Odd random stuff | Page 12 | Vital Football

Odd random stuff

Given how the first season played out we would have been challenging for Europe if the Duke had stuck around IMO šŸ˜Ŗ



To be honest i was hell bent on getting back to the premiership. At the time of wanting to go, it was a good decision but by the time it came to actually leaving it was a bad move because Mowbray had transformed the team and was VERY GOOD. I SHOULD HAVE STAYED.Should have stayed
 
I suspect if you ask the Duke he would also agree. His agent ruined that lads career.

HE SAID ON TWITTER
To be honest, I was hell-bent on getting back to the premiership. At the time of wanting to go, it was a good decision but by the time it came to actually leaving it was a bad move because Mowbray had transformed the team and was VERY GOOD. I SHOULD HAVE STAYED, SHOULD HAVE STAYED !
 
HE SAID ON TWITTER
To be honest, I was hell-bent on getting back to the premiership. At the time of wanting to go, it was a good decision but by the time it came to actually leaving it was a bad move because Mowbray had transformed the team and was VERY GOOD. I SHOULD HAVE STAYED, SHOULD HAVE STAYED !
in the same set of twitter recollections (with Jason Roberts) The Duke also wrote about the reason why he left
 
in the same set of twitter recollections (with Jason Roberts) The Duke also wrote about the reason why he left

I saw a comment on why he left saying that it was Latics fault for breaking promises for 2 years - when I last saw he it he hadn't denied that he'd been asking for a new deal.
That kind of contradicted what he said at the time when he came out in the press to say the move wasn't about the money because the contract at Latics was worth more than what he'd accepted from West Brom. If I remember rightly at the time though Latics offer to him was all loaded up with appearance & goal bonuses whilst at West Brom he got a higher basic/guaranteed amount so Ellington may be trying to rewrite history a bit here.
Personally I thought it at the time & what happened afterwards backed it up, I think Latics were spot on if their deal to him was loaded towards bonuses rather than a big basic salary. To have handed out big basic contracts at that stage could have been financial suicide especially as the likes of Ellington were completely unproven at that level had things not worked out & this way it protected the club from that
I liked Nathan Ellington & he clearly had bags & bags of talent but if we're being honest his goals came in gluts & there were times when he went good stretches of games without scoring & where it looked like he couldn't hit a cow's behind with a banjo - he got dropped in the Championship promotion run in for poor form (I think its even commented on by Chris Kamara in the Reading game commentary) & I remember the year we went up from Lge1 people (some) people calling for him to be dropped when a bad run of form resulted in a stinker of a game from him away at Stockport. When that continued in to the next home game I witnessed a group nearly coming to blows on the bridge over the canal that started with a comment about how he should be dropped. To have given a big contract to such a player without big financial rewards for performance wouldn't have been sensible IMO (& I know I'm in a minority)
 
Sorry Moonay, can't read the article as the site wants me to open an account with them and the Telegraph is one newspaper I will not subscribe to. Any chance you could copy and paste the article to this thread?
 
Sorry Moonay, can't read the article as the site wants me to open an account with them and the Telegraph is one newspaper I will not subscribe to. Any chance you could copy and paste the article to this thread?
Sorry ....I can't see it myself now, for the same reason. Somehow though, earlier, it let me read it. Not sure how.
 
Apparently, (I think) you're allowed one free article a day ....... you should have been able to get rid of the ad for the subscription and still read it .......sadly, I now can't.
 
Right, in order to read the article (and to avoid future online tracking), you need to install the "DuckDuckGo" browsing extension.

It's here: https://duckduckgo.com/?natb=v300-2__&cp=atbhc

Then, when you load the article through the browser extension, you can read it without the subscription demand.

In the meantime, it's here:

The transformation of Wigan Athletic: How club bounced back from the brink to dream big again

Wiganā€™s resurgence in just seven months under new owners the Phoenix 2021 group has been little short of startling

For supporters who were unsure last year if they would still have a club left to follow, the idea of the chairman knocking unannounced on their doors for a cup of tea and a chinwag must feel rather surreal.
But Talal Al Hammadā€™s impromptu visits to the homes and businesses of Wigan Athletic fans have become one of his most enjoyable pastimes whenever he is in the country and, as an illustration of what the clubā€™s new Bahraini owners are all about, it is as instructive as it is uplifting.
Amy Forster, for example, got a surprise one day when Al Hammad popped into her confectionery shop 'The Sweet Life' after telling staff he was keen to meet the woman who provided the popular ā€œTic & Mixā€ sold in the club store.
Another trip, to thank 11-year-old Wigan fan Alfie Armstrong and his dad Lee for all the support they gave the club during administration and the pandemic, even made the local news. But Al Hammad - who fronts the club for the Bahraini businessman Abdulrahman Al-Jasmi - would prefer these things flew under the radar.
As one staffer put it, the new owners have consistently ā€œunder-promised and over-deliveredā€. ā€œThatā€™s Talalā€™s nature, thatā€™s a reflection of him as a character,ā€ Mal Brannigan, the Wigan chief executive, said. ā€œIt is real, it is genuine, it is something he wants to do, there isnā€™t any programme within it.ā€
Wiganā€™s transformation in just seven months under the Phoenix 2021 group has been little short of startling. A quality squad has been assembled, former favourites James McClean and Max Power have returned, talented staff recruited, creative thinking has taken hold, community ties deepened, fans from Ince to Idaho feel re-engaged and investment in and development of the academy prioritised.
Brannigan, an experienced football administrator and formerly managing director at Sheffield United and Dundee United, oversees day-to-day operations and works closely with the Bahrain-based Al Hammad, who communicates regularly with fans on social media and staff by phone.

Once again, the club is thriving on and off the pitch, flying high near the top of League One and dreaming of promotion back to the Championship under the watch of a bright, progressive, upwardly mobile young manager in Leam Richardson.
Wander around the gleaming DW Stadium these days and it smacks of an ambitious but family-friendly club back on the rise. Look at the responses from fans to Al Hammadā€™s tweets and pride and excitement about the future abounds.
Yet half an hour in Richardsonā€™s company offers a glimpse not only of Wiganā€™s brave new world but a chilling reminder of just how close a club that spent eight consecutive seasons in the Premier League and won the FA Cup in 2013 went to going out of business.
Richardson was there when the coronavirus pandemic first hit. He was there when Wiganā€™s previous owner, Au Yeung Wai Kayā€™s Next Leader Fund, plunged the club into administration just weeks after buying it from the Hong Kong-based International Entertainment Corporation in June last year. He was there when the club were deducted 12 points. He was there when 75 staff were axed.
He was there when the administrators, Begbies Traynor, began their fire sale of players. He was there when rising young stars Joe Gelhardt, Jensen Weir and Alfie Devine were sold. He was there when manager Paul Cook resigned and he was placed in temporary charge. He was there for relegation. Wigan were, as he frames it, a ā€œcrisis within a crisisā€.
As a snapshot of the chaos, Richardson cites Friday, August 29 2020 as a good example. ā€œWeā€™d lost our training ground that day and were told we had to be out of it in 24 hours so the few staff we had left were taking things off the wall, emptying the gym,ā€ Richardson, 41, recalled.
ā€œThe groundsman had a mate who had a container where we could store things. We were playing Bradford in a friendly the next day and a couple of lads left on transfers that afternoon. Then another couple came down injured. One of the staffā€™s parents sadly passed away that day, too.
ā€œYou look for leadership in those moments and either step forward or go down with the ship. I think that was the point where I felt Iā€™ve got to lead this - it was not a football club at that moment, it was a situation.
ā€œGenuinely, some days, I did feel like the chairman, physio, bus driver, coach, kitman all rolled into one. We had a mantra we stuck by all that season: ā€˜Do you think we can get through today?ā€™ We were still asking the same thing until the takeover the following March.ā€
 
.....and the rest of it .....


'We had to be reactive all the time'
The situation was so farcical that one player ended up saying his goodbyes to team-mates and staff at half-time of a game after informing Richardson an offer had been accepted for him and he was due in Manchester for a medical.
ā€œI remember ushering him out of the changing room as weā€™re trying to prepare for the second half,ā€ explained the former Blackburn, Bolton, Blackpool and Accrington Stanley defender.
It is little surprise that, as part of his Uefa Pro Licence, Richardson did a detailed presentation on what it is like to manage a club in administration, something he recalls no mention of on any of the myriad coaching courses he has done in the past.
Wigan were constantly on the back foot. One problem would be resolved but three more would rear their head. In the circumstances, it is remarkable Richardson was able to keep Wigan up last season, with survival guaranteed on the penultimate weekend.
He had managed Accrington through tough times eight years earlier and drew on that experience but this was another challenge altogether. ā€œI like structure, routine, being proactive,ā€ Richardson said. ā€œBut the hardest thing about being in administration is you had to be reactive all the time.ā€
Not any more he doesnā€™t. Perhaps Wiganā€™s outlook would be very different now had a Spanish takeover bid and the threat of 30 per cent pay cuts not collapsed at the turn of the year and paved the way for the Phoenix group to step in, but the new owners have not missed a beat.
Within weeks of the buy-out Richardson had been appointed permanent manager, finally ending Cookā€™s persistent attempts to entice his former No 2 with him to Ipswich Town, and the rebuilding plans were accelerated once League One status was preserved.
ā€œThe first time I sat down with Talal and Mal they said 'Weā€™re massive on the football team, the community and the academy and weā€™ll run them all simultaneously and give our energy and backing to each of them',ā€ Richardson said. ā€œ99.9 per cent of the things weā€™ve asked for weā€™ve been backed with.ā€
James Beattie, Rob Kelly and Darryl Flahavan joined Richardsonā€™s backroom team and together with Brannigan and newly appointed head of recruitment Gary Finley they set about creating a squad with one eye on promotion by targeting a series of high-quality free agents. Tom Naylor and Jack Whatmore arrived from Portsmouth, Power and Charlie Wyke from Sunderland, McClean and Jordan Cousins from Stoke and goalkeeper Ben Amos from Charlton.
Richardsonā€™s pitch to those players would include Powerpoint presentations detailing his exact plans and roles for them and, in the case of Power, a central midfielder by trade, that involved reinventing him as a right back - a switch that is paying off handsomely this season.
Power is not the only player whom Richardson has successfully remodelled. Will Keaneā€™s switch from centre-forward to No 10 was fundamental to Wigan staying up last season and the former Manchester United youngster has taken that excellent form into this campaign. At 28 he looks totally re-energised and refocused after a career blighted by horrendous luck with injuries.
ā€œWill is probably a case point where youā€™d say he found a home with us,ā€ Richardson said. ā€œI spent a lot of time sitting down with Will, discussing his qualities, where I felt his best actions were on a pitch and trying to get him in those positions more than not.
ā€œHeā€™s got to take massive credit for what heā€™s done. Heā€™s gone from signing a four-week contract initially with us to becoming a full international with Ireland in the space of 12 months.ā€
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Will Keane (right) has been called up by the Republic of Ireland CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
A run of six consecutive away wins and eight clean sheets in 16 matches have helped Wigan up to second in League One, with a game in hand on leaders Plymouth. Oxford are up next on Saturday.
ā€œDid we think weā€™d be second in November with the squad we were putting together? We thought weā€™d have a competitive team,ā€ Brannigan says. ā€œWeā€™re around the position weā€™d like to be at the end of the season but thereā€™s a long way to go.ā€
In their 2-0 win over Shrewsbury in the FA Trophy last Wednesday, Wigan started the game with seven academy graduates in the side, including James Carragher, son of the former Liverpool and England defender Jamie, and it is easy to understand the importance attached to it.
But for the success of the academy and the work done by Gregor Rioch, the son of former Arsenal and Bolton manager Bruce Rioch, and his team over the past eight years, it is uncertain Wigan would even be operating today - or not as we know it.
The sale of Gelhardt, Weir and Devine for combined fees of around Ā£2 million effectively guaranteed the clubā€™s immediate survival in the wake of administration, even if it must have been galling for Rioch to see such talents sold prematurely and on the cheap after such a bizarre and unnecessary move by the previous owners.
ā€œIt needs to be recognised that whatever value we got for those players that revenue made sure the football club had a future,ā€ Brannigan says. ā€œI think that has to be recognised as a positive - a slightly perverse positive - but nonetheless it ensured weā€™re sitting here and not talking about a very differently shaped Wigan Athletic.ā€
Weir is currently on loan at Cambridge from Brighton, Devine scored for Spurs in the FA Cup in January and Gelhardt is making a name for himself at Leeds. In a classy gesture that was warmly received, Marcelo Bielsa, the Leeds manager, telephoned Rioch last week to tell him that the praise coming the Yorkshire clubā€™s way over Gelhardt owed everything to the time and effort Wigan put into developing the England Under-20 forward.
Off the field, other plans are taking shape. Staff are being reemployed, either directly or through the clubā€™s partners. The naming rights to the stadium are expected to be reviewed in time.
A fansā€™ fund scheme has already attracted close to 1,000 supporters and, in return for a monthly subscription that gives them all sorts of exclusive benefits, they can choose where their money is invested: first team logistics, sports science or the academy. Around 70 per cent of those funds are currently being directed the way of the academy, which illustrates its significance in the eyes of supporters.
A specially designed banner carrying the names of 6,500 season ticket holders will be unveiled in the coming months on the south stand and the names of the fans' fund founders will also be splashed across next seasonā€™s third kit. Players have been holding Zoom calls with fans overseas, from New York and Idaho in America to Iceland, Sweden and Asia. Brannigan gave one fan from Arizona who spent his honeymoon in Wigan a special tour of the stadium.
Furthermore, around Ā£200,000 raised by fans as a ā€œsoft loanā€ to the administrators to help the club through its crisis last year has been returned to the official supportersā€™ club, with the money now being invested in youth employment and training schemes, a social inclusion initiative to help tackle loneliness and a series of grants for local grassroots football.

It is a football club, and fanbase, very much on the same page.
 
Didn't want to quote your large 2 posts there Moonay....excellent read that, the article just reminds us of how close we were to not having a club, where we are, how far we've come & how good a story it is....if only Netflix did documentaries on football clubs....'Phoenix from the flames'
Cheers Moonay for the excerpt šŸ‘šŸ‘šŸ‘šŸ‘
 
concerning football finances
The documentary on BBC iplayer about the revival of Macc Town is a bit of an eye opener.
As are the antics of Robbie Savage