Hold your head high

I’ve seen some appalling decisions in my 30 odd years watching this football club but the events of the last few days must surely rank up there.

Let’s start with Saturday, it was a disappointing match no doubt about it.

Even after going ahead we didn’t necessarily look comfortable and then the substitutions which were meant to firm up the side and protect the lead did the complete opposite.

We know how the story ends and once again it was a case of Latics Jekyll and Hyde season striking once more. One step forward, two steps back. It’s been the tale of the season. But and it’s a big but we’re still more likely to finish the season in mid table obscurity than bottom four oblivion.

There weren’t many boos walking off at full time, just more resignation or rather acceptance of our position. Is it good enough? No of course it’s not. Is it a symptom of where we are as a football club and the continuous hits we’ve experienced since July 2020? Yes of course it is.

But Sunday’s news came like a bolt out of the blue, even those that had decided it was time for a change I imagine wasn’t expecting the change to be made on Sunday.

A day before a relegation six pointer at Mansfield and six days before an even bigger relegation six pointer at home to a rejuvenated Cambridge United. Then the WhatsApp groups fired in to life, and a reaction from even those who I mentioned above that had decided a new manager was needed was more ‘what?’ than ‘great’.

Let’s go even further back the previous week had seen an impressive Latics take two away points from both Crawley and Wycombe. Crawley should have been a procession with the amount of chances created and the fact that we hit the post and also had two goals ruled off-side, whilst the point at Adams Park was one of the most impressive of the season.

Maloney’s team followed that up with arguably the performance of the season against Huddersfield with new signings; Shaun Maloney’s new signings being central to that performance. Yes it wasn’t followed up against Reading and that’s obviously a concern but how can that be the straw that broke the camels back.

Let’s move away from this season and look back at Shaun Maloney’s overall time in charge of Latics and it’s not hard to feel a huge amount of sympathy. Maloney arrived at the back end of the Bahraini experiment, probably at the time when lies were beginning to be told on a near daily basis.

Coming in after the clown show that was Kolo Toure’s tenure Maloney immediately made us harder to beat and started grinding out results. Three draws sandwiched in between a win over fellow relegation threatened Huddersfield saw us begin to climb away from the relegation zone.

It would be the actions of Talal and co that would plunge us straight back in there.

More wins followed over QPR, Stoke and Millwall but it would prove too much as the penultimate game against Reading saw us come away with a point that wasn’t enough to stave off relegation from the Championship. Indeed the further points deductions from the EFL would have seen us relegated regardless of what Maloney had achieved.

The club came perilously close to disappearing for the second time in just over two years as the Bahraini financial tap was turned off and it was the work of Shaun Maloney alongside Gregor Rioch that helped to keep us alive.

I don’t need to repeat what has been said many times in these pages about Maloney’s efforts to keep us alive during that dark few months but it’s on public record about Maloney’s efforts to save us and I don’t think it’s dramatic to say that Maloney could have expected more loyalty and indeed respect over the last week in recognition for those efforts.

Last season despite seeing a number of senior professionals depart in the summer and an 8 point deduction being levelled against the club before the start of the season was a success.

A 12^th placed finish, inside the top half of the table and one that would have seen us in touching distance of the play-offs without that deduction was a hugely impressive return for a side full of free transfers, academy graduates, youth loans and a sprinkling of senior pros.

This season hasn’t followed that path, recruitment has been severely lacking and hampered a big part of this season.

How much of that can be laid at Maloney’s door is up for debate but the continued austerity lite that we’re experiencing at Wigan Athletic would make it difficult for any manager. But even with all of that and the senior pros departing the club which has made our efforts a lot more difficult this year there have been bits of light.

Little bits of progress to point to and generally a feeling that although we aren’t going up this year, we’re certainly not going down and a recognition that we had strengthened after January and that many of these lads will form the basis of a stronger side next year.

All of that goes out of the window with Sunday’s events and it’s simply now a case of doing enough to get over the line.

Many presumed me included that a new manager must have already been lined up with the eagerness with which the club pulled the trigger on Sunday but as the week has gone on it seems that no target is lined up. Instead Latics pointing to a robust list of candidates (05/03/25 and interviews to be held next week.

Why then, it begs the question have we dispensed with Maloney now? A loyal club man who has clearly put his heart and soul in to the job over the last two and a bit years, probably to the detriment of his own wellbeing.

This week sees Latics face two six pointers, one against Mansfield next to us in the table and the second against a rejuvenated Cambridge at the bottom of the table. We faced the first challenge last night and it wasn’t a great performance by any stretch but Glenn Whelan’s side defended well to take a point back to Lancashire.

Whelan made it clear just how shocked he, and his now players were over Maloney’s sacking and that they were all in contact with the gaffer and they had one aim last night to go out and do it for the manager. Is this really the basis for sacking someone, especially with all that person had sacrificed and the conditions worked under?

Maloney could have walked at any point in the last 25 months and walked in to a more stable footballing environment but he stuck around to help us and for that we should be entirely grateful. I find it terribly sad that the club have made this call now, time will tell whether it’s the right choice but Maloney should have been allowed to finish what he’d started and we’re in danger of stumbling in to a relegation battle we’ve never really been in danger of being involved in.

Those players many of which will have only experienced Shaun Maloney as a manager, they may have struggled this season – at times quite a lot.

They would run through walls for him and you only have to watch back the videos from Bristol, Bolton, Stevenage and last week against Huddersfield to see how much they thought of him in return. Although it’s not a stretch to begin to question whether Maloney was the man to take us forward but he should have been given till the end of the season.

Glenn Whelan and Graham Barrow have a serious job on their hands getting those players off the floor for the next match. Let’s hope that they manage it otherwise that six point buffer between us and the relegation places could quickly evaporate.

I hope the Wigan Athletic board realise what they’re doing. Shaun Maloney deserves every compliment he’ll receive for his time at Wigan Athletic.

Without him there is a real chance we would cease to exist and for that we should be eternally grateful – that’s without mentioning his time as a player and the myriad of highlights over the last couple of years.

Cheers Shaun!

Sean Livesey

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