TyldesleyLatic

“It was only after the season started that he realised that the promise shown from Koumas, Cho, King, Cattermole, de Ridder, Kapo, Bouaouzan, Edman and Watson in preseason was to completely let him down once the season was underway by the players not being able to cope with his system or decided at the last minute that they wanted away”

IMO if it took him until after the season started to find out that Koumas, Cho, King, De Ridder, Kapo, Bouaouzan & Watson weren’t good enough then you’d have to question his judgement.
Hell even they guy that bought 5 of them realised they weren’t good enough & didn’t play them regularly (if at all) whilst the previous 2 had barely had a sniff under the previous 2 managers.
Surely the fact that they could hardly scrape together a handful of starts between them would indicate to even the most naive of people that they weren’t good enough.
To re-inforce that, its hardly as if our pre-season performances set the world alight is it? So to say he only found out after the season started is, again, for me making weak excuses

“Roberto’s transfer signings have been poor I agree, he should have bought Terry for £30m, Gerrard for £40m, Rooney for £50m and Messi for £100m and put them all on £300k a week

Instead he has spent very little on players unproven at this level and gambled on cheap foreign imports.

Anyone would think that he can’t afford to go out and spend £100m on a top class squad.”

What a, quite frankly, pathetic, childish response – with the exception of the middle paragraph
I don’t claim he’s got an unlimited pot to spend but the original poster can’t claim that our current manager has been left with a load of dross he can’t shift (when most of it has been shifted) or indeed use the word dross to condemn the previous managers signings when the current manager’s signings are as bad – and in some cases worse

Neither, to be frank, does a lack of funding excuse our managers insistance on a style of play & formation unsuitable to the players we have nor his poor use of substiutions or his, at times, baffling team selections

I think many appreciate the financial constraints Bobby works under. Some also understand that its needed to prevent us “doing a Leeds” whilst others just accuse Whelan of being tight.
I like to think i fall into the first camp
But, financial constraints didn’t force Bobby to change a winning starting XI for Saturday’s game. They don’t explain how he’s taken one of the best back 4’s outside of the top 6 & turned it into the worst in the division within 4 months. They don’t explain his persistance with a formation & tactic that by & large doesn’t suit the personnel at the club. They don’t explain a whoel ruck of things that have been wrong with what I’ve seen this season. What explains that is bad management (IMO)

Apologies if I interpreted yours & StandishWalker’s comments in the wrong way but in the context of the thread they came over to me very much like (without directly saying it) “stop whinging at least we’re not in the mess Leeds United are in” which to me is irrelevant
We’re not Leeds United. I couldn’t care less about them – I care (as everybody on here does) about seeing Wigan Athletic do as well as possible and, financial constraints or not, I don’t think our current manager is allowing us to do that – as did Hindley Blue before he got stick for saying so

Havign watched Kirkland at latics for the last 4 seasons he seems to be someone who needs to be well coached in order to enable him to improve the aspects of his game that he isn’t naturally strong on

I remember in Jewell’s later days & under Hutchings brief reign there were many on Latics message boards saying he wasn’t much kop & needed to be dropped in favour of Pollitt. I didn’t particularly agree with it but could see where they were coming from.
When Bruce arrived & brought in Nigel Spink, the improvement in his game was immediate & marked & that level of performance was (IMO) maintained. There were many (including me) who voted for him in the player of the season awards last season.
This season his form seems to have dipped a bit although (IMO) nowhere near to the extent that some are coming out with on here & his lack of communication & fear of coming for crosses seems to have returned
Can it be coincidental that this has coincided with a change of manager & goal keeping coach???

Chester were wound up coz they owed the tax man just over £26,000.

The telling comment from the administrator came when he was asked why these 85 people had been targeted when (considering the lower salaries they were on) it is unlikely to make a significant dent in Pompey’s debt levels & he replied “I can’t because they are so well protected by the deals struck by the PFA” or words to that effect.
He then seemed to add as an after thought “And I wouldn’t have wanted to anyway”

That said however, if you are trying to sell a football club as a going concern you are hardly going to make redundant the very people who are the main focus of that club i.e. the players.

You would have hoped that more than 1 or 2 would have offered to take a pay cut but you can’t exactly blame them for not doing so. Its not their fault that they were offered contracts with money that didn’t exist

It was the most positive I have felt after a Latics game all season.
I thought Caldwell set the tone in the first minute when he clattered Torres with a tackle
That said they weathered a bit of early pressure for 15 minutes & you could see em grow in confidence after their first decent attacking move. From then on I thought they looked comfortable & the goal had been coming for a good while
What impressed me most about last night was the way the midfield didn’t let them settle & never gave them the time & space to spray passes about as they have done so often this season. I’d been hoping to see Diame & McCarthy together in the middle & I thought it worked far better than Thomas & Diame.
Thought Moreno led the line well & chased down everything unlike his previous outing up front on his todd. Was a bit bemused when Bobby took him off & moved a guy up front on his own who he has stated can’t play there & I do think we suffered a bit attacking wise after that until Scotland came on but by then the players well & truly had the bit between their teeth & weren’t gonna let that lead slip
A word to Caldwell who i thought led the line superbly. He’s no Bobby Moore but he knows what he can do & does it well

All that said, one swallow doesn’t make a summer & we’ve been here before. The real acid test for Bobby & the players is to carry on last night’s great work into the rest of the season coz an insipid performance against a Bolton side with improving confidence will mean last night’s hard work will have been wasted

Just to add as well that I can’t make it to many games any more & had the unfortunate experience of watching last night’s game on ESPN. Dunno who the commentator was but the pundit alongside him was Joe Royle & in the 1st half alone they’d mentioned poor crowds 3 times, rugby town twice & some gash about that even being with cheap ticket prices.
All the way through they were patronising in the extreme coming out with comments like “Who’d ever thought you’d see a Colombian & a Honduran playing for Wigan?” “Multi-national Wigan” (like Liverpool aren’t) & that getting beat by Wigan is “even more embarrassing” than losing to Portsmouth
I can usually let $h!t like that slide, and whether it was coz it was coming out of the mouth of Royle who used to come out with similar stuff when he was in chareg of City against us I don’t know, but it was really feckin me off last night.
Guess that’s what I get for not going to many games any more!!!