.....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.
āI remember ushering him out of the changing room as weāre 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. āI like structure, routine, being proactive,ā Richardson said. āBut the hardest thing about being in administration is you had to be reactive all the time.ā
Not any more he doesnāt. Perhaps Wiganās 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 Cookās 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.
āThe first time I sat down with Talal and Mal they said 'Weāre massive on the football team, the community and the academy and weāll run them all simultaneously and give our energy and backing to each of them',ā Richardson said. ā99.9 per cent of the things weāve asked for weāve been backed with.ā
James Beattie, Rob Kelly and Darryl Flahavan joined Richardsonās 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.
Richardsonās 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 Keaneās 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.
āWill is probably a case point where youād say he found a home with us,ā Richardson said. āI 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.
āHeās got to take massive credit for what heās done. Heās gone from signing a four-week contract initially with us to becoming a full international with Ireland in the space of 12 months.ā
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.
āDid we think weād be second in November with the squad we were putting together? We thought weād have a competitive team,ā Brannigan says. āWeāre around the position weād like to be at the end of the season but thereās 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 clubās 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.
āIt 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. āI think that has to be recognised as a positive - a slightly perverse positive - but nonetheless it ensured weāre 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 clubās 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 clubās 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 seasonās 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 āsoft 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.