2. “I can categorically say that there will be no players moving in this transfer window” Then what happened, Palacios and Heskey walked.
3. “In 3 years i want us to be challenging for Europe” Then when he realised it’s much easier and financially rewarding to survive every year just he now says “Well we just want to avoid relegation really” Yeah, really going to get the fans pouring in that one Dave.
1 – Dave Whelan backed Paul Jewell with big money to make transfer bids & salary offers for Michael Owen & Scott Parker. Both bids were accepted but knocked back by the players who preferred to go elsewhere. Now you can argue whether these were publicity stunts on Whelan’s behalf or not but the fact of the matter is that official bids were put in. You even acknowledge yourself that it is unlikely that the club could have spent big that summer no matter what they tried what with the club being “certs to go down”. If I recall correctly Paul Jewell himself said that the club tried everything it could to get star signings like the above but that they just couldn’t spend it. The subsequent “disappearance” of this fabled “war chest” is more likely to do with the financial realities of Wigan Athletic being in the top flight than it has to do with a certain chairman taking the pish out of the fans & pocketing the dough
2 – I don’t recall Whelan saying that about players being sold in the transfer window. not saying it didn’t happen just that that isn’t how i recall events. What I can recall is Steve Bruce saying that the club would be mad to sell its star players in the January transfer window when challenging for Europe & that he would rather Heskey leave for nowt in the summer having helped Latic achieve that position than cashing in on him now & weakening the squad. I then recall that the next day Whelan very publicly slapped his manager down & stated that all our players were available if the club’s valuation was met & that if Heskey indicated that he wouldn’t sign a new deal in the summer then he would be sold as latics could not risk losing him for nothing. Now I will argue till my dying day that the club could & should have held on to its players until the end of the season & still feel what happened in January 2009 was a real kick in the guts but I don’t remember Whelan ever saying in the run up to that month that no-one would be sold in teh transfer window
3 – Whelan did state about us challenging for Europe but I’m pretty certain that when he said it he was expecting 25,000 crowds every week all paying the £35+ that the club tried to charge in its 2nd season up. Not to mention the increased advertising & corporate revenue that would come with those crowds. I’m sure that the stated change in aim by January 2009 to “staying up” has more to do (as with my point 1 above) the financial realities of Latics being in the top flighth whilst seeing crowds slip season upon season, ticket prices remaining pretty static & advertising & corporate revenue nowhere near what the club was anticipating. Now he could splash money out hand over fist to try & achieve that original aim but it would be risking the long term future of Wigan Athletic
Don’t get me wrong its depressing knowing that every season Latics remain in this division is more than likely to be a long hard slog to avoid the drop but a) I don’t want to see my team fail at anything so if this is what is needed to avoid that failure then that’s the way it is & b) I would rather have a struggling Wigan Athletic to support than no Wigan Athletic at all
You use an example in your post of West Brom progressing but they are notoriously cautious with their cash & their chairman has been slated for it as they’ve bobbed up & down from premier league to championship for the last 8 or 9 years. They did relatively well last year coz that chairman bit the bullet when he didn’t think Di Matteo had what it took to keep the club up & had the perfect man lined up as a replacement. They made a big money signing this summer but the fee involved was only marginally more than Whelan has authorised for Boselli as little as a year or so ago
Just out of interest as well, as I’m not that up on Wigan Warriors, but how did Dave Whelan screw them in relation to Central Park as you intimate on the thread you posted on Monday at 11pm?
