Wigan’s Unlikely Football Love Affair
In a series of M62 lying towns dominated by rugby league, it can be difficult for football to get a look in. The recent successes of Huddersfield Town and Wigan Athletic in the art of playing with a round ball are a far cry from, say, Wakefield: whose team sadly folded in 2014. Indeed, Wigan’s rise is was thanks in no small part to local business tycoon Dave Whelan. His takeover of the club in 1995 would be the catalyst for their rise through the divisions, peaking with their 2013 FA Cup victory.
The Latics had spent their early years wading through the murky depths of the Lancashire Combination and the Northern Premier League, before promotion by vote - beating Southport 29 to 20 on a revote - saw them elevated into the Fourth Division, what we now know as League Two. The NPL at that time contained the glamorous likes of Goole Town, Runcorn and Lancaster City.
After a few years of amiably hovering in the bottom two tiers of the Football League, 1995 saw the promise of Premier League football arrived in the form of Dave Whelan. It’s an aim that’s often seen being banded around by new owners of lower league sides. Notts County and Peterborough spring to mind as examples of clubs in recent years that have slapped down a ‘five year plan’, culminating in gracing the glimmering golden halls of the Premier League. Less commonly though, Whelan’s vision of top flight grandeur was one that actually paid off.
The club Wigan Athletic, however, has faced various adversities in it’s rise, not least the battle against the town’s allegiance to rugby. Wigan is most widely known as a rugby town. It’s team, Wigan Warriors, are one of the biggest rugby league sides in the country. You’re unlikely to find them outside the top four playoff spots in the Super League.
Consequently, attendances have been a consistent struggle for Athletic. A victory over Gillingham in 2003 that saw them take top spot in Division One (the Championship) drew a poultry 6,000 fans. The club also came in for repeated ridicule due to empty seats during their time in the Premier League. Slap bang in between Liverpool and Manchester, neighbouring Bolton and just a few miles south of Preston, it is a town of rich rugby league history surrounded by areas etched into the tapestry of English football. Attracting fans was always going to be a tough ask.
Players, too, have proved tricky lure to the North West town. While Whelan’s cash reserves proved ample in powering the club through the Football League (as well as constructing a £30 million stadium), players proved difficult to attract to a perceived unattractive destination for footballers. The 2001 £1.2 million signing of Nathan Ellington while the club were in Division Two (League One) was a lucrative one but in Premier League terms, such an amount of money is small fry.
In 2009, then manager Steve Bruce lamented the difficulty in signing English players for Wigan. His solution came in an unlikely form: Central America. Bruce’s relationship with Honduran Wilson Palacios paved the way for an unlikely connection between Athletic and the area. Fellow countryman Maynor Figueroa followed leading to further notable signings from the area including Ecuadorian Antonio Valencia, and Colombian Hugo Rodallega. Of the starting back four in the Latics' FA Cup final victory in 2013, three hailed from Central America including captain and Barbados international Emmerson Boyce (born in England but qualified through his parents). It was a surprising connection that proved to be vital in extending Wigan’s stay in the Premier League.
The duel effect of a lack of glitzy attraction to footballers and the town being so rugby-centric has meant that Athletic have needed to reach out further to acquire talent, something that has been done remarkably well. A long list of players that have gone on to bigger clubs include Wilson Palacios, Leighton Baines, Antonio Valencia, Pascal Chimbonda, Charles N’Zogbia and Victor Moses. Of those players, only one - Leighton Baines - came through the ranks at Wigan. The Latics have had to be creative in their acquisition of players, a challenge they most certainly rose to.
While 2013 was a year of a triumph with the FA Cup victory, it was also a year of disappointment as Wigan Athletic were relegated from the Premier League. They struggled in the Championship and after a brief dalliance in League One last season, they are back in the country’s second tier. It feels like a comfortable spot for the club to be occupying after blitzing their way to the League One title. The future is looking bright too, with academy graduate Callum Lang making a name for himself as the joint highest scoring teenager in the Football League last season with Morecambe in League Two. He returns to the league on loan again, this time with Oldham, after rumours circulated over summer about a move to Everton.
In amongst the struggles of competing in a historical rugby town as well as being bogged down in M62 lorry jams, there is a thriving football club. Wigan Athletic can hold their hides up high as a solid Championship side after their romantic (and remarkably lengthy) Premier League fairy tale, amply supplemented by a gleaming FA Cup trophy.
(Photo: Sports Mole)