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People demand that there’s more communication from the club. So today the new Chief Executive put a short video out, talking about a planned fans forum amongst other things.
The response? Largely ridicule and criticism. Absolutely uncalled for. The club just cannot win. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. The man has an unenviable task of trying to improve the clubs revenues. The biggest way is obviously bums on seats, but thats easier said than done unless we improve ON the field. He is obviously keen to market the club more. The response from those who ridiculed was a disgrace, to be quite honest. Some people just need to actually do-one and stick to watching the Scouse and Manc clubs in the pubs. Their vitriol is causing more harm than good.
I am one hundred million percent p***ed off with a lot of our so-called fan base. I don’t comment on Twitter, but I read it. The abuse, a lot of it made as personal as possible of late to Mike Danson and Lucas Danson, and the overall administration of the club, is disgraceful.
Who is doing it? Well, that’s another thing. I am actually sure that a lot of it is coming from Bolton fans pretending to be Wigan. Why? Well I dug into one of the main perpetrators comments and one of their oldest mentioned ‘BWFC’ in it. I am also sure that these so called ‘fan groups’ are also made up by Bolton fans. Going on about throwing tennis balls on the pitch in protest, its exactly what they did when they wanted the Andersons out.
I am not saying our fanbase is innocent. We actually have a massively entitled fanbase. A lot of the younger end of the fanbase is too used to having it good. The older-end of our fanbase is a lot fewer, sadly, than it was but will remember the Kenyon days, the Freddy Pye days, the campaign to save the club in 1983 when it nearly folded, the early 90s struggles before Mr Whelan arrived. Yes, they’ve seen the administration in 2020 and the Bahrain fiasco. But largely theyve had it good and the club going well.
“DANSON OUT!” They cry. Not all, but a lot.
Oh really? The man who actually SAVED us from folding and ceasing to exist? The single reason we are managing to exist whilst losing 7 million a year?
So, what if he read all the vitriol and thought ‘I don’t need this’, and walked out of the club? We would be absolutely in shit Street, Arizona. We would likely last weeks, at most. Imagine he did and the Supporters Club took over the running. Where would they find 7 million pounds to cover the years loss? Nowhere. We would fold. Simple as that. There are some great people involved with the WASC, people who live and bleed the club. But they haven’t got 7 million pounds a year.
Unless some miraculous buyer with a ton of money and ambition turns up, Mike Danson is the best owner we could have.
That isn’t to say I am entirely happy with everything. I don’t like how we have sold several millions of pounds worth of players, and reinvested barely nothing into the squad. I genuinely believe that if we sold 7 million pounds worth, 3.5 million should’ve been banked, and 3.5 million should’ve been given to Gary Caldwell for signings. I’ve never ever thought we have invested enough money after selling players. It caught up with us in the Premier League, and it will catch up with us in League One, if we aren’t careful. There is no value left in the squad as it stands, no assets of note, and I find that very concerning. Considering that whatever our position is come the summer, half the squad will be going again, back to their parent clubs. So once again it will be another big rebuild. We are just going round in circles, really. Getting weaker and weaker as a team, and as a club each season. Something has to give and WILL give.
The only way Wigan Athletic will have a long term future is if someone comes in and buys us with some ambition. But failing that, Mike Danson is our best, and only way. Without him, we will fold. Would people try and save the club? No doubt there would be a lot said. We would likely have 3 or 4 different fan groups pop up. There would be fallouts galore, but nothing concrete would happen. We wouldn’t come back from it.
I do think we can only ‘tick along’ like we are for a certain amount of time, and I think Mike Danson will likely have a deadline in mind where he says enough is enough. He cannot fund us running at a loss like we are forever. Any business person with a business like that would pull the shutters down eventually.
So I cannot see any long term future for us as we currently are. But if Mike Danson walked away tomorrow, I cannot see even a short term future. We are, caught between a rock and a hard place, so to speak. Between the Devil, and the deep blue sea. But thats the reality of our situation. Some of our ‘lot’ need to realise that they really need to be careful what they actually wish for.
First of all let’s forget the Bolton fans I have no interest what that lot have to say, bunch of sad bastards!
I get were you’re coming from VAT but don’t you think the clubs hierarchy have brought this on themselves? Can we trust them?
Over the past 3 years we have had very little to no communication from the owner his son or any of the top brass apart from the odd statement from Sarah Guilfoyle even then we were spun yarns and lies aka bullshit, the fans aren’t has thick and gullible as the hierarchy think they are (some are) we have heard empty promises, such as Championship football even the Prem, it went public that the Tickle money would be reinvested to strengthen the squad only for them to back track on that promise.
I saw the short clip you refer to with the new fella, I just shook my head and deleted it, the guy is just a Danson puppet only last week he went public to say he “believes we are going in the right direction and intend to build on that” I bet he felt a right tit after the 4-0 tonking on Saturday, would you call losing 4 out 5 games and bottom of League 1 “going in the right direction”?
What is Dansons motive with wanting to hold on to the stadium, no one in their right mind would but this club in it’s present state especially with no stadium, we have no appeal left it’s all been stripped away, how much longer are we going to bang on about “how Danson saved us?” Yes he did but at present it feels like the admin days all over again.
The fans have had enough we need truthful answers and clarity to what the future holds for Wigan Athletic.
Fuck the EFL
‘Can we trust them?’ You ask.
At the moment, we have no choice. I know what you mean though. They came in and threw out comments about us ‘getting back to the Premier League’ and things like that. It laid down a yardstick that we are a million miles away from. That was naivety.
They put forward a model of a club that would develop our own players and sell for a profit, and to fund the club’s progress. Lang, Hughes, Asgaard, Tickle, Bettoni all sold on their watch. Any young talent we had, gone. Any asset of any value, gone. And they’ve been replaced by loan signings and freebies. The conveyor belt of producing young players to fund self-renumeration, has stopped. I’ve no doubt that if K’marni Miller gets a place in the side, and plays 10 or 15 decent games for us, he will also be sold as soon as clubs come sniffing.
What does this all show? It shows an ownership who are not experienced in running a football club. Totally stripping assets, which is what it is. And what happens come the summer, regardless of what division we are in? The loan players will all go back to their clubs and we will be down to 10 contracted players again. Going round in circles and just getting gradually worse. Like spinning round in a whirlpool, struggling to stay afloat. We all know what happens eventually.
How complicit is Gary Caldwell in this? I am not sure. I know I couldn’t work like he is doing. Ryan Lowe got dogs abuse, but he was clearly being held back from doing the job he wanted to do. No backing. Why the fuck do you buy a club and then not ‘have a go’? (The stadium?)
I find it very concerning that we cannot even move for free transfer players. Theres cutting your cloth accordingly, and there’s strangling yourselves. If things are really so tight, I cannot see any future for this club. If things dont change, I will certainly NOT renew in the summer. I know Ive said that lots of times, but this time is different. Since the season started, my head and mental health feels battered. I go the match for enjoyment, pleasure, a release. I’m getting none of that. It’s negativity, stress, worry, people ar-jarring with each other.
Honestly, I can’t be arsed anymore. Whilst I’ve posted what I have above, I DO fully understand people’s frustrations and anger. I actually contacted the club 2 weeks ago and basically offered to work for ‘next to nothing’ for the club, working on supporter relations and helping the link between supporters and the club. I put forward some very good ideas for improving things. I was told to ‘eff off’ in not so many words. They’re reading the room very wrongly. Their idea all the time is a ‘fans forum’, where questions are heavily screened and sanitized. Its aimed at appeasing the gullible. And that will only happen if we win a couple of games so they can accentuate positives. If we don’t win a couple of games, it won’t happen. And if it does happen, I think thats maybe the time where people speak up and do some kind of protest.
Me and the lad have our season tickets. Unfortunately. We’ve been milked for the last time and I bet many others feel the same. We have also said that from now on if we go 2 down, we get up and walk out, whether we’ve played 10 minutes or 70 minutes. What we are having put before us on the pitch, its an insult. It’s an insult to Arthur Horrocks, Jack Farrimond, Ian McNeill, Larry Lloyd, Bryan Hamilton, Ray Mathias, Paul Jewell, Roberto Martinez, Paul Cook, Leam Richardson. It’s an even bigger insult to Mr Whelan. All that hard work is being ripped apart and will fall by tbe wayside.
As things stand, I will be amazed if we are still existing in 2 years time. This lot aren’t going to keep on funding us and covering costs like they are. And I can’t see anybody buying us. It’s grim. Absolutely grim.
I’ve found a link that may interest some of you lads, ask questions to the new CEO, TROUBLE IS YOU ONLY HAVE UNTIL 10.30 am TOMORROW to submit your question.
Make them difficult fellas.
https://wiganathletic.com/news/2026/september/10/ask-your-questions-to-ceo-anthony-cole-johnson/
Fuck the EFL
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