold by his footballing principles and shows the kind of belief in his players that Martinez showed.
Over the past couple of seasons too many potentially good players have been dumped before their time was due. The time has come for a group of committed, talented players to be given a genuine chance at the club.
Caldwell and his recruitment team have done an amazing job in bringing twenty new players to Wigan. He now needs to give them the support they need to produce their best.
There has been far too much upheaval. Now is the time for consolidation. Put simply, the manager needs to “Believe” in the players he has brought in.
LOS THREE AMIGOS 