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The Countdown to Wigan Athletic
Wednesday
Purchase your £10 iFollow match pass ....here.
Argyle have played away at Wigan 10 times; winning four games, drawing two and losing four, the last time the Greens played at Wigan was in September 2017 which ended in a 1-0 defeat.
One of the most notable away games was at Wigan's previous stadium Springfield Park in April 1986 where a huge travelling support standing on an uncovered grass bank in the rain saw Argyle suffer a miserable 3-0 defeat, however the Greens recovered from that set-back to win promotion from Division Three.
The referee for the game is Scott Oldham, so far this season he has issued 14 yellow cards and no reds in seven games, he was last in charge of an Argyle game in September 2019 when Cheltenham Town won 2-0 at Home Park. He will be assisted on Saturday by Richard Bartlett and Danny Gratton while the fourth official is Aaron Jackson.
Under former Argyle manager John Sheridan Wigan started the season with two league defeats followed by two successive wins but have now lost the last three league games and currently sit in the relegation zone.
Wigan fan Ian from website Let's Hang On has kindly agreed to give Pasoti users an insight into his club with a Q&A ...
Q: Can you give Argyle fans an update on the ownership issue and financial situation at Wigan?
A: The Spanish businessman José Miguel Garrido Cristo is on the verge of a takeover at Latics and we are awaiting news of whether the EFL have approved the deal.
Garrido Cristo has previously led two Spanish clubs, Albacete and Castellón, and has spent the last 18 months with small stakes in other clubs and speculation linking him to several more.
Latics entered administration in July, bizarrely less than one month after Hong Kong-based Next Leader Fund had taken ownership and have been under the control of administrators Begbies Traynor since then.
The administrators have overseen a firesale of the club’s assets including the sale most of the playing staff and the Euxton training ground, which was sold to Preston North End.
The fans have so far raised over £900,000 to save the club. Initially £200,000 to ensure the club paid wages and completed the Championship fixtures and £700,000 to ensure the future of the club and hopefully have a stake in the running of the club going forward.
Q: How has your club coped through the Covid-19 pandemic?
A: Ironically Latics have coped relatively well with the pandemic because we have sold many of our assets and significantly reduced our overheads. The wages and operating costs have been significantly reduced while in administration.
However. It has been devastating to see a top Championship squad sold off at less than a third of their market value and at least 70 members of staff losing their jobs and livelihoods.
Q: What are your thoughts on manager John Sheridan?
A: John Sheridan has been brought into the club on a short-term contract to help coach Leam Richardson after Paul Cook resigned to reduce administration costs. Sheridan has done a good job since coming into post on 11th September.
He has had to work with our Academy players, short-term contracts, loans and the remaining few of our Championship squad. The squad is very thin but the players have tried their best in difficult circumstances.
Sheridan is an experienced manager who is familiar with League One and alongside coach Leam Richardson should provide some stability while the takeover process completes.
Q: What are your expectations and predicted finishing position in League One this season?
A: The main aim for this season is to still have a club at the end of it! When your club is threatened with extinction everything else pales into insignificance.
After a poor start we managed to put together a couple of good results against Portsmouth and Doncaster but we had a dreadful performance losing 3-0 at Crewe.
Despite everything we have gone through, a mid-table finish is now a realistic possibility if the takeover goes through.
Q: Without giving too much away what style of football and formation are Wigan likely to use against Argyle?
A: Latics preferred formation under Paul Cook and Leam Richardson has been 4-2-3-1, but Sheridan went for 4-4-2 away at Charlton and in the second half against Peterborough in midweek, when they lost 1-0 in both games.
We will set out to attack and use our wingers to get crosses into top goalscorer and captain Joe Garner. There has been a lack goals in the last three games and Sheridan will want to see an improved performance in the final third against Argyle.
Q: Looking from afar what are your views on Plymouth Argyle?
A: Ryan Lowe has done a very good job at Plymouth getting them promoted and making a good start in League One. I expect them to finish in the top half of the table and maybe challenge for the play-offs.
Q: Finally, do you have a prediction for the game?
A: Given Latics' current problems and Plymouth’s good form I’ll go for a 1-1 result.
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Wigan fan Jimmy T, editor of Mudhutter and @Mudhutter has also kindly agreed to take part in a Q&A for Pasoti users ...
Q: Can you give Argyle fans an update on the ownership issue and financial situation at Wigan?
A: We are still in a bit of a corridor of uncertainty as it stands. To recap, long standing owner, Dave Whelan, sold the club to a Hong Kong group a couple of years ago. All was fine for a while but they shifted ownership several times earlier this year and put one mystery bloke in charge, who, a matter of days later (on 1st July) decided to liquidate the club.
In reality, the warning signs were there from the start. The notes from the (only) accounts they produced, stated that they were disappointed with an 18th place finish in the Championship, which let’s be honest, is probably as high as Wigan Athletic could expect to achieve.
Sadly, like many a foreign owner, they were probably sold the Premier League dream and quickly got bored.
It has been the worst possible experience any football fan can endure. There were highs, such as the fans raising nearly a million quid to buy the club, but unfortunately, it will only ever be a token share as the EFL demand £5m in proof of funds to cover two years’ wages. With nobody coming in, we had to seriously explore starting again as a phoenix club.
After three months in administration, the club was sold on 30th September to a Spanish group after a horrible summer. Thirty million of talent sold for a quarter of price, 75 ordinary working staff made redundant and not knowing whether we would even have a club to support from one day to the next.
The incoming owner is currently going through EFL owners and directors’ test and ironically, they seem to be doing a thorough job. THIS TIME!!
From what we know of him, he is of moderate financial means (well, comparatively!) and he has run Spanish lower division clubs in the past (Albacete and Castellon F.C. He generally runs a tight ship and left them in a better place when he sold them.
So, I suspect our fun is well and truly over but most sensible fans recognise that being sustainable is the only option these days, as football has gone crazy these days. I just hope sustainable doesn’t turn into “miserly” and we can remain competitive at least at League One level. Ultimately, we have to be grateful that we have a buyer, otherwise, we’d be gone by Christmas.
Q: How has your club coped through the Covid-19 pandemic?
A: Ha ha, are you having a laugh?? For our club, it’s not even the worst thing to happen this year. To be honest, we were absolutely fine up until the 1st July. Then our world turned upside down.
When the season was suspended, we were still not clear of relegation but the evening before, we were put into admin, we walloped Stoke 3-0 in convincing fashion and had our eye on a top ten Championship finish.
Even after that, the players reacted superbly and we should have stayed up despite the 12 point deduction, was it not for a few key decisions in the last few games. So it has been one heart wrenching disappointment after another.
I doubt that 2020 has been a good year for anyone but for Wigan Athletic fans, it has been an absolute car crash.
Q: What are your thoughts on manager John Sheridan?
A: He’s kind of got a free pass for the time being. Let’s face it, he took the job when nobody else wanted it and he was on a hiding to nothing. Simon Grayson supposedly walked away after realising that one more bad career move could finish him off.
I don’t think he is perceived as a long term solution, but we just need someone to steady the ship whilst we are in administration. He doesn’t like using subs and our defence is all over the place, but then maybe he has been told to hold back on the appearance money. Plus, in general, he has had very little to work with.
Q: What are your expectations and predicted finishing position in League One this season?
A: First of all, I’ll be happy for us to finish the season!
It is early days but thankfully, it seems we might have enough to stay up, if not by much. I’m fairly sure most fans would have taken that a few weeks ago, although the grumbling has started already.
Let’s face it, no set of fans is happy when their team is losing but losing a few football matches, is a very small price to pay compared to losing our football club altogether.
We are desperately lacking in quality. We had eleven first team professionals on the pitch against Peterborough, half of whom who have been signed on frees or loans on short term contracts till January. The entire bench is made up of academy players, which tells it’s own story.
Q: Without giving too much away what style of football and formation are Wigan likely to use against Argyle?
A: I really can’t help you there. The only thing I have noticed is that John Sheridan has been the first manager probably for 20 years to play two up front. But I’m not sure what purpose Will Keane is serving, he just ambles about up front, bumping into people like a drunk toddler. Joe Garner has been made captain and is really leading from the front.
I don’t think we have changed style drastically from last year, so there is no lack of effort, but most of the quality has walked out of the door and our left winger is playing right back due to lack of numbers.
It’s a completely new team and a completely new manager and I’m not even sure they know what style they are playing. I think Sheridan was quite the cultured passer in his day (considering he played for Leeds) so I hope we can get it down a bit but we spend large parts of the games chasing shadows right now.
Q: Looking from afar what are your views on Plymouth Argyle?
A: My first memory is in the mid Eighties when thousands of your fans turned up for a promotion clash at Springfield Park. We won the game 3-0 but you went up eventually.
I’ve been down to Plymouth for the weekend a few times and it is always a great weekend.
I don’t think anyone can knock your support, it is terrific, particularly when on the road. I look wistfully at it, in the same way I do with Portsmouth and only wish Wigan was a one team, big city club with a decent catchment area to pull upon. Rather than having four of the biggest clubs in the country which drain away what local support we muster. And it’s those of us who do support our local team who get the flak for it. (Thankfully the one upside of COVID-19 is that the crowd noncery we get continually aimed at us has fallen away somewhat)
I’ve not followed your recent past but there is certainly an appetite for success out there. I’m speculating here, without knowing how you are run financially, but I guess your geographical location might have prevented moving on to the next level in terms of players and investment. There’s no other reason why you couldn’t have moved on to the level where clubs such as Brentford, Brighton and Huddersfield have done in recent years, especially given the stadium improvements. The passion and desire is certainly there.
Q: Finally, do you have a prediction for the game?
A: We’ve lost the last two games 1-0 but we have put up a good show, particularly in the second half. I’d probably place Plymouth in a similar bracket to our last two opponents, Charlton and Peterborough, in terms of where you are competitively and we aren’t at that level currently.
It may well follow a similar pattern again, so I’d expect you will have more of the play take a 1-0 lead and probably hold on to it. We might well get stronger in the latter stages of the game (the advantage of having a load of kids in the team!) but we’re not strong enough to really take the game to anyone right now. So it is a pragmatic 1-0 Plymouth win though we might scrape a 1-1 draw if we’re lucky.
Thursday
According to Sky Bet Wigan are 6/5 to win the game, an Argyle win is placed at 2/1 and the draw has odds of 12/5.
Ryan Lowe pre-match press conference ... club You Tube.
Wigan face a charge from the FA following last Saturday's game against Charlton Athletic .. Wigan Today.
Wigan v Argyle Frequently Asked Questions ..club website.
Friday
Wigan is John Sheridan's eleventh club as manager and his ninth appointment since leaving Argyle in 2015.
Quiz - They played for both .... Wigan club website.
Early team news ... Wigan Today.
Match preview .. club website.
