I just hope it settles down as quickly as possible.
Get Whelan out of the limelight (easier said than done) because his comments will cause more debate.

The most important thing now is the relationship between our new manager, the coaching staff and players. If they are working together there is a good chance our results will improve.

I also don’t see it making a difference.

If a friend of mine used the alleged terms in front of me then they wouldn’t be my friend any longer. That’s just based on my own ethics and choice who I surround myself with.
However if it was a work colleague or customer for example, then I could and would still have a professional relationship with them.

I have little interest in the personal life or private conversations of potential Latics staff.
Getting the right person for the job is most important.

Really? Didn’t we have to pay Swansea compensation?

You rarely sack a manager without having someone, or a few, sounded out.[/quote]

The recruitment of the manager was easy. Martinez was Whelan’s No1 choice and he quickly knew that Martinez wanted to come. As Martinez said at the time “Wigan was the only club he would leave Swansea for”
The compensation was for the two clubs to negotiate, but the end result was inevitable once Martinez told Swansea he wanted to leave.[/quote]

“Wigan was the only club he would leave Swansea for” was a nice sound bite from Martinez and questionable if he really meant it but what was the difference between the recruitment of say Bruce (second time around) and Rosler for example?[/quote]

You are focusing on the process between clubs, but I’m takling about selection of the person.
Bruce had already been here once and both parties already knew each other.
Again, we had to pay Birmingham for him, but they were a club just about to be takenover by Carsten Yeung. It was easy recruitment because both parties knew eachother and Bruce he had an uncertain future at his current club. Probably a marriage of convenience like it was first time.

I may be wrong but here is my personal opinion on the Coyle and Rosler appointments.
Coyle – The club had people interested because we had just won the FA Cup and had 8 years in the Prem. Coyle probably interviewed very well and said the right things. That’s just an opinion based on how I’ve seen him in the media. But my point is that the previous managers I quoted had a connection with Whelan or the club. The club wasn’t experienced at recruiting somebody at Championship level or above from the “market”, so made a bad judgement with Coyle.

After the Coyle experience, Latics management probably gathered more external references about Rosler, as any company recruiting externally for a senior leadership position should do.

Coyle was a bad fit and Rosler seemed like a better fit, but may not have been the best leader of people (but it is hard to say from the outside)

It wouldn’t surprise me if Whelan, Jackson etc recruit somebody they already know this time, because the risk of the person not fitting into the club culture could result in another relegation.

Let’s see

Jewell, Hutchings, Bruce & Martinez. There was not too much recruitment involved in these and yes, Hutchings was a failure.
Coyle & Rosler were managers we went out to get.

Either we have somebody with a connection to Whelan or the club lined up or the decision makers will need to have learnt the lessons when trying to recruit from the market.

I think you and everyone else here has said/thought this (or something similar) over the past few months and it could be a solution. What I think he should do is off-load/loan some of his players to other clubs; this would ensure that they get playing time and keep their edge and fitness, but more importantly it will reduce the pool in which he has to select from therefore forcing him to keep a more settled starting 11.

Is his problem keeping his entire squad match fit by giving them playing minutes or that he wants to try and please all of them all of the time? Whatever it is he needs to sort it out and sort it soon.[/quote]

I agree with you, we have too many players to choose from and 18 good ones would be far better than 30 mediocre ones.
As for loaning a load out, on current form who the hell would want to loan them other than League Two or Conference teams.[/quote]

Our development side beat Bolton 1-0 this week. Latics line-up included mostly youngsters, while more than half of Bolton’s team had 1st team experience.
I hope that bodes well for the future, but where are all the players who weren’t playing against Bolton last Friday? It is International break and no game for 2 week. If we aren’t keeping those players match fit we may as well throw the youngsters in.

In the first half there were big gaps between our midfield and defenders, which gave Bolton too much space. I can understand the logic of Kvist coming on to offer some protection but it should have been at half-time.
It was a nothing substitute at 3-0 down.

Their 1st choice keeper is injured and the back-up is an 18 year old.
He will play, apart from against us.