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      OPPOSITION VIEW - WIGAN ATHLETIC Q&A

Ahead of Saturday's game at the DW Stadium against Wigan Athletic, we spoke to Alan from This Northern Soul website about his thoughts on the game, Wigan's season so far and much much more . . .

Why Wigan?

According to my Dad, I attended my first Latics game when I was about 4 so what chance did I have? I don’t remember that, but I do remember going to other games certainly around the age of seven or eight. Latics crowds in those pre-league days were, from what I can tell, a mixed bag with most being fans of bigger teams who also followed Latics, with a hard few who did it the other way around, ardent Latics men who perhaps had casual attachments to “proper” league teams.

My Dad was probably in the first category, and, until recent times would probably have described himself as a Man City fan first which lead to me visiting Maine Road in 1981 to see them dismantle Norwich 6-0 in the cup. I enjoyed myself but all those people and all those goals didn’t grab me. I think I’d already been conditioned by my Grandad and Uncle who were firmly in the second category.

In short, it’s a family thing.

How long a fan?

Following my first answer, it still feels a little trite to say “since birth”, but I did grow up a Latics fan. I’ve never felt the pull of the town’s other team and despite the odd ‘favourite team’ from further up the league ladder, I’ve only ever watched two professional games, in the flesh, that didn’t feature Wigan, one the aforementioned City game, the other an England International.

Highlight of supporting the club?

This is the perfect opportunity for me to show my credentials I guess. There have been plenty of great moments over the years, but it would be disingenuous of me to pretend that the real highlight was promotion to the top flight. How many other clubs can say that they’ve gone from scratching in the gutters to eating at the top table in just less than 15 years? The final whistle in that last championship game was a total vindication of all those difficult times supporting the club.

Latics fans have taken a fair bit of crap over the years, not least from people in our own town and whilst we’ve never been less than proud of our club, that was one of the few moments that we’ve been able to be smug about it. That night around town was like those perfectly still moments you get after a big storm, finally we’d have to start getting some credit. It turns out it was more of the eye of the storm, as it didn’t take long for all the old criticisms to come rolling out again, in a new context, with added sprinklings of “what’s the point of Wigan Athletic as a Premier League side?”.

Favourite current Wigan player?

My immediate answer to that question is always James McCarthy. He came into the side as a 19, going on 14, year old and looked a bit timid at times but found his feet fairly quickly and is a real key part of our game plan. When ‘young James’ ticks then so does the team. I’d like to think that he’s got a long term future leading the Latics team, but big teams seem to have their eyes on him and I doubt he’ll make it to the end of his current contract with the club.

If there’s one criticism of James it’s possibly that his personality doesn’t really come across in his play, which is no different to most players I suppose, but fans do love a player who genuinely plays with more than their ability. The one man who does that in the Latics side at the moment is Franco di Santo. He’s not got the best of scoring records for a striker, but I defy anyone to not enjoy watching him play with his almost permanent, cheeky grin and energy to match.

Things seem to be coming together for him this season, with having the added responsibility of being our “experienced man” up-front and he’s been repaid with a call up to the Argentina squad, something that none of us would have thought possible a season ago. All's going well for Franco, but unfortunately for the fans that are now warming to him, his contract is up in the summer and it seems doubtful that he’ll be signing a new one. If he does leave then he’s going the right way to leave a reputation of a bit of a cult hero around the DW stadium.

Favourite all-time Wigan player?

It’s a toss up between Peter Houghton who was in the side when Latics finally made it into the League and Andy Liddell. They were similar players, as discussed in this article that did the other week. http://thisnorthernsoul.co.uk/2012/10/28/my-top50wafc-top-ten-nrp/

Thoughts on last season?

What can you say? Personally I didn’t think the drama of 2010/11 could be topped, having been dead and buried by our final home game of the season we’d turned it around and sent West Ham down by the final whistle. But last season we only started playing in January and even the improved form we showed then didn’t look anywhere near enough to keep us up, and then, BANG, Latics turn from clueless fools into a mature, tactically astute and exciting team playing (I believe) genuinely some of the best football the top flight has seen in years.

What it is that makes it easier for this side to play when they’ve little or no chance of succeeding escapes me, even this season there have been a couple of games where we’ve given teams a start and then dominated the game, and it’s proved too much for us to turn around. Last season really felt like that all round, until those last few games and the big hope has to be that we can use that period as a foundation for something a little better this season. Early signs are good, but we’re always only a few bad results away from finding our backs to the wall again, so I’m not going to make any grand statements just yet.

Thoughts on Roberto Martinez? Were you glad to see him stay in the summer?

I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of Bobby; he’s such a nice guy, has such an obviously strong feeling for the club and is one of us in more ways than one. Most importantly, he’s the first manager we’ve had for a long time who as much of an eye on the future as the present, he’s definitely a man with a plan and, with our chairman’s advancing years that’s what we need right now.

That said, as much as I’m happy for my romantic side to let me believe that he stayed this summer because he couldn’t bring himself to leave, I’m not stupid enough to at least suspect that the truth is more to do with the soap opera that Liverpool seem happy to have let themselves become over the last couple of seasons. Bobby’s a smart man and I can understand why, as big a club as they are, he would want nothing to do with them at the moment.

What were your summer transfer dealings like? And were you happy with them?

We lost two players tha that started last season amongst the first names on the team sheet and whilst neither of Diame or Rodallega featured much in that wonderful run at end of the season, their presence on the bench made the squad look pretty strong. We’ve replace both, Arouna Kone taking the striker’s berth and another Scottish prodigy in Frasier Fyfe coming into the midfield reckoning.

Kone has come in , looked raw, but sharp and bagged himself three goals, he looks like he’ll gave defences a few problems over the season and hopefully prove a decent replacement for Hugo. Fyfe hasn’t really featured yet, but looks to have potential, so I’d label him up as one for the future.

On top of those two, we’ve also picked up Ivan Ramis, who after a shaky start to the season has added a bit more stability and competition to our back three.

The biggest loss has probably been Victor Moses. The youngster was a key part of our formation last year and hasn’t really been replaced (Ryo Miatchi on loan from Arsenal hasn’t stepped up to the plate yet). This has meant a change to the formation and at times has made us a little less fluid.

I’m putting that down to the team getting used to playing in a slightly different way and hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be able to say that the only regret of the summer window was letting Rodallega and Diame leave on free transfers, and even that won’t be that big a regret if the club can learn a lesson and not let the same thing happen this summer with Franco di Santo.

Despite being predicted to struggle again you’ve started pretty well, can you keep it up? Have you got the results and points you deserve or expected?

On balance, I think we’re just about in the right position; we’ve rarely ridden our luck but haven’t made the most of our chances. The season has been a bit of a slow burner so far (certainly it pales in comparison with the end to last season), we’ve been flat at times and haven’t really got going yet. Two weeks ago we were on the verge of an early season slump looking down the barrel of our worst start to a Premier League season.

What now looks like a good start has been created with back-to-back wins against West Ham and Spurs so the question now is whether we can push on from that. A win on Saturday will help a great deal in making us look like real contenders for a quiet mid-table season, which after the trauma of the last few years would be like a holiday for us.

Who’s been your best player so far?

It’s a difficult one, because the Martinez philosophy really does really on the collective rather than the individual which usually sees players take their turn to shine from game-to-game. If I was forced to pick one, then it would probably be di Santo, for the reasons I gave earlier.

Anyone been a let-down, anyone been particularly poor?

Again, this tends to be a game to game thing. Ramis had a shocker against Chelsea in the first game, Ben Watson has had a couple of chances and failed to really shine and Emerson Boyce has, at times, looked a little bit like his legs might be going, but overall, I would say no. At worst we’ve a couple who’ve only managed to be average so far.

Thoughts on Ben Watson? His career at Wigan seemed to be over back in 2010 when he moved to The Hawthorns on loan but since he was recalled he seems to have been a regular for you?

I lauded Watson at the end of the 09/10 season after he played a key role in pulling our style of play together and in turn keeping us up, but he hasn't really followed that up. Now he's 27 he's not really in that 'young player' bracket anymore and we should probably be expecting more than we’re getting from him.

I think that Ben's main problem is concentration, or something similarly mental. He has got the ability but something stops him from going out and dominating games in the way that he should. Martinez said as much when he went to you on loan, presenting that deal as chance for him to step down and work out how to do that, bringing the experience back to benefit his Latics career.

He slipped out of the side last season and is struggling to find his place now that we’re only using two ‘proper’ central midfielders in Bobby’s 3-4-3, he’s even been tried as one of the 3 defenders, a la Mascherano, but it’s getting towards the point where we might have to admit that Ben’s level as a first teamer is the Championship but seeing as he signed a five year deal last season, it might need more time on loan, or a relegation to prove it.

Are there any youngsters coming through the Wigan set-up you are particularly excited about?

The current U21 set-up is mostly a mixture of young lads we’ve picked up after they’ve been rejected by other clubs around the 15 years mark and a few foreign lads that we’ve picked up since Martinez came in as boss. Callum McManaman looks nearest to the first team along with Nouha Dicko who’s on loan at Blackpool. Lee Nicholls also deserves a mention as a young keeper who has been almost permanently on loan over the last three years gaining good experience. Daniel Redmond got a run out in the league cup against Bradford without getting anyone over excited.

There’s a few bubbling under those, but without watching the development squad play (which isn’t possible with work) it’s difficult to comment on quality. The one thing that you can say with some certainty is that it will be difficult for anyone to break into the first team if the pattern of the last few seasons carries on. We’ve rarely been in a position where we can give players time on the pitch for the sake of experience and without that sort of experience you never really know whether you can trust them.

It’s a vicious circle and one that is holding back youth development at the club who are finally starting to treat that side of things with a bit more seriousness.

Who do you consider to be Wigan’s arch-rivals? Both currently and historically.

I grew up with Bolton being our big rivals, followed by Preston for a period and then a little dalliance with the likes of Stoke and Reading before resuming proceedings with our nearest neighbours from Horwich. But if I’m honest, our football rivalries can often be a bit one sided; Bolton will tell you their rivals are Man Utd; Preston, Burnley and Stoke, Port Vale with Reading being too nice and home counties to bother with oiks like us and any real rivalries tend to be with whichever sides we’re in direct competition in any given season, West Ham have been up the their in recent years, with the scars of a couple of promotion and relegation battles to prove the point.

Because we’ve never had that fixed football rival (or perhaps in spite of it), a lot can be made of the divide between Latics and those in Wigan who prefer to play with odd shaped balls. It’s a strange relationship with relatively little cross over between the fan bases of Latics and Wigan Warriors and factions of both desperate to get one over on each other. There’s probably volumes of historical, psychological and sociological texts could be written on the reasons for the beef between the two clubs. But, as strange as it sounds, it’s a real rivalry and one that doesn’t look like disappearing any time soon.

Any particular memories of Albion v Wigan games that stand out?

The two that spring to mind are both 2-1 games at the Hawthorns. The first in 03/04, on a Tuesday night in March that saw us handover the momentum in terms of a promotion charge to you. It felt bad at the time, but looking back, that was a season too early for us, and I don’t think we’d have managed what we have if we’d have won that night, and gone onwards from there.

The second was two seasons later and was the game that gave Latics fans the confidence that we might be able to enjoy something out of life in the Premier League. Going behind relatively early had felt fairly expected, but leveling before half time and then snatching a late winner through Jimmy Bullard had us all excited, even though none of us suspected that would be the start of a run that would see us in the top four for a while and in a cup final by the end of the season.

Thoughts on Albion’s season so far?

I’ve not been paying attention to be honest (we’ve been doing a house up and I’m only just about managing time for Latics) and I was surprised to realise how far up the table you were after beating Southampton last week. You've obviously had some good results, and am guessing your reaping the rewards of keeping a stable bunch of lads together. I'm pleased for Steve Clarke, who's deserved his chance out of the shadows for a while now and might have you onto a really good thing by the end of the season, once you've recovered from defeat on Saturday, of course.

Albion player you admire?

I'm not so sure it applies so much today, but Zoltan Gera has been a player I'd have loved to see in Latics colours. There have been times where we've lacked someone with a spark of imagination who can pop up between the lines and chip in with the odd goal. We were linked with Gera a few years back and I think he could have done that job for us. Similar over recent times, I'd have also loved someone with Jonathon Greening's experience and level head.

These days, the likes of Morrison and Long have clearly got good futures in the game and are the sort of players you'd much rather see in your colours than the oppositions. Morrison in particular for making a complete chump of Garth Crooks when he tipped him for an England call up.

Premier League Champs?

It'll be the rich ones, or the richer ones. I find it harder each season to think about how things will pan out at the top of the league, partially because we'll never be part of that scene but mostly because it doesn't seem like real football anymore. Those four or five clubs who will be involved in that top group are probably more interested in the Champion’s League than they are in the Premier League and it's only right that we return the compliment.

Three teams for the drop?

At the moment you can't really look much further than Southampton, Reading and QPR, but I'm not going to say too much because we're far from not being involved in any battle that develops at the end of the season.

Prediction for Saturday’s game

I've gone for 2-1 Latics win in on forum prediction competition but that was just my gut when I put my entry in. I think we'll be in for a tight game, hopefully we'll see some good football from both sides and the best side will come out on top, unless that's West Brom then I hope we win it with an undeserved, crabby, last minute goal.

Have fun.

 

 

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