Roberto will repay Whelan's faith

Following 48 hours of intense speculation over the Spaniard’s future, Roberto Martinez has opted to stay at Wigan Athletic, putting pen to paper in a contract that will keep him at the club for three more years. It is thought Martinez rejected a deal with Aston Villa worth around twice his current contract because of the faith chairman Dave Whelan has placed in him over the course of his time at Wigan.

In a crunch 12pm meeting at the DW Stadium, Martinez confirmed his decision to Whelan, who has remained confident the Balaguer-born would stay. Prior to the meeting, Sky Sports News briefly spoke to Whelan, who said of Martinez:

“Roberto is not a greedy man. Managers have a reputation for greed, but Roberto has sentiment, he has feeling and a great admiration for Wigan Athletic.”

Aston Villa did not enter into extended talks as Martinez “wanted to honour his contract” with the Lancashire club, according to an official statement. The Midlands outfit will now be forced to look elsewhere to fill their vacant managerial position.

“Given that he had one year remaining on his contract at Wigan, we made an official approach through the proper channels, though we were aware of a commitment he had made to his Club to agree and sign a new contract following the final game of last season.” — Aston Villa club statement, avfc.co.uk

We can assume the Latics boss made a verbal agreement with Whelan immediately following the season’s end to remain at Latics. However, we all know this would mean little if the right contract came along. The precise details of Villa’s offer can only be speculated; perhaps the Spaniard is holding out for a better contract further down the line? More likely, the fact he “did not meet” with Aston Villa representatives seems to suggest he is staying staunchly faithful to the club that brought him to British football, for the moment at least.

Whelan: "Roberto is showing football is not about greed, there's loyalty in it"

“Roberto is staying, that’s the great news. I had a gut feeling he wanted to stay at Wigan. He’s signing a new 3-year contract; we’ve had to give him an increase in basic salary, but money is not what this has been about. Villa will be disappointed, but I’m over the moon and I’m sure Wigan supporters will be too.

“Roberto is such a straight guy, honest and easy to deal with. Money is an afterthought to him. We got a quick agreement.

“I don’t think we were really close to losing him. We all know he’s going places, Aston Villa are a big club, and when you have a club like that coming for you, it’s something to be proud of. But had he gone to Villa I wouldn’t have blamed him. The supporters in Wigan look at this and think, Roberto is showing that football is not about greed, there’s a loyalty in it. He has been so loyal to me in all this.

“One of the big clubs in Europe will inevitably come for him, and then I would be resigned to losing him. I’m just relieved my gut feeling was right. I could feel the loyalty coming out of Roberto, it bubbled to the surface as soon as our meeting started. When they said Jesus is a Wiganer, Roberto is now a Wiganer.”

Dave Whelan

• Wigan Athletic Official statement

Roberto: Will he stay or will he go?

As soon as it became clear Gerard Houllier would not return to manage Aston Villa, rumours about who should replace him began to fly. One of those in the running was Wigan’s own Roberto Martinez, who was immediately instated as the bookies’ third favourite when chairman Randy Lerner expressed an interest in the Spaniard.

It has emerged today that Dave Whelan has given Martinez the opportunity to speak to the Villans, placing his future in the balance. On the one hand there is a contract extension offer from Latics, which he has been mulling over for some time, while on the other, the Midlands outfit will no doubt table a tempting proposition to bring Bob to Villa Park. Will he remain at the club that introduced him to British football or opt for a new challenge? Though Whelan reckons he’ll stay, I estimate the situation to be 50:50.

Despite Roberto’s strong affinity with Wigan, I very much doubt his decision will be clouded by nostalgia, and creative freedom may well be the determining factor. However, should Villa stump up the cash, I find it hard to see any other outcome than him leaving. It’s a nasty thought, as minds will be cast back to just over two years ago when Steve Bruce opted to leave for Sunderland. The Latics foundations began to crumble as a result, even if you could well argue that deterioration started as early as Christmas; whatever the case, his successor did a decent job of steadying the ship.

Big Brucey’s immediate departure after the 2008–09 season was somewhat inevitable. Roberto is in a different situation, having revived Wigan’s fortunes in the latter part of the season and finishing on a real high. Ever the professional, he may feel an obligation to honour his contract at the DW.

When Martinez was appointed Latics’ boss, one had the feeling his relative inexperience at the highest level could possibly mean disaster for Wigan. Dave Whelan placed total faith in his man, sticking by Roberto 100% through the tough times and never once intimating his position was in any danger. Even as other, seemingly more successful Premier League managers fell by the wayside, Roberto remained. This could edge the decision in Wigan’s favour, as he may never again find a chairman as patient as Uncle Dave.

Personally, I’m looking forward to another season under Martinez and am confident we can improve on our 16th place finish this coming campaign. Hopefully we shall see the continuation, or perhaps the culmination, of two years’ hard work rebuilding the team from the ground up. If Roberto leaves, we’d better get a decent replacement in there sharpish or else a mass exodus may result and we could be back to rebuilding once again.

Since the closure of the Official Wigan Athletic Forums (what, four years ago?), I feel there’s been something of a disharmony with stalwarts moving on to separate sites. The launch of This Northern Soul is a good move, bringing the fans together once again to start afresh on a new venture. It might not be as popular as the fantastic Cockney Latic just yet, but it certainly has the potential to be. The guys from (sole remaining?) paper fanzine the Mudhutter and various Latics publications are on board, lending a certain amount of credibility to the project.

VitalLatics and Wiganer.net continue to be essential sites for the Latics web contingent, but there’s a new(ish) kid on the block which I’m sure will prove a worthwhile addition to your bookmarks.

Visit This Northern Soul

No, it isn't Michael Jackson, it's Conor Sammon

Latics fans everywhere hope they will be cracking out the fish-based puns for months to come with the arrival of Ireland Under-21 striker Conor Sammon on a reported 3 and a half year deal just minutes before the close of last night’s transfer deadline. The spiritual –perhaps eventual– successor to Ten Million Dollar Man Mauro Boselli, I should think this arrangement would carry a more sensible price tag, but he looks a bit grumpy in his Official Latics snapshot so you can bet he didn’t get quite as much as he wanted.

Scottish Premier League watchers will be familiar with Sammon, who has 15 goals in 20 league games for Kilmarnock this season. I should think Roberto, who has strong links to Scottish football, has had his eye on the man for a while now and simply kept the thing under wraps until the last minute to avoid rival bids. Or maybe not, with Derby also putting their hat into the ring for the striker. Anyways, we’ve snaffled him now so let’s hope he gets a few more than Boselli or Scotland. I think it’s fair to say Bob hasn’t had much luck in signing attackers, but hopefully all this will change and Sammon leaps at this chance. Ooh, sorry about that, it just came out.

In other transfer deadline day news, young keeper Lee Nicholls has gone out on loan to Shrewsbury Town. Looks like Mike Pollitt is well and truly the #2 keeper at the DW again, and thank goodness he signed for another year at the end of last season. Al Habsi, meanwhile, is certainly one of, if not the, best signing Martinez has made in his time at the club. Seems we have the goalie situation well under wraps, and with our goal difference not looking too healthy, thank goodness for that.

According to Sky Sports News, Newcastle put in a last-minute £10million bid for Charles N’Zogbia, which was promptly rejected. Somewhat surprising that this was the only approach we received for the man during the transfer window considering how many teams were keen on him before the start of the season proper, but you won’t find us complaining.

Sammon won’t be available for tonight’s showdown with West Brom, but should be in contention for a start against Blackburn at the weekend. In fact, barring a fantastic Franco Di Santo performance this evening, I reckon he’ll go straight into the team alongside Hugo. We need the goals, people, and strikers who can finish!

Oh, and if you want some more fish puns, check out this Cockney Latic forum topic.

That picture, as if you haven't seen it enough already

They say everyone has their fifteen minutes of fame. Unfortunately, in my case, it’s more slight notability, not for my rapidly deteriorating Wigan Athletic weblog, but as the creator of that Howard Webb image. You know, the one on all the back pages of today’s papers and all over the national newswires?

All I can say is thank you, Ryan Babel. The FA and Howard Webb may not be happy, but I’ve been walking around with a crazed grin on my face the whole day, garnering a fair few strange looks at work and on the bus. I could tell them why, but who would believe me? And why on earth would they care?

As some form of proof, click the above thumbnail for the full quality image resourced from my original Photoshop file. The reason I downscaled the picture (the low resolution jpeggedness is perhaps most evident in this enlargement), originally posted on my now-defunct Retro Yakking blog back in 2009, was for web optimisation but also to mask the fact it’s a pretty poor image edit. I knocked it up in half an hour or so, hence the obvious ‘shop quality.

Much like Babel himself, I owe an apology to Howard Webb. Also much like the Dutch international, the picture was created and posted in the heat of the (albeit rather extended) moment, in my case following Manchester United’s 5–2 defeat of Tottenham in April 2009. In the aftermath of a memorable game, I posted an article –tongue-in-cheek, of course– suggesting he might just have favoured the Red Devils just a little bit in his awarding of a generous, and highly important, penalty to the hosts. Check out this quote, which might well have been misattributed to Mr Webb:

Manchester United were never going to win without a twelfth man, so I took it upon myself to become an honorary Man U man for the evening. Can’t say I liked it much — mixing with the peasants was an unpleasant experience — but you have to do what you have to do.
– Retro Yakking, 26 April 2009. ©Blogdog, formerly Today.com

It was all in good humour. If you’re reading this, Mr Webb, please understand there are no hard feelings, just a cheekiness and eagerness to poke fun – the very ethic of Retro Yakking. The blog’s host went offline in the latter half of last year and with it went all my posts for the company, including the one containing the offending picture. However, it seems a bunch of Tottenham fans picked up on it the moment it was posted and spread the thing (abomination?) around the internet. When Mr Babel entered ‘Howard Webb Manchester United’ into Google Image Search, one of the first results would have been my poor Photoshop, which he promptly tweeted.

To be honest, until someone mentioned the incident at work I’d forgotten all about it. It isn’t one of my better image edits, slightly worse than, say, this:

Who ate all the pies?

So you can probably imagine how surprised I was to see the Webb image again. Anyhow, I bet you never expected a post such as this, eh? Breaks the monotony of the match reports blog this site has become, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Finally, I also feel I must apologise for playing a small part in Babel’s FA reprimand. But Ryan, I thank you for brightening my day, nay, week.

Dan ‘Harry Yack’ Farrimond

• Gallery of newspaper appearances, because I’m anal and egotisitical like that

Latics’ new club shop, imaginatively titled the Latics Club Shop, was unofficially up and running this morning. Stocking such merchandise as Wigan Athletic branded golf tees, babies’ bibs and cuddly teddy bears, it’s already looking a bit more promising than last year’s Latics WN1 trial run.

This time round, there were no photographers or guest appearances (at least not when I was there, about 10ish), rather a selection of half price Latics merchandise so we could all be ripped off by 50 rather than 100 percent. The glitz and glamour will be present on Tuesday afternoon as a selection of the Wigan squad and backroom staff officially launch the new Wigan Athletic home kit for the 2010 season.

And it’s certainly an improvement on the previous incarnation, with a much brighter atmosphere and better ‘shop’ feel. The one next to Ryman’s felt as though it was run by Arkwright from Open All Hours or something, a dark (and slightly smelly) cave in the deepest depths of the Galleries.

Latics’ marketing gurus seem to have learned from the WN1 experiment, and there’s no doubt the more spacious location across from BB’s Cafe is a lot more welcoming and professional.

As for the volume of stock, there’s just about the same as there used to be, but it’s all laid out in a more pleasing and accessible fashion. No comfy sofas though, sadly.

That didn’t stop the punters piling in, though. Things looked quite busy while I was there, so maybe the stock clearout gimmick was somewhat successful – there were three assistants on the counter so I’m guessing the big cheeses expected a hectic opening day.

Speaking of big cheeses, guess whose book was displayed rather prominently by the checkouts? That’s right, the Mighty Gorgonzola himself, Dave Whelan. He was nowhere to be seen, though. Think he might be on holiday in Barbados or something.

Jason Koumas: On his way

Also seemingly on his way out is Jason Koumas, who shall spend the forthcoming season on loan to Cardiff City, where I am sure he shall do extremely well. He seems to thrive in the Championship environment, but struggles for consistency at the higher levels these days.

At an initial price tag of £5.2 million, I would say Jase also failed to live up to expectations in the long term. He did score one more than Kapo, though, and will be remembered for his goal against Aston Villa in the first game of last season. At least his time at the club wasn’t a complete failure, more of a disappointment.

In (hopefully) more enterprising news, the new Wigan Athletic store — really a branch of DW will be open for business tomorrow afternoon Sports — with a ‘stock clearout‘ taking place. The official opening will be on Tuesday afternoon, so there’s no chance of a last minute cancellation due to a 9-1 hammering this time. At least, with the greatest of respect, I don’t expect Dundee to ‘do a Tottenham’ on Sunday afternoon.

Bob and co. will be in the Galleries at 2PM to launch Latics’ new home strip, but I still dunno where our away kit is hidden. Maybe the sheer negativity over last season’s ‘tangerine dream‘ has put the marketing department off to the extent we shall take to the pitch against Tottenham on the 28th in skins. Man, I know the government cuts are taking their toll on the country, but I never thought it’d get that bad. Before long, we may all need to donate our old replica away strips to stop our lads contracting pneumonia or something.

Martinez: Back in the public eye

Charles N’Zogbia, who certain members of the JWAW team seem to think is on his way to Birmingham (not myself though), has been called up to the French squad for their clash with Norway in midweek. We all know, however, that this is because all Les Bleus’ ‘best’ players have thrown their toys out of the pram, opening the door for Charlie and a bunch of other relative unknowns to sneak in almost unnoticed. Enjoy it while it lasts, people, for it’s only a matter of time before an even bigger drama queen reinstates the old guard in spectacular fashion.

Latics’ Honduran connection was out in force at the club shop today as Hendry Thomas and Maynor Figueroa were on hand to launch a limited edition poster celebrating Figs’ 60-yard goal against Stoke in December.

Attendees could also attempt to recreate the wonder strike out in the DW car park, where a training goal had been set up near the West Stand ticket office. As it transpired, not many managed to score — even from a distance ever so slightly shorter than sixty yards — though Hendry and Maynor had no problem at all.

A group of schoolkids, probably bussed in to ensure at least someone turned up on a Thursday afternoon, cheered heartily as Figueroa successfully placed the ball into the net just as he had done four months ago.

Next, it was into the DW shop where a seven-foot memorial to that strike had been erected (read: pasted over an old display) to be signed by the man himself. The guys hung around a bit longer to sign a few more shirts and autographs before being whisked off for an interview with Premier League World.

Figs points out some imperfections in his poster

A selection of the Latics squad were also present, probably for a press conference of some sort, but they were off in their fancy cars before the PR stuff began. Gary Caldwell visited the shop at around 1PM to pick up a couple of things, but I’m not sure if anyone recognised him as he had to queue like everyone else!

Maynor Figueroa signs some autographs

Rodallega, Kingson, Amaya and Diame all stopped to sign programmes and shirts for the fans who’d camped outside Rigaletto’s for half an hour. In fact, the vast majority of the Latics first team turned up, including Jason Scotland in a fetching grey tracksuit, and James McCarthy, who spared five minutes to chat with the kids from St John Fisher.

Representatives from the big media players clamoured to grab footage and the odd interview, with the likes of BBC Five Live, North West Tonight and Premier League World congregating around the players’ lounge.

Expect to see extended coverage of the event in Saturday’s matchday magazine and Latics Player, still the only Latics subscription service marginally more expensive than a kick in the nuts from Vinnie Jones. Alternatively, you could wait a couple of days until I get a short video of the afternoon uploaded to YouTube, which you’ll be able to view for free. Free I say!

Figs' new poster complete with signature, as seen in the club shop

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