EPL Talk » Wigan Athletic

Two Wins In A Calendar Year Isn’t Mischief Making

Paul Bestall — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:02:10 +0000

Hull City Chairman Paul Duffen has ridden to the defence of his beleaguered, battered and bruised manager after another capitulation on Saturday saw Hull brushed aside 6-1 at Anfield. 7 games into the season and Hull City have just 4 points, with a solitary win against Bolton and a point gained away at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Since the turn of the year, Hull have now played 24 Premiership games, winning just two, and losing 17.

Now that’s not relegation form, that’s dead and buried form. 11 points from a possible 72 is an astounding return and one that beggars belief. Already this season they’ve conceded more than 4 goals in three different matches and that for me sets alarm bells ringing. I’m completely at a loss as to how Brown can address this dreadful run of form. It’s not the worst Premiership record, as recent history will testify with Derby County’s year of hell probably cemented in the record books for some time to come, but surely someone at Hull City must be worried.

Now, I’m still surprised as to how far Phil Browns star has faded since the Tigers burst on to the Premiership scene last year. People seem to be enjoying Hull getting mauled every week so they get to see Browns saddened face after every match. I’m not one of them, I actually really feel for Brown and the Hull fans. When you’re facing what appears such an insurmountable task, even little hiccups seem like mountains in the black light of football induced depression.

It makes you face every game with a level of pessimism that even the Grim Reaper may think a tad depressing. Going to a match begins to resemble spending two hours on death row, where even the prospect of contracting the black death seems preferable to watching your team get stuffed once again.

Fair play to Hull City’s chairman, he stopped short of giving the dreaded vote of confidence, but even Brown must realise something has to give eventually. I’m certainly not advocating any manager getting sacked, especially one that has taken a club to a level they have never been to before but sometimes you have to hold your hands up, say enough is enough and walk away. The chairman’s statement included one of those comments were you think Hmmmmm.

“Only a few points separate us from the middle of the league, and I am really pleased with the signs I see developing in the squad” Now it’s easy to be churlish about a Chairman when he comes out with a statement like that. Is it damage limitation? Is it spin? Is it delusion? Or is it a manager receiving a level of support that should be applauded.Duffen knows that Hull City are in the Premiership more or less due to Brown’s skills as a manager.

All the additional revenue, coverage and publicity is down to a manager taking an unfancied team in to the Premiership. Moments like this don’t come around very often and after 104 years of trying, you tend to give the man who got you there a little more support than perhaps other club chairman may do. Bigger clubs than Hull City have treated better managers worse than the support Phil Brown is currently getting.

Hull are about to embark on a run of six games that will show everyone exactly where Hull City are in the scheme of things. A run of 4 home games against Wigan Athletic, Portsmouth, Stoke City and West Ham United book ending away games at Fulham and Burnley will offer us an exact dissection of Hull City in the scheme of things. Once that run is over, things may look a whole lot rosier than they currently do at the K.C. Stadium. I just hope Phil Brown doesn’t get the karaoke machine out!

Ancelotti’s Honesty Is So Refreshing

Paul Bestall — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:57:55 +0000

Well, I had to check a couple of times that I’d read the paper right on Sunday morning such was the surprise that I viewed Carlo Ancelotti’s comments about Chelsea’s shock defeat at the D.W Stadium. Perhaps it was the shock at playing at one of the worst named grounds in England, but either way it was so refreshing to hear one of the big four managers actually not try and wash over the event.

There is one thing that incenses me when I listen to post match comments and that’s when a manager blames everyone else but themselves for a defeat. The prime example of this idiotic line of defensive commentary is Neil Warnock. I have never, ever heard him in a post match interview admit his side were beaten by a better team. Never. In nearly twenty years of listening to him whine, he has never lost a game to a better team.

He whined at Notts County, he whined at Huddersfield Town, at Oldham, at Plymouth and it was everyone else’s fault at Sheffield United. It was always the referee, or the opposition cheated or anything but face the fact that he’d got it wrong. Again, time after time and it became simply pathetic.The main reason Sheffield United were relegated was that the manager bought badly, played too defensively away from home and paid the price. Of course West Ham United cheated, but if he’d got anything about him, United wouldn’ t have been in that position.

Ferguson last season after Liverpool had absolutely ripped Manchester United to pieces at Old Trafford with a 4-1 win was in danger of being sectioned after his summary. “I thought the best team lost” he countered. Really? Honestly? Seriously? Liverpool absolutely tonked United that day, no question about it. To say anything else simply made Ferguson seem silly.

So thank you Carlo Ancelotti for coming out and saying it like it is. Wigan were immense on Saturday, they really were and Chelsea were completely out of sorts all match. It was like a performance under Phil Scolari rather than the exuberant style of play Ancelotti has managed to stamp on Chelsea so soon in his managerial career at Stamford Bridge. I doubt however that Chelsea fans need worry about a return to those days. It was simply a bad day at the office. Nothing more, nothing less and the manager recognised it as such.

By stating he didn’t know what had gone wrong, he showed a new side to the fans. He picked the best team, gave them the tactics and they couldn’t put it in to place. It happens. Of course the sending off didn’t help, even though I thought it was a little harsh, but it certainly was a penalty. He didn’t even dispute that decision. Astounding. Football managers do not do this kind of thing, but I wished more of them did. It gives them kudos for being honest rather than the usual defending terrible displays with criticism of the officials. It makes them seem more real, more unbiased and more like the viewer.

Sometimes post match comments are so insipid, so bland that it makes you want to throw something at the screen. The banality of some footballers and managers post match comment could put an insomniac to sleep. One former Premiership manager’s inability to talk without using the word yerknow every four words simply made him sound dreadful, but I doubt anyone will give him another chance for quite a while.

Ancelotti really has impressed me since he arrived at Stamford Bridge and Saturdays humble and erudite summary of the game coupled with his honesty makes me appreciate him even more. I won’t hold my breath for the others to follow suit though but more’s the shame because of it. It really makes a refreshing change and shows they are human after all.

Can Wigan Afford To Lose Steve Bruce?

Paul Bestall — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:35:32 +0000

When I heard that Steve Bruce was being lined up as the replacement for Ricky Sbragia, a few alarm bells rang in my head. Bruce, being a Newcastle United fan surely couldn’t be Ellis Short and Niall Quinn’s choice as the new Sunderland manager could he? Would Bruce seriously consider near enough ruling himself out of becoming Newcastle manager in the near future by taking the job? How much would Wigan want for a man they paid £3 million for?

Yet, amazingly, it seems as if Bruce has said yes to becoming the new manager at the Stadium of Light after an all day meeting in the Algarve. Short has made no secret of his plans to pump money into Sunderland and Bruce has seemed frustrated in the last few weeks with his sides perceived lack of effort once they’d passed the magic 40 point mark in the Premiership. After the defeat to Stoke City on May 18th, Bruce let go with his frustrations about his players lack of effort and the fact that what could have been.

Losing 3 top players in the last transfer window didn’t help and with rumours flying around about the future of Antonio Valencia, Bruce may have thought he’d had enough of life in Wigan in his second spell with the Latics. There’s no doubt that Bruce is keen to push himself with the challenge of a bigger club, and looking at his career, Sunderland will be the biggest position he’s held since being the manager of Sheffield United. He’s got an ambitious chairman, a squad of underperforming players but the additional carrot of plenty of money to spend in the summer.

Bruce is attempting to follow in the footsteps of a Sunderland legend with his affection towards Newcastle United. Bob Stokoe, the Black Cats manager between 1972 and 1976, is feted by the Mackems for the 1973 FA Cup win and winning promotion to the old First Division in 1976. If he can impose himself early on at Sunderland, it may end up being the most successful spell that Sunderland fans have had in a long time, Peter Reid’s reign excepted.

For the Wigan Athletic Chairman, Dave Whelan, now it looks as if Bruce on the way to Sunderland, needs to avoid the mistake he made once Paul Jewell resigned. By allowing Chris Hutchings to take over as manager, it almost cost the Latics their Premiership status, until Bruce rode to the rescue. Ordinarily, you’d say the obvious choice would be Roberto Martinez, currently winning plaudits with Swansea City and the expansive way they play football.

As the club that fetched Martinez to England originally as one of the “Three Amigos” in 1995, Wigan obviously are close to his heart. The news that Celtic have made an approach for Martinez will have depressed the usually irrepressible Dave Whelan who would have had the Spaniard at the top of his wish list. Martinez may yet turn the opportunity down, but Celtic is a massive job, with European football every season added to the continual battle with Rangers to win trophies. Is it too big a job to turn down, regardless of his emotional attachment to Wigan Athletic?

Whelan needs to make sure the mistakes of 2007 are not repeated but to lose such an excellent manager and potentially his readymade replacement is dreadful luck. His next managerial appointment will be the most important decision that Whelan will make this year. He has to get it right, but he needs a proven Premiership manager or the rising star of the Championship. Candidates like that aren’t exactly are growing on trees and Whelan needs to give the Latics fans reasons for optimism this summer.

Sunderland’s Defeat Sets Up Sensational Sunday Showdown

Paul Bestall — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:52:07 +0000

All they needed was a win to make sure they were free of being dragged in to the final day relegation battle against a side guaranteed Premiership Football for next season but Portsmouth proved a bridge too far for Sunderland. They will now go in to Sunday’s final round of matches knowing whatever happens they have to match Newcastle United and Hull City’s results come 6pm to have any chance of survival. It sets up a tremendous day that gives us a parallel with the final day of the 2006-2007 season when Shefffield United, West Ham United or Wigan Athletic were set to be relegated depending on the results.

Thankfully as far as I’m aware we won’t be having any legal challenges after the final whistle this season but I won’t be counting my chickens just yet. Whilst we will miss anything like the titanic clash between Sheffield United and Wigan on the final day, we know now that 3 matches will have a direct effect on the Premiership relegation issues. Someone will go down to join West Bromwich and Middlesbrough, unless Middlesbrough put 4 past West Ham at Upton Park and Hull and Newcastle United lose.

The interesting thing here now is that we could face the fact that the powers that be will be now be faced with showing 3 games simultaneously as events unfold in Hull, Birmingham and Sunderland. God knows what they’ll do if Middlesbough do go 2 goals up against the Hammers.

The permutations that could effect the final day seem to be most I’ve seen since the Premiership started back in 1992 and I can’t honestly say who will stay up. I’m going to try and work out who needs what for Sunday.

So Middlesbrough will survive if Hull and Newcastle lose and they win as well as making up the 4 goals they need on Hull City.

Newcastle will stay up if they win or draw and Hull City lose.If Hull draw, they need to win.

Hull will stay up if they match Newcastle and Middlesbrough’s results, regardless of the score.

Sunderland will stay up if they match Newcastle and Hull’s result.They will be relegated if they lose or draw and Newcastle United and Hull City win.

Ok, so have we got that then? Form wise it’s hard to separate the 4 teams above West Bromich either.Based on the each of the 4 sides last ten games, it’s tough to see any of them winning on the final day, but ironically, Sunderland and Middlesbrough’s only win in the last ten was against Hull City. Newcastle’s only win in the last ten games was against Middlesbrough and Hull’s only win was away at Fulham.

Newcastle United Last 10. W1 D3 L6 F 7 A15 7 Points
Middlesbrough Last 10. W1 D3 L6 F7 A19 7 Points
Hull City Last 10. W1 D2 L7 F5 A13 6 Points
Sunderland Last 10. W1 D2 L7 F4 A 16 6 Points

Going on that form you’d have to say that it wouldn’t beyond the realms of imagination to see all 4 sides lose on the final day and stay exactly where they are. Whilst I doubt that scenario could happen, days like this are what keeps us coming back for more. I wish the fans of all 4 sides the very best of luck and may the best, or least worse side stay up.

Keep your radio’s at your ears, get the mobile phone fully juiced and make sure if you’re at the game you’ve a reliable friend sat at home who can tell you exactly what’s happening at any ground at any given time.For the rest of us lucky enough not to be involved, I just hope we have a cracking day and we’ll see exactly who will be playing Premiership football next season at 6pm Sunday.

Wigan Pass On Amr Zaki

Ethan Armstrong — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:16:05 +0000

I admit it. I was fully dazzled by Amr Zaki when he first came to play in England. The stunning goals came so quickly. And they were gorgeous. Wigan Athletic’s unknown striker just needed half a second on the ball to make miracles happen and it seemed like the goals were going to stream from his thirsty feet all season.

In late September Wigan manager Steve Bruce couldn’t bubble forth enough shining praise of Amr Zaki. Awesome. Fantastic. A real future. Fan favourite. Power. Pace. Gives everything he’s got. At the time Zaki was top scorer in the Premier League and there was no sign of the unprofessionalism that would vex Bruce and Wigan later in the season. “I can’t question his attitude,” said Bruce in admiration.

Zaki was one of the most exciting players to come out of last summer’s transfer window. Loaned from Egypt’s El Zamalek for the season, Zaki’s influence was immediate and exceptional. By the end of September, Zaki had scored six goals in eight appearances, helping the Lactics secure three league wins, two draws and a cup win against Notts County. Wigan’s quick eight points put them 10th in the table. A great start for a club that sat just four points from safety at the end of last season.

The inevitable question arose: Could Zaki continue this amazing form throughout the long season? But no one thought to ask: Would Zaki continue showing up to practice throughout the long season?

In April, reports surfaced that Bruce fined Zaki for failing to return on time after international duty. This was the fourth incident of Zaki absenteeism. Bruce said Zaki had already been fined “considerably more than the average person in Britain earns in a year.”

His unprofessionalism has seen him fail to meet anything close to the potential he showed early on. He’s been a player with a foot out the door since midyear, and while Steve Bruce may have been cursing himself in the early winter for not buying Zaki outright, he is now ready to help the 26-year-old pack his bags.

Bruce complained Zaki has been distracted by supposed interest from other clubs like Real Madrid. This was the cause in the change in the player. Wigan was just to small for him. He was ready to move on.

But shouldn’t this interest have sparked Zaki’s form rather than cause him to switch it off? Shouldn’t the prospect of playing for a larger club have been a call for Zaki to step up the professionalism rather than abandon it?

His agent claims that Zaki has offers from four other Premier League clubs, so maybe the mid-season sulking hasn’t jeapordized his ambitions. But the sad display should be a warning to prospective clubs.

Any club that goes for him risks all the primadonna baggage that he can bring. If he goes to a bigger club, what happens when he’s benched for the star strikers already there? He’s not going to start over proven talents like Torres, Anelka, or Rooney. If he goes to a top four club, he’ll have to compete for spots with established strikers who have been plying their trade successfully for the best teams in England. If Zaki’s late season antics are an indicator, I can see him reacting childishly to any significant amount of time spent on the bench. Remember Craig Bellamy at Liverpool? The pouting. The dirty looks when subbed off. I don’t see Zaki breaking out the golf clubs, but the point is professionalism. It’s one thing to be a proven goalscorer. It’s another thing to be a part of a team. Zaki doesn’t seem to have that second, all-important part down.

If he doesn’t grow up, he’s not going to make it at a bigger club. There’s no room for such childishness at the top.