Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man (part 1) - 'There are two things most Wigan Athletic fans SHOULD want in an owner...'

Martin Tarbuck:

How long must this go on? Is football about glory or pain? For those of us who invest our time and money in clicking through that turnstile or travelling the country, you could argue it is about lots of suffering, which is rewarded by the occasional glimpse of glory. We’ve had lots of glory over the past 20 years – much of it unexpected – but boy, is it payback time at the minute. It’s not that we are impatient. Most of us are asking ‘will this be the week?’ Not day, minute or second but we are now in the sixth month of administration, and still no closer to coming out of it. What we are closer to, sadly, is running out of money, and there needs to be progress, and quickly. With Christmas approaching, we can only hope those three wise men (sic) at Begbies are more ‘ho ho ho’ than ‘bah humbug’ and make a decision to accelerate rival offers, should the Spanish bid continue to falter.

So let’s talk about these bids then, on the assumption there are actually a plural amount of them. The latest news to break appears to be the main man behind the Spanish bid borrowing money to fund his buy-out of the club. This appears to substantiate the concerns raised by the EFL, who – shock, horror!! – it may appear are actually doing a thorough job!! That old Wigan gallows humour has meant we have joked throughout about how if we did get someone buying us, the EFL would probably do a ridiculously extensive review to punish us...and quelle surprise, that is exactly what is happening. Dare I say, they are not the bad guys in all this. As regardless of their failings in the past, they are only putting this bid under such scrutiny, to ensure we do not see a repeat of the nightmare we are still enduring. Some fans are still highly supportive of the Spanish bid, not because of who it is, but also because of who it isn’t (more on that later!). Also, they are the only people who have shown the good faith to stump up the deposit to buy us, so they deserve to see it through. For all the talk of their frugal approach, which is rumoured to be accelerating the departure of key staff...well, what if they are the only option? If it gets rubber-stamped, we can get on with the business of strengthening the team and moving up the table. If, for whatever reason, this bid is rejected, then I only hope other bidders are a) serious; and b) can be brought into play very quickly. If they’re not, and if they can’t be, then we are in deep trouble. I’m still working on the mantra that ‘this week will be a good week’, but it is turning into a very long wait for this to come to fruition. There is risk everywhere, and none of it is under our control.

Then there is the Plan B ‘fans bid’. Now I know just how hard everyone involved is working on this, so I am not about to dismiss it. But even they would concede it is an action of last resort. Much like, if the reputedly stingy Spanish do take over, it will be a threadbare side with little investment, and in all likelihood, as each week passes by, a return to League Two. Yet the key benefit of this proposal is we still have a football club. And in all our darkest moments, the longer this goes on, even that sometimes looks dubious. There is also the stadium issue to contemplate here, which continues to be the Grant Holt-sized elephant in the room. We’ve had lots of people and stakeholders painted as villains throughout this process: Begbies, the EFL, the Council et al. And maybe even the owner of a certain other sporting institution in the town has been painted unfairly for his role in the process. Setting that aside, have you ever heard of a successful outcome where the landlord becomes the tenant? Not likely is it? Still there’s always Robin Park if we get clod out. Except there’s not is there? Don’t get me started on that one! This is why people are nervous. A football club that doesn’t own its ground is often a recipe for disaster. See Coventry City and Stockport County for further evidence.

There are two things most Wigan Athletic fans SHOULD want in an owner, if we’re using Dave Whelan as a template – someone who knows football, and someone who is a Wiganer. It’s a sad state of affairs but, because of past history, many fans put more weight on the former than the latter. Dave Whelan is a football man and a Wiganer. If someone is a Wiganer, but a rugby man first and a football man second, it is probable they will put rugby before football. And that is why there is distrust, particularly around the supposed Tony Frampton bid. There is a long catalogue throughout history of RL people and the Wigan establishment treating the football club badly, before we even consider what the motives of their current incumbent might be. I am not so long in the tooth that I can’t get behind a ‘Sporting Wigan’ concept. But the discrimination Latics fans suffered for most of the ‘80s and ‘90s will not heal easily. That’s before we get to the thorny subject of the hundreds of rugby fans (Wiganers!) mocking our plight, and the thousands of them who support other, glory Premier League clubs, and whose lives would be made much easier if their home town football club simply disappeared – or was at least put back in its rightful place. They are not going to jump into bed with Latics because someone tells them to, no more so than thousands of Latics fans are suddenly going to don a cherry and white Ellgren jacket and start singing ‘Simply the Best’ on karaoke. For that reason, the Spanish bid needs to succeed or, if it fails, we can only hope the Ranson/Rowlands bid is genuine – and can move at pace to secure the future of the club. The other options – sad as it is for me to say it – will only increase resentment between the various factions in the town. Over to you yet again, EFL and Begbies!

Statto:

Great to see the young lads giving their all on the pitch. Just need a bit of luck to go our way, and the next win is not far off. Off the pitch, it’s groundhog day waiting for the EFL to make a decision on the Spanish bid. Away from that, it’s claimed a rival bid is backed by a multi-millionaire, and the Council has come out saying they are not holding up any bid. I don’t know what to believe these days. We are on life support while all around us are taking too much time to make decisions for which we desperately need answers. Stay Safe.

Andy Carey:

Another week with more points dropped and no further to knowing when the nightmare will be over. The results on the pitch are no real surprise given the squad we’ve been left with. I can’t claim to be in the email club of super fans but from what I have seen we can’t fault the effort. It was good to have Kal Naismith back at Lincoln. Oh what I’d give to have a squad full of Naismiths. It’ll be a tough trip to Sunderland on Saturday. If someone could capture Will Grigg from the bench, or at least have a word in his ear, please. But it’s all pipedreams while we don’t know who’s going to be paying the wages and bills. I think I’m just clinging to happier times. The longer this Spanish bid sits with the EFL, the more daft they’re going to look should it turn sour. I hope they are actually questioning legitimate things to safeguard the future of our club, and if they’re not in the best interests of Latics then reject their proposal and let us move on to those waiting. So with Christmas and a vaccine on the horizon let’s hope Santa brings us some points, new owners, immunity and a better 2021. Let’s face it...can it get any worse? I hope not.

Deb Chapman:

Another loss in midweek at Lincoln, but for me the lads are putting the effort in. It was great to see Kal Naismith back, but we still need reinforcements to help the cause. One crucial factor is having a new owner. The EFL are taking their time – quite rightly – but come on, this is taking the mickey now. Speaking to different people, and reading on social media, the Spanish are at the same time both good and bad. Time will tell whether they are accepted or rejected, and whether there will be enough time to accept someone else before the January window closes. Literally the clock is ticking. Again I will stay positive, and maybe this time next week we’ll have better news. Fingers crossed.

Sean Livesey:

You become numb to the defeats after a while. And when you’ve gone so long without anything positive, it’s no wonder really. What’s another defeat when you’ve already lost so much since July? And I’m not just talking about losing on the pitch. So while Latics once again lost out on the pitch at Lincoln on Tuesday, that’s not the most important battle at the moment. As with our fight to stay in the Championship last season, it’s secondary in the battle to save this wonderful football club that means so much to all of us. We are now nine weeks from the potential takeover being announced, and in that time the Spanish led consortium have so far failed to satisfy the EFL’s requests for information. Last week saw a lot of anger being directed at Wigan Council, a lot of that anger came from the rumours surrounding the lease on the ground. One of the things said to be holding up the deal was our new prospective owners had wanted to raise the level of rent paid by the Warriors. Though Wigan Council own the lease on the land on which the stadium sits, they don’t have the power to withhold a lease on those terms and, as stated by CEO Alison McKenzie-Folan, they wouldn’t interfere in something like that even if they could. So the hold up isn’t the council, and as such all eyes are back on the EFL. It’s also been revealed Leganes owner Felipe Moreno is amajor player in the consortium, along with Jose Miguel Garrido Cristo and his brother Antonio Garrido Papadopaulo. Interestingly enough – and you have to take most reports with a pinch of salt – Garrido Cristo himself is the issue, and has yet to pass EFL tests. Oh, and there are still question marks over the group’s funding. This is on the back of reports from the weekend revealing the man backing the Darren Royle/Ray Ranson bid is banker Jonathan Rowland. Only he came out and denied that. Although on Twitter he follows Latics – and no other football clubs. Make of that what you will. As always there’s more entertainment in Wigan than an episode of Coronation Street. The only thing being the storylines are far more outlandish than anything Corrie could ever come up with.

While the drama rages on, there is a football club on life support - a football club that has been systematically torn apart over the last five tortuous months. On the pitch we are simply a shell – a hard-earned draw against Bristol Rovers and a battling display at Lincoln are simply the best we can hope for currently. Unless there is real movement off the pitch soon – be that with the Spanish finally being passed or administrators ending exclusivity and moving on to another bidder – there may not be a Wigan Athletic left come January. That is the very real threat we face. The Spanish consortium seem to have good intentions, on the face of it their bid sounds reasonable and sensible, and indeed they are so far the only party to actually put money down to save the club. But if their bid has failed to satisfy the EFL after more than two months, we simply have to move on. We can’t criticise the EFL for not doing their checks properly over IEC, Choi, Au Yeung and NLF – and then ask them to wave through the Spanish without satisfying the same checks. If we end up back in administration because this group can’t fund us, it could kill the club off this time. I had warmed towards theSpanish in recent weeks, and Felipe Moreno has a strong reputation at Leganes. But if the group as a whole can’t get over the line, the admins simply have to move on and entertain another bid. There is too much riding on this – and we’ve wasted too much time already.

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