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.

It’s been announced today that Olivier Kapo will finally leave the club after two relatively unsuccessful campaigns. He scored his only league goal towards the end of the 08-09 season in a defeat to Chelsea, and quite a good one it was too. Unfortunately it takes more than a single goal to make a good player, and on too many occasions Kapo, or ‘Krappo‘ as I liked to call him, flattered to deceive. A shame, considering he cost Steve Bruce more than £3 million back in 2007. I think we can chalk that one up as a net loss.

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.

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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.

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