Bob addresses his adoring fans

Roberto Martinez hosted his first fans forum as manager of Wigan Athletic in front of 350 supporters at the DW Stadium’s Fitness Lounge last night.

Unfortunately JWAW could not personally make it, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet (as in, the various Latics messageboards) we are able to bring you the general gist of the event.

If appropriating content is good enough for Rupert Murdoch then it’s sure as heck acceptable for a small-time weblog read by about five people (two of which passed away more than fifty years ago). Anyhow…

The evening was a chance for fans to pose questions about anything and everything to do with Wigan Athletic, and by all accounts Roberto was his usual honest self, answering all queries — which addressed a wide range of topics, from his style of play and tactics to Wigan’s status as a ’selling club’ — calmly and with aplomb.

“There are no difficult questions” said Martinez to Latics Player’s Graham Lovett. “As long as everyone knows what we’re trying to do, it’s easy to find a real answer.”

“I’ve said it before, I want to know what the fans feel. All that we’re doing is for the fans. Unless we are together, we cannot share all our worries regarding the direction of the football club, and that’s vital.”

Amongst numerous other things, Roberto expressed his thoughts on Chris Kirkland and Titus Bramble, who, in his opinion, “should be in the England squad“. In the case of the former, he theorised it must only be a personal issue as opposed to lack of ability keeping Kirky out of the national setup.

Read the rest of this entry »

Now, where's me ink gone?

I’ll come clean: I wrote the following passage at around 1PM in anticipation of another Latics defeat. I wanted to try and get this post out of the way as soon as possible, as I predicted I would be too depressed to write it at 6PM. How wrong was I, eh?

Dear bloke on the radio (your name escapes me, please forgive me),

I write in reply to your opinion that ‘Wigan will go down this season’. Whilst there is a very good chance we shall be fighting in the lower half of the league – in fact I’d say it’s a certainty – we at the club are wholly and entirely behind our manager and understand that it will be more beneficial for us in the long term if we could, under Roberto Martinez, develop a style of play that will be more effective against the best the Premier League has to offer.

It is painfully evident that right now we do not have the resources to achieve said results, hence our recent drubbings at the hands of Manchester United and Arsenal. Given time and patience, however, I am hopeful Roberto can turn Wigan from also-rans to European competitors at the very least.

I’ll admit we aren’t likely to trouble said top six this year, however. Our season resumes against Hull next week, and a win from that game would put us on twelve points. Bearing in mind we have played three of the big four, Everton and Aston Villa in our first seven games of the season, I’d say this would be something of an expected outcome for a club in our position.

Read the rest of this entry »

Whilst the England cricket team were rolling back the years over at Headingley with a performance more reminiscent of 1995 than 2005, Latics fans had their own bout of nostalgia on Saturday as the Three Amigos were once again reunited at the club that made their names. Well, probably.

As Isidro Diaz, Jesus Seba and of course Roberto Martinez emerged from the tunnel to the strains of Fatboy Slim’s Praise You, it was as if they’d never been away. After a warm reception and brief photocall with Dave Whelan, Issy and Jesus stayed on to sign some autographs while Bob retreated to the dressing rooms to gee up the Latics players for his home managerial debut.

Read the rest of this entry »

There was a distinctly pre-season feel about this game: maybe it was the empty South and East Stands or the slightly below Premier League standard opposition that betrayed the match’s warmup status. But it was a game worth paying attention to for a number of reasons, not least the small but significant fact it was Roberto Martinez’s home managerial début.

There was a vociferous, if not rapturous, reception for Bob in his appearance as part of the reunited Three Amigos as an emotional pre-match presentation involving Bob, Issy, Jesus and Uncle Dave was met with warm applause. It was worth the five pounds entrance fee alone, and many would have been forgiven for forgetting there was actually a game about to take place.

Latics got off to a roaring start, hitting the post early on and causing the St. Mirren defence some real problems in the first half. A couple of tasty challenges involving Lee Cattermole got the crowd warmed up, and on 25 minutes, Jason Koumas capped a decent personal pre-season with a free kick slotted nicely into the top corner of Paul Gallacher’s goal.

Read the rest of this entry »