Why are so many Wigan Athletic supporters increasingly unhappy with both the head coach and the sporting director? For some, frustration has already tipped into calls for both to be sacked. But while the anger is understandable, removing either now would risk compounding the very problems that have led to this situation.

Saturday’s defeat to a Blackpool side sitting second from bottom of League One crystallised those frustrations. The Tangerines scored twice after poor defending from a back line missing captain and defensive lynchpin Jason Kerr through injury. Despite having far more shots, Wigan rarely looked like scoring. In a derby where intensity and commitment were expected as a minimum, the performance felt flat and uninspiring.

Latics currently sit 14th with a record of W6 D8 L6, having scored 22 and conceded 23. Given that the club’s staffing budget is reportedly within the top ten in League One, this position feels underwhelming. That perception has driven criticism beyond Ryan Lowe and towards sporting director Gregor Rioch. Yet this is where context matters.

Lowe’s tenure began with genuine promise. There was attacking intent, early momentum and real belief that a play-off challenge might be possible. That optimism unravelled after a limp 4–1 defeat at Bolton. Since then, performances have become more cautious and conservative, with the team focused on grinding out results rather than playing with freedom or flair. Lowe has also damaged goodwill by publicly criticising players and suggesting that supporter expectations “might need to be lowered”. In a club still healing from years of upheaval, those comments landed badly.

But the growing criticism of Rioch deserves closer examination. Supporters questioning recruitment, squad balance and identity are not wrong to ask those questions. However, they are often aimed at a role whose responsibilities and authority are poorly understood from the outside.

Rioch has been at Wigan since December 2013, initially as academy manager. During a decade marked by ownership chaos, financial collapse and administration, the academy was one of the few constants. Under his leadership, Wigan regained EPPP Category Two status and, crucially, continued producing first-team players when the club could not afford to buy them. Those graduates were not a luxury; they were a necessity.

That track record is precisely why Rioch’s promotion to sporting director in August 2023 made sense. It was not just a reward for loyalty, but an attempt to embed long-term thinking at a club that desperately needed stability. His expanded remit — recruitment, first team, academy and overall football strategy — was designed to ensure alignment and avoid the costly stop-start cycles that had plagued Wigan for years.

The logic was sound. With limited funds, Wigan needed clarity: a shared footballing identity, smart recruitment and a seamless pathway from academy to first team. The sporting director role existed to protect that coherence.

The appointment of Ryan Lowe in March 2025 complicated that vision. Lowe arrived with experience and a clear tactical identity, but one fundamentally different from Shaun Maloney’s. Maloney favoured structured possession and patient build-up; Lowe’s approach is more direct, physical and vertical. Neither is inherently wrong, but switching between them under tight financial constraints was always going to carry risk.

This is where frustration has hardened into distrust. Players recruited or developed for one system suddenly looked ill-suited to another. Recruitment had to pivot again without significant resources. Academy players were asked to adapt quickly to new demands. To supporters, it felt like another reset — another change of direction before anything had been allowed to settle.

That sense of drift is what has put Rioch under scrutiny. A sporting director should play a key role in managerial appointments precisely to avoid this kind of misalignment. That does not mean blocking ambition or dictating tactics, but it does mean ensuring that change does not undo years of planning. Whether Rioch had sufficient authority in Lowe’s appointment is unclear. If he did not, the issue lies higher up. If he did, then the long-term consequences were underestimated. Either way, the result has been a perception of poor recruitment that is as much structural as individual.

Seen through that lens, this is not a story about one manager or one transfer window. It is about whether Wigan have truly empowered the sporting director role to do what it was designed to do: provide continuity, limit waste and protect the club from constant reinvention. Without that authority, even the most competent operator will eventually take the blame.

Supporter reaction has been predictably polarised. Some point to recruitment missteps and a lack of ambition; others urge patience, reminding fans just how restricted Wigan’s finances remain. What is often overlooked is that the era of Whelan-level spending is gone. Sustainable progress now depends on youth development, intelligent recruitment and strategic patience — not nostalgia.

Wigan’s predicament is far from unique. Across League One and the wider EFL, clubs face limited budgets, ownership uncertainty and frequent managerial churn. Those that succeed do so not by spending their way out of trouble, but by committing to a clear, consistent strategy.

For Latics, that means rejecting the temptation to “spend to go up”. That route has repeatedly ended in financial disaster for others. The smarter path is to build a repeatable promotion-and-survival model, where managerial changes are evolutionary rather than disruptive. Recent months have shown how damaging the alternative can be.

Budget constraints explain much of the current frustration. Blackpool’s second goal, scored by former Wigan favourite Dale Taylor, was a stark reminder. Blackpool paid Nottingham Forest £1 million for him — a fee entirely beyond Wigan’s reach. Instead, Latics spent around £500,000 in total on Dara Costelloe and Christian Saydee. That is not a lack of ambition; it is financial reality.

On the pitch, the transition between Maloney and Lowe has been anything but smooth. Lowe initially deployed wingers as wing-backs, a role unfamiliar to them. None of the four main strikers has delivered consistently. Since Ryan Trevitt’s injury, creativity in attacking midfield has been lacking, leaving forwards isolated and ineffective.

Given those circumstances, criticism of recruitment is inevitable. Responsibility lies with both Lowe and Rioch, but so do the constraints. Lowe speaks of needing more “quality”, yet his commitment to a back three and wing-backs has required clearing out players while leaving key positions under-resourced. That is a structural issue, not simply a recruitment failure.

This is precisely why stability matters now. After years of turmoil, sacking either Lowe or Rioch would almost certainly set the club back further. The decision to replace Maloney with a stylistically opposite coach was flawed, even if Lowe’s past record suggested he could overachieve. Whether that choice was driven by Rioch, ownership or both is now less important than what happens next.

The priority must be clarity. A defined footballing identity, a realistic recruitment plan and visible alignment between board, sporting director and head coach. January’s transfer window will be critical, not just for additions, but for demonstrating that Wigan are acting proactively rather than lurching from problem to problem.

Frustration is justified. Panic is not. Wigan’s problems will not be solved by another reset — only by finally committing to a clear and consistent path forward.