Relaying of the much-maligned DW Stadium surface gets underway today and should be ready for next Monday’s visit of Liverpool. And not before time, you might say.

In seasons past, we’ve seen the pitch suffer badly around this time of year. You can point to any number of factors: poor weather, undersoil heating malfunction, moles etc. I will also concede that it doesn’t help that we have to groundshare with a rugby league team, but that isn’t the root of the problem.

And to be honest, I don’t think I could tell you for sure exactly what is causing the pitch to break up year upon year. After all, there are plenty of other northern clubs — Burnley, Stoke and Preston to name but a few — who’ve managed to keep their pitches in decent condition despite inclement weather, and they’re run on similar budgets to the Latics.

Read the rest of this entry »

Edman has left the club on a free transfer

It was announced last week that Latics’ Swedish international left back Erik Edman had returned to Helsingborgs, the club where he made his name, having struggled to regain a place in Martinez’s first team after a spate of injuries.

It’ll be surprising to some that Edman made only nine league appearances in his two-year spell at Wigan, and that he was once a regular fixture in the Swedish international team. However, a short time after he joined the Latics, he sustained a serious knee injury that would keep him out for the remainder of the 2007/2008 season and also Euro 2008.

Unfortunately for Edman, he’ll be remembered by many as a member of the Wigan side that lost 9-1 to Tottenham in November. Since then, he has been on the fringes of the first team, on standby as replacement for Maynor Figueroa, and the club have allowed him to move to Helsingborgs on a free transfer to find first team football.

I prefer to remember Erik as the man who, up until his injury, so ably filled the void left by Leighton Baines. Though his appearances were limited, he impressed under Steve Bruce and were it not for an unfortunate challenge, I reckon we’d have had a long term stalwart that would have gone down in Latics lore as one of the best defenders we’ve had at the club.

Alas it was not to be, and with Figueroa now the man in possession of the left back berth, we bid Erik a fond farewell and wish him every success in the future. I really hope he goes on to bigger things, and the Tottenham game does not ruin his career because we’ve seen plenty of talent there, a sentiment echoed by the Swedish FA, who’ve called on him for international duty on 57 occasions.

J-Rob MBE

Former Wigan striker Jason Roberts has received an MBE for his work encouraging young people in Britain and the Caribbean to play football.

The Jason Roberts Foundation was formed in 2007 to provide opportunities for young people to take part in sporting and cultural activities and to participate in learning programmes enhancing educational achievement.

Roberts bagged 37 goals in 93 games for the Latics and helped them to achieve promotion from the Championship in the 2004/2005 campaign. He went on to score Wigan’s first goal in the Premiership from the penalty spot against Sunderland the following season and steer the Latics to mid-table safety.

He is perhaps best known for his winning goal in the 2005/2006 Carling Cup semi-final second leg, which sealed his team a place in the final of the competition for the very first time. The following season, he signed for Blackburn in a £3million deal, and has since gone on to score seventeen goals in 86 appearances for the Lancashire side. He came on as a sub in Saturday’s match against his old club, whereupon he received a polite round of applause from the Wigan crowd.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popped down to Wigan at lunchtime for what I thought would be the grand opening of Latics’ new town centre shop with Martinez, Graeme Jones and Brenda Spencer, who’d be on hand to cut the ribbon. Over the weekend, I received an email via the club’s mailing list that our very own Titus Bramble would also be joining in the fun, taking on all comers at Nintendo Wii! I thought I would have a piece of that and give him a good whipping at FIFA 10… as Tottenham.

Well, Sky Sports News and North West Tonight were there, but not for the planned opening of WN1. Actually, they were at The Galleries for a certain other story. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the grand ceremony had been postponed as I’m sure poor Roberto and co. would have been crushed under the sheer weight of media presence after the event which must not be mentioned ever again.

The defeat was bad enough, but imagine the damage that could have been done had the Daily Mail and Beano Comic decided to park their vans in the market square – the Wigan public would have eaten them alive.

Read the rest of this entry »