What a strange seven days MK II.
The departure of Shaun Maloney was always going to be a shock to the system, a surprise departure at a time of the season when Latics fans probably least expected it.
I’ll be honest after the side seemed to stabilise under Glenn Whelan I suspected that the club would just go with Whelan for the rest of the season.
Especially with there being absolutely zero rumours to the contrary or indeed any sort of whisper of a new manager arriving.
So imagine my surprise as out of nowhere the original favourite Ryan Lowe and indeed the manager who seemed the best fit was named as our new head coach.
Is that the first time we’ve had a head coach in Wigan?
I suspect it is.
Lowe arrives on a three and a half year contract, it’s clearly a statement of ambition from the club. A feeling that we haven’t had for a while.
Fair play to the club for firstly moving quickly and secondly for going for a manager (or head coach) who’s got a successful EFL track record.
I still think Maloney was treated poorly by the club but Shaun Maloney would be the first to say ‘that’s football’.
We move on and as mentioned last week Maloney has left a club in rude health financially after two and half years of system shocks.
This should hopefully give Lowe the platform to progress the club, it also shows ambition from Wigan Athletic which is the most important part of this.
To attract someone of Lowe’s stature means (you would think) that promises have been made about resources. Which also plays in to the fact that what the club and Maloney were preaching was that money would be available from next season.
A quick scan of Lowe’s record shows why he immediately became favourite. Two promotions to League Two with Bury and Plymouth Argyle before a move to Deepdale and three impressive Championship finishes with Preston.
A lot of Preston fans seemingly were happy to see the back of Lowe last season, not being a Preston fan I can’t claim to know the reasons for that but for us it’s a clean slate.
Due to the work of Maloney and latterly Whelan it means that Latics are nearly there for safety this season, two more wins should see us safe.
Which you would expect we can get now, that means that the new man will have a good chance to look at what he’s going to have for next season and what he needs to bring in.
If he’s backed by the ownership that should make for an exciting summer.
We’ve a long way to go yet before the club is back to any sort of the level it was before but the future is certainly looking promising.
Sean Livesey
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