Latics fan and 12th Man columnist Sam Whyte gives us his take on the current proceedings down at the DW:
October 2001, Wigan Athletic were underperforming and not winning games under relatively new manager Paul Jewell. This resulted in Dave Whelan making his way into the dressing room and gave the manager his backing in front of the whole squad.
Sound familiar?
Yes, 13 years later, Uwe Rösler’s side are also suffering from the same problems, and Whelan has again made his way down from his Chairman’s suite at the DW Stadium to back the manager that turned a club around in the space of 6 months.
We all know the end result of Whelan’s backing of Paul Jewell all those years ago, but the Wigan Athletic fans are still on the fence, or in some cases on the wrong side, on whether Uwe can turn this around.
So I’m going to write down my thoughts on why I still believe he is the man to take this club forward, despite the struggles we are currently undertaking.
Rösler has already accumulated more than 50 games as Wigan Athletic manager despite only being in the hot seat for less than a 12 months, due to a superb FA Cup run defeating three Premier League sides along the way that include the Premier League champions.
On top of the FA Cup run, he took a side languishing in the bottom half of the table and pushed them into the playoff positions come May in a season that topped 60+ games, only to eventually lose out in extra time to eventual winners QPR. However, this season, we have flattered to deceive in the majority, a polar opposite to 6 months earlier.
So with that in mind, and being the geek that I am, I decided to compare Rösler’s stats with a few of his predecessors over the years and to be honest, I found this interesting reading.
| Manager | Games in charge | Games won | Games drawn | Games lost | Win percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uwe Rosler | 50 | 21 | 13 | 16 | 42% |
| Owen Coyle | 23 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 30% |
| Roberto Martinez | 175 | 51 | 47 | 77 | 29% |
| Steve Bruce | 76 | 23 | 17 | 28 | 34% |
| Paul Jewell | 291 | 127 | 74 | 90 | 43% |
Of course, you have to take into account the different divisions we have been in under different managers, but Rösler’s record holds its own alongside the others.
A win percentage of 42% is a half decent return in my opinion, especially considering the player turnover that he has had to oversee. He’s lost the quality of the likes of Jordi Gomez, Jean Beausejour and James McArthur, and had to find adequate replacements whilst still maintaining this club’s future isn’t in jeopardy.
He also had to take over a club whose squad was lacking fitness, and to introduce his system that includes high pressure took some bottle but manage to pull it off superbly by taking a club languishing in the lower reaches of the Championship and push them into the promotion picture.
So despite all of this, why am I writing a piece defending a man that has achieved so much already in his tenure at our club?
Just when it looked like we were starting to get back into the swing of things with hard fought draws against Forest and Wolves, two teams that have hit the ground running, we turn in a performance against Brentford that just lacked any real quality.
The above sentence, even writing that, is a strange comment to make considering the talent I believe we have in our squad.
But for some strange reason, in my opinion, we took on a Brentford side and treated them like they were Chelsea containing Fabregas, Hazard and Costa. We sat back and tried to contain them then tried to surprise them on the counter in the main.
Why?
It’s so frustrating to watch because we’ve seen briefly this season that we’ve the ability to steamroll teams, just ask Birmingham City. The only positive from today that I can muster is we didn’t lose, in which I think we would have earlier on this season.
We are so negative for a team that possess so much talent, and that’s the main thing with me. I was very happy with the attacking team he put out at the weekend, but yet we still seemed to be the team playing away from home.
As for the rotation policy he operates, I’m not a fan of it. There’s no need so early in the season to be making 4/5 changes every week, even if we have a big squad to deal with. If we stick to a consistent side with the 1 or 2 changes that may be enforced or simply just to freshen things up I think we’d find much improved performances.
All of the above makes me believe he has yet to find his best 11, and that is something we need to find and quickly. That’s why I’m more inclined to give Uwe more time, because with the right team and system we could be unstoppable, but he needs to find it quickly.
Further to this, Wigan fans have moaned about the money we have spent over the summer, and that means we should be expecting more, and they would be right, we should be in the upper reaches of this league.
But I have looked into this further, as people have been claiming we should be walking this league, which is something I disagree with compared to other teams.
During the summer of 2014, Wigan Athletic are believed to have spent a total of £8.5 million whilst recuperating £7.7 million in return thanks to James McArthur, which maintains the need to sell to spend for a club of our size.
I compared this to some of the teams that have been in the Premier League such as us in recent years, along with teams that I believe to be of similar quality. These numbers are round figures due to not known exact figures but used various credible internet sources.
| Team | Spent | Sold |
|---|---|---|
| Norwich City | £18 million | £17 million |
| Nottingham Forest | £10 million | 0 |
| Fulham FC | £16 million | £14 million |
| Cardiff City | £14 million | £24 million |
All of these clubs that have been relegated have also had to sell to spend just like us, but are able to spend on a much bigger scale, such as Fulham on Ross McCormack. We are expected to compete with these kind of teams, but on a budget that is considerably less and although the best buys are sometimes the bargains, nobody can doubt the quality these sides in question have recruited.
I think the point I’m trying to make is for maybe a bit of perspective, and I may get criticised for that, as some teams have better resources than we do but there’s no doubting this team has its problems.
However, I still maintain that this team under Uwe Rösler will come good, but for some that may not come quick enough.
The next few games could be make or break for Rösler, and it’s imperative performances improve, I’ll be the first to admit that.
But a manager that has victories at places such as Manchester City on his CV must have something about him.
I’m not a massive fan of sacking manager’s every 12 months, even if things are going slightly pear shaped, as it starts to build a culture or ‘norm’ of ‘ah well, we’ll just get someone else’ when sometimes stability is sometimes the more logical option.
The problem I have with this sacking culture football has adopted these days is managers are gone before they are even allowed to try and get themselves out of the problem they find themselves in. A good example of this is West Ham United, who were sat rock bottom of the table and staring right at relegation.
The board came out and said they were sticking with Sam Allardyce despite the bad performances and low and behold, they are safe come May and now are sat in the top 4 of the Premier League.
More often than not, you’ll find stability brings results, but managers are not given enough time to do that.
Dave Whelan rarely ever gets managerial appointments wrong, and I believe that this one is still the right one. Stick by the lads and our manager and I think we’ll turn this around.
Keep the faith, people.
Sam Whyte
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