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Martinez has gathered a core of Spanish speaking players. The great danger now is that they too will seek new clubs.
Some may follow Martinez, some may look for a more familiar environment. As the pool gets smaller, Wigan will be less attractive to the remaining players.
Other players will be in demand too, and the club probably needs to reduce the wages bill. I don’t think we’ll recognise the team that walks out for the Community Shield.
There was a long injury list! I know Golobart was on the bench, but if he had been fit, I’m sure he would have started! There wasn’t any conspiracy – Caldwell played out of necessity.
It’s true – Martinez has never signed the best players. He has then put his modest players into teams playing against Manchester United and Chelsea. What did he think would happen?
In 11 years David Moyes never won away at Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United in his 44 attempts as Everton manager. In the last eight years, Wenger has not won a trophy at Arsenal. What made Martinez think he could succeed where they had failed?
I think it is true that Wigan did not have the resources to compete in both the cup and the league. Up to and including Everton, Martinez put out weakened teams – they might lose but would not be disgraced.
It would have been dispiriting to lose to Millwall at Wembley, though Martinez did play Al Habsi and Gomez and rest Robles and McArthur. Martinez then played his strongest available team in the final.
I don’t think Alcaraz was rested for the Swansea game. Caldwell played as the fittest of a long list of injured players.
Everton have reportedly spent a net £800,000 per season over the past five years.
That’s not very much! Moyes will certainly be more involved in the transfer market at Old Trafford.
Congratulations Ollie – you’ve done it again. Dougie Freedman didn’t fancy Palace’s chances, but you’ve taken them up.
Despite being Manager of the Month for April, Freedman couldn’t quite get Bolton into the top six.
Palace may well be favourites to come down. I think Bolton have a good chance of success next season. And Owen Coyle may take over at Wolves and change their fortunes.
The FA are only interested in money, fill up wembley etc..In my opinion if they want stupid play offs why not third bottom of premiertripe versus third top of championshite.
But of course that means less money for the FA
That seems a reasonable idea, and it has already been tried. The Football League arrange the play-offs, don’t they? I don’t think it would mean much less money for them.
The play-offs may not be fair, but they do maintain interest in the league – and maintain attendances for clubs – until the very end of the season. I think they have proved a great success.
I’m not sure that three up and three down improves the health of the Premier League. I agree that the teams coming up are not necessarily better than the teams they replace.
I’m not slating Martinez for fun, I’m just saying that he hasn’t delivered in the league as he said he would, knowing what his resources were and not having the combination to the war chestMartinez may have known what his resources were, but he couldn’t know how much rivals like Southampton, Newcastle and even QPR would have to spend.
You have to run to stand still in the Premier League.
Martinez couldn’t keep Wigan in the Premier League at the same time as winning the cup, but the margin of failure wasn’t very much.
Brendan Rogers has stepped up to a bigger club and I’m sure Martinez could do too.
let’s be honest we were very lucky to scrape through against Bournemouth & Macclesfield in the cupWe were unlucky to lose to Bradford, I thought. But I meant to add that we were very unlucky to scrape through against Bournemouth and Macclesfield.
That was where things started to go wrong for Martinez. And the towering victory at Everton was just as much a shock to Wigan as it was to Everton – thank you David Moyes and Phil Neville.
I can’t decide whether the season ended badly or well. We’ll certainly never have a season like it again. But I sense that a new era is about to start.
I agree with most of it, the bottom line is year on year failure in the league with his 3 year plan resulting in us being relegated, being on the edge of your opponents box and choosing to pass back to your keeper continually leaves me scratching my head & let’s be honest we were very lucky to scrape through against Bournemouth & Macclesfield in the cup, I do actually like Martinez but am yet to be convinced he’s destined to be a Mourinho .Martinez fielded a weakened team in every round of the cup until the final. He knew his resources were not sufficient to compete in both the Cup and the League.
He did his best to lose in the early rounds. I’ve said before that the winning goal at Bournemouth might be regarded as Boselli’s revenge. And nobody foresaw the stunning win at Everton, which established McManaman and Gomez in the first team.
Wigan have steadily improved under Martinez. But other teams have had far greater investment and have improved even more. Southampton were one of the biggest spending teams in Europe, spending £30 million on players last summer, while Newcastle bought six players in the January transfer window alone.
Wigan simply couldn’t compete with that, although they weren’t very far behind either team. They did finish well above QPR who spent heavily both before and during the season.
Martinez’ team ultimately suffered relegation. Do you think another manager could have done any better with the same resources?
Capital One Cup
Every Football League team, apart from FA Cup winners Wigan Athletic and Reading, will be in the first round draw, with the ties taking place the week commencing 5th August.
Round 2 ties take place the week commencing 26th August.
The trophy on the left is the old Football League First Division Trophy. Isn’t it now the Championship Trophy?
Like Tony Book, we could end up with all three.
I suppose the propect of getting something at Huddersfield is more attractive than losing 4-0 at Old Trafford.
However, I’m not expecting a stroll in the park. We don’t yet know our team or manager.
Look what happened last season. Wolves went down and Blackburn just escaped relegation. Bolton did better and finished just outside the top six.
What time does it kick-off?
The journeys via Manchester take much longer – so you need to set off much earlier. It will be hard to get there for a lunch time kick-off.
And the Wigan-Manchester trains don’t carry as many passengers as a Pendolino.
Attendances are bound to go down! And there aren’t many teams who will fill the away end either.
There are the local derbies – and several teams over the Pennines – to keep interest high.
And a top six place would bring some fans in. Would you rather win promotion outright or have yet another trip to Wembley?
