We or rather the collective we, IE me – said that last week something had to change.
Well we’ve now reached the point where that change required is immediate.
Wigan Athletic need a change of management with urgency or for the first time in over thirty years Wigan Athletic could find themselves in the bottom division of the football league.
How have we got to this point?
There are clearly deep-rooted issues at the club, I feel more sanguine about these than others may do. It’s only three years since we were unable to pay wages on time and the club was facing extinction.
It takes time to recover from something like that, especially when two years prior to that we were still in the previous fight for our existence.
The club of Dave Whelan, David Sharpe and Jonathan Jackson is no more – it was hollowed out and everything built up under nearly 20 years of the Whelan family’s ownership disappeared.
Expecting us to be a fighting force in English football again immediately after that is sadly a pipe dream.
Some of the lowest crowds in the EFL along with lower income generated compared to other clubs of a similar size means that there was always going to be a recalibration of what Wigan Athletic are and should be.
We’re not the club we were four years ago, let alone ten years ago.
But this?
We should be doing far better than this.
There seems to be a misconception that Wigan Athletic under Mike Danson hasn’t spent any money.
It’s a false narrative, the money isn’t what it may have been under Dave Whelan, the disastrous IEC or the comical Phoenix 21 but it’s a budget that should be seeing us doing far more than we are.
Many sides outperforming us on a weekly basis will have budgets inferior to what our manager – sorry Head Coach have been given this season.
Should it guarantee promotion?
No of course not.
Should it be enough to keep us away from the relegation zone?
Of course it should.
The fact that we’re facing relegation in the face with the players on our books and with the budget available for the playing squad is a shameful indictment of our progress or rather our regression under Ryan Lowe.
Since August we’ve collected a meagre 19 points from a possible 57 on offer.
Four wins since August.
Four.
Shaun Maloney was sacked for far less last year and that’s the crux of it. Shaun Maloney worked under budget restrictions far more limiting than Lowe’s and got better results.
He was sacked for an apparent lack of excitement and with our Director of Football telling all and sundry at the subsequent fans forum that supporters were staying away
(as if Wiganer’s ever needed an excuse not to go)
well I dread to think what those stay away fans think of Lowe’s year in charge as under every possible metric it is worse than what we had before.
These players know how to play, that has been shown in glimpses throughout the season.
None more so than against Preston and in the last 30 minutes against Doncaster where it felt like the head coaches’ instructions were ignored by the team who took it upon themselves to play.
There is a decreasing window of opportunity where a change can be made.
The club and the board need to admit the mistakes made last March in relieving Shaun Maloney of his duties and work out how best to preserve this club’s League One status.
We have had many near-death experiences in recent years but at least under the likes of Paul Cook, Leam Richardson and Shaun Maloney there was a fight present.
We may not have been the best side in the division during those times, but you always knew they would leave everything on the pitch for the badge.
That is one factor that has been sorely missing for the last twelve months.
For us to return to anything like that a change is required.
That change needs to come now before it’s too late.
Gregor, Sarah, Lucas and Brenda. Swallow your pride and relieve Ryan Lowe of his duties. Nothing less will do now.
Sean Livesey
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