Wigan in Administration

Touch and go now for the Latics

Too true wessy, there is no FV in the wings that we know of and unless someone out there is prepared to throw a shed load of money at a club whose best players have all departed, you could fear another Bury coming. You just have to feel so sorry for the fans because just a few weeks ago everything looked so rosy. Let’s hope there’s nothing lurking from the Chinese end that could possibly come out and scupper any plans. I fear a few weeks of worry for our Wigan friends.

Whitesince63 wrote:Too true wessy, there is no FV in the wings that we know of and unless someone out there is prepared to throw a shed load of money at a club whose best players have all departed, you could fear another Bury coming. You just have to feel so sorry for the fans because just a few weeks ago everything looked so rosy. Let’s hope there’s nothing lurking from the Chinese end that could possibly come out and scupper any plans. I fear a few weeks of worry for our Wigan friends.

That seems to be the biggest problem Whites, we had FV who seemed determined, didn't they put money in before our takeover (1m) or am i dreaming, the fact they have no prefered bidder and its only weeks to the new season puts them in a very bad situation, at best i see a desperate scramble by a local consortium involving the Rugby owners? they have a vested interest with sharing facilities.

Lets be honest Wigan isn't a football town, they get rubbish crowds even when they were in the Premiership. No great loss if they go for me, i don't have the same sympathy i had for Bury fans.

Norpig wrote:Lets be honest Wigan isn't a football town, they get rubbish crowds even when they were in the Premiership. No great loss if they go for me, i don't have the same sympathy i had for Bury fans.

So a club should be judged on how many fans they have?

Listen to Mr Man City!

Natasha Whittam wrote:

So a club should be judged on how many fans they have?

Listen to Mr Man City!

Shut it Miss Chorley 

I don't support City, i have been to a few games but only to take my Son who is a fan. Wigan are a nothing team with no fans and if they went bust i wouldn't care at all.

Norpig wrote:
I don't support City, i have been to a few games but only to take my Son who is a fan.

About time you started bringing him up properly then.

There are no excuses!

I've tried KP, i still buy him a season ticket in the hope he'll come to some games but he hasn't been for a couple of years now. 

What chance do i have when City are mega rich and always seem to score 6 whenever we go? He is a Manc after all and the whole you have to support your Dads team doesn't wash with him 

wessy wrote:

Whitesince63 wrote:Too true wessy, there is no FV in the wings that we know of and unless someone out there is prepared to throw a shed load of money at a club whose best players have all departed, you could fear another Bury coming. You just have to feel so sorry for the fans because just a few weeks ago everything looked so rosy. Let’s hope there’s nothing lurking from the Chinese end that could possibly come out and scupper any plans. I fear a few weeks of worry for our Wigan friends.

That seems to be the biggest problem Whites, we had FV who seemed determined, didn't they put money in before our takeover (1m) or am i dreaming, the fact they have no prefered bidder and its only weeks to the new season puts them in a very bad situation, at best i see a desperate scramble by a local consortium involving the Rugby owners? they have a vested interest with sharing facilities.

Yes they did, it was non-refundable too and the sale was certainly not a cast iron guarantee to happen at the time because that was pre all the buggering around with Bassini.

I've listened to the whole Administrators interview and to my mind (maybe because I was listening out for it/ maybe I read too much into it - I'll let others decide) was around the 28 minute mark for a question or two, where he basically said Administration is basically a 'holding' role to sell the club and with what they, their timescale/resources to do that was within the next two weeks!

That bit is certainly worth a listen, the rest of it is interesting to the likes of me but I would recommend spending 45 minutes of your life otherwise.

Fwiw contrast how well the young interviewer has done managing to get interviews and information with the Administrator (during Administration) and Maguire (an expert used by TV on football financial matters) and compare that to Iles during a very comparable time with us.

One of them is doing a professional paid job, specifically to communicate on a specific football club, nothing else, the other is a concerned fan doing it in his own time and for free!

If you didn't know any differently who would you think was the paid career professional supposedly embedded with the club and which the clueless know nothing concerned fan doing it for free in his spare time?

Will Wigan start next season in L1 with a transfer embargo?

wanderlust wrote:Will Wigan start next season in L1 with a transfer embargo?

I'm not sure they'll even start the season unless they find a buyer in the next two to three weeks AND the buyer passes the EFL's owner criteria - ie money to fund the club for the next two years (and whilst for a time having no match day income!) but if they do, then yes they will be under a transfer embargo as we were/currently are - plus of course the introduction of a player salary cap (thought to be £2.5 for the third tier).

On the other hand many clubs are in the same position so they will release players at the end of their contracts and U23's, so there will be a loan of out of contract players chasing fewer jobs available plus the PL clubs loaning their youngsters out, possibly even cover their wages in full whilst out on loan as well.

I don't think Wigan will have a problem finding players but they are lumbered with the wages of those players still contracted to them who may not have clauses in their contracts for wage drops if relegated.

Wigan will have to get the big wages off their books - like we did with Amos for example - but who will want them with them all being in the same boat of having no match day income? Amos for instance and iirc went on loan to Charlton and Millwall - I can't imagine those types of clubs would want to take Wigan's big wages on with having no matchday income themselves.

I think Wigan football club really are looking down the barrel and could soon be following Bury out of the league, unless a white knight doesn't turn up soon for them.



Fwiw I've now listened to the Maguire video above - not worth bothering about imo.

Agree survival is their first objective but I'm curious as to whether they have a transfer ban. They have already had the points deduction so their situation is slightly different from ours when it comes to rebuilding and attracting players on the cheap - and if they survive they are less likely to drop again next season than we were - which may affect buyer interest.

I thought a transfer embargo was part of the punishment for going into administration?

Norpig wrote:I thought a transfer embargo was part of the punishment for going into administration?

It is.

What I'm saying is that they may not last long enough to start next season to even  be in existence to be under an embargo!

As for having money to buy players - well that's just laughable, even if they were allowed to, in the financial position they are in right now.

As i said before no great loss if they go. Never liked them and they've always been a tinpot club. The gloating over our predicament in the last few years hasn't helped either.

We were practically down and out when FV rode in on their white horse so it's not impossible that the same might happen for Wigan.
FWIW I wouldn't miss them either if it didn't.

wanderlust wrote:We were practically down and out when FV rode in on their white horse so it's not impossible that the same might happen for Wigan.
FWIW I wouldn't miss them either if it didn't.

Vastly different financial circumstances - we'd cleared out all the high wage earners for a start!

Also we were not looking for a buyer in the middle of a world pandemic and games being played in empty stadiums with no match day income!

Yes, the same might happen for Wigan but with two weeks or so to go according to the Administrator himself, they haven't even got a preferred bidder yet, let alone the potential purchaser even having a look at the books before they buy, so I reckon the odds are stacked against them.

Fwiw Droylsden's pulled out of football because they have no money to sustain themselves due to what's been happening.

http://droylsdenfootballclub.com/news/club-statement-droylsden-football-club-to-resign-from-the-league-and-all-cup-competitions/

Perhaps I shouldn't be saying this but I've been following the Wigan saga through the eyes of the fans of it's only football forum(?), or at least the only one I could find, 'Latic's Speyk' and it's absolutely incredibly how naive they are about things.

I guess I shouldn't be as there's plenty BWFC fan's who don't have much of a clue about what's going on at BWFC Ltd but I've just be reading their thread about the wage cap and their view seems to be almost unanimously as to how bad an idea that was!

Now bearing in mind they are presently in a crisis where there is no money coming into the club, the Administrators are in and desperately trying to sell it in the middle of a pandemic with games having to play behind closed doors so no matchday income, with the club carrying a crippling wage bill to carry into next season and not even got to the stage of having a preferred bidder being identified, that you would think that if they did survive they'd want their club to be run sustainably to avoid a reoccurrence of the nightmare they are in happing further down the line?

Nope not a bit of it!

You'd think that with the vast bulk of the clubs themselves voting for the wage cap...

16 of the 23 League One clubs were in favour of the £2.5m salary cap, with 22 of the 24 League Two clubs in favour of the £1.5m cap in their division. Cap includes image rights, bonuses, agents' fees and other expenses paid to registered players as well as basic wages/taxes

— James Ducker (@TelegraphDucker) August 7, 2020

...that they must have done so for a very good reason?

Wrong again, views like 'turkey's voting for Christmas' abound.

Don't people realise that football is a business and that business run on getting in more money than they spend.

Maybe they've been spoiled like we were with benefactors such as Eddie Davies and Dave Whelan but if you don't have someone to put in millions of their own personal money then you have to cut your suit according to your cloth.

Unfortunately unless they are exceptionally lucky I think a massive wake up shock is in store for many of them.

https://forums.vitalfootball.co.uk/threads/l1-wage-cap-vote.107072/

Just to respond to your last two posts. ...

Broadly I agree.

There are plenty of BWFC fans who don't really get the link between business and football or understand the reality of administration so it's no  surprise that there are Wigan fans who don't get it either. I'm guessing that those who don't think a salary cap is a good idea are those who reckon they should buy their way out of trouble despite there being no money.  Grasping the full impact of where they are at won't happen overnight.

I fully expect that Wigan will go through something similar to what we experienced - assets and players being sold to pay off debt, being left with a handful of kids for a squad - you know the script. It's just that it will take the Wiganers time to fully come to terms with the reality of their situation.

Our circumstances weren't "vastly different" from Wigan's - it's just that we were at a different stage when FV bought us than Wigan currently are - although Wigan have already served their 12 point penalty. Perhaps when Wigan have been stripped to the bones someone will step in and save them?