They say hindsight is a wonderful thing, if only we all knew last December what the coming year would bring.
Sat here, on the 31st December 2020, looking back over the past 12 months is a little surreal, to say the least.
The start of the year heralded, as always optimism and hope, the Latics recorded their first away win of the season, they were playing well, despite not getting results, but a 2-3 win at Birmingham on New Years Day was seen as a turning point. On a personal note I was feeling fit, healthy and looking forward to a good year.
As we moved through January and into February results for the Latics began to pick up, February brought three excellent results away at Leeds, Reading and West Brom, we began to climb the table and edge our way out of trouble.
February also brought some other news that was to have a profound effect not only on the season, the club but all our lives too.
There was a new virus sweeping its way across Europe from out of China, television news bulletins, especially Sky News broadcasting from the Lombardy region of Northern Italy painted a frightening picture of what was sure to come our way.
Whilst our attention was diverted to this emerging ‘pandemic’ another piece of news slipped through the net, Stanley Choi wanted to take Wigan Athletic off the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Choi was preparing to ‘buy off’ the IEC consortium, where he was the majority shareholder, with his newly formed Next Leader Fund, he also had an investor lined up, a certain Au Yeung Wai Kay.
March came, Luton held us to a goalless draw at the DW Stadium, then that was it, the virus had hit the UK, the population was placed into a lockdown and football suspended.
Summer had come early, April and May brought beautiful weather, despite there being no football, no shops open and lots of people laid off work, the majority of the country appeared to be coping with what was essentially a new way of life.
The news came that football, for the Latics, would return in June, but played behind closed doors, the 2019/20 season would finish before the end of July and the plan was for it all to start again early September, maybe even with spectators allowed back into grounds.
June was a very good month, but there was a twist.
Three games, three wins, no goals conceded, the final game of the month was a three nil demolition of Stoke that guaranteed Championship football for the coming season, we were playing fantastic football, a joy to watch, the future looked oh so bright.
Going back to February and the emergence of the Next Leader Fund, Stanley Choi was 51% majority share holder of this group, with Au Yeung 49%, somehow the newly formed group took control of Wigan Athletic in early June, no fanfare, just slipped in through the backdoor, most Latics fans were unaware of this and possibly no one outside of the Latics family were remotely aware.
Au Yeung then proceeds to buy out Choi and takes sole ownership of Wigan Athletic on 24th June, surprisingly his representatives had approached Begbies Traynor on 23rd June, yes the day before, asking them to liquidate the club, before he had officially become the owner.
To go over the next couple of months in detail is really too painful, administration was announced on 1st July, the day after the Stoke win, a stunned fan base waking up to the devastating news that came like a bolt out of the blue.
The first casualties were 75 staff members who were made redundant, our three brightest youth players were sold to get the club through July and a Crowdfunder was set up by the Supporters Club with a truly amazing response.
In the mean time the first team managed to finish the season, demolishing Hull 8:0 along the way, despite having enough points to finish the campaign off in 13th spot in the Championship, EFL rules dictate that any club going into administration during a season will have 12 points deducted, that was enough to relegate us by one point.
August saw manager Paul Cook leave, more backroom staff and 17 players go through the doors, some of those players went for ridiculously low fees, the administrators claiming they weren’t conducting a ‘Fire Sale’ but it really did feel like one.
Latics in League 1, just five members of the first team squad remained, no one stepping forward at this time to buy the club, the admins selling off everything and anything that wasn’t and in some cases was nailed down.
Our ‘Jewel in the Crown’, the Euxton training facility, was flogged off for the paltry sum of £1.2m to Preston North End.
The football restarted in September, with the first team made up of youngsters and just a handful of senior pros it was little surprise that we have struggled in the early games. John Sheridan was brought in as manager, why? He left after just 8 weeks.
We did have some good news in September, the administrators had agreed a deal with a Spanish consortium to buy the club, it went to the EFL for approval, it was rejected, re-jigged, resubmitted, it’s been going on for 13 weeks now.
Despite all the doom and gloom that has surrounded the club over the past six months, in typical Wigan Athletic fashion we have come out fighting, the Crowdfunder had an amazing result, raising almost £1 million from the fans, this money is there, it could still be required to save the club, hopefully we will have new owners and the cash won’t be needed, but if the worst comes then the safety net is there.
The team, under the guidance of Leam Richardson, Gregor Rioch and the other remaining coaches has started to gel, bar a blip against Rochdale, the performances since Sheridan left, have vastly improved and now we are beginning to see the results coming our way too, the last game away at Burton was full of grit and spirit, going behind three times away from home and still winning the game, shows the character of the players and team as a whole.
In Kyle Joseph we have a youngster of real quality, it hasn’t taken him long to make his mark since gaining his first team debut and his hat-trick at Burton was an absolute joy. Thelo Aasgaard, Ollie Crankshaw, Chris Merrie and Adam Long have also shown what they are about, both Tom Pearce and Will Keane have proved to be quality and very good players at this level, they have given us hope and something that we can build upon going forward.
What a year this has been, on top of everything I have also caught and thankfully recovered from the covid virus, broken my foot and gained half a stone, well that was over the past ten days or so.
Will 2021 be any better? Surely it can’t be any worse, my New Year resolution is to stay positive and fight any way I can for a good outcome for the Latics and hopefully get Begbies Traynor out of our club as soon as possible.
Happy New Year everyone, up the tics and let’s stick together.
