Uncategorized

Season Preview: Wigan Athletic

|
Image for Season Preview: Wigan Athletic

Can Latics make it back to the Premiership at the second attempt?…

Wigan Athletic

Last Season

The 2013/14 campaign was one that could be split into two halves for Wigan. Owen Coyle took charge of the club at the start of the season bringing in a number of new signings to bolster the squad to cope with their European commitments. However, despite their impressive looking squad they failed to live up to expectations during the first half of the season. They managed only six wins in their first 18 league matches, a run of form which cost Owen Coyle his job. He was replaced by Brentford manager Uwe Rosler. Their fortunes immediately improved as they moved slowly towards the play-off positions. They went on a run of six straight victories during February and March as they looked to secure their place in the play-off positions. Alongside their improvement in the league, they also went on yet another astonishing cup run winning at Manchester City on their way to the semi-finals where they lost on penalties to Arsenal at Wembley. Their good form in the league secured them a fifth place finish but they lost over two legs to QPR in the play-off semi finals leaving them in the Championship for a second consecutive season.

The Manager
One of the most impressive managers around Uwe Rosler came to prominence as a manager in England thanks to his exploits at Brentford in League One. Already known in England for his playing career which saw him spend four years at Manchester City in the 1990’s, Rosler started his managerial career Lillestrom in 2004. He spent further time at Viking and Molde before moving to Brentford in 2011. After narrowly missing out on promotion in 2012/13 he laid the foundations for Brentford’s successful promotion bid last season before leaving in December for Wigan.

Transfers

In:
Andrew Taylor, Don Cowie (Cardiff City), Aaron Taylor-Sinclair (Partick Thistle), James Tavernier (Newcastle Utd), Oriol Riera (Barcelona B)

Loans In: Emyr Huws (Manchester City)

Out: Jordi Gomez (Sunderland), Danny Redmond (Hamilton Academicals), Stephen Crainey (Fleetwood Town), Jean Beausejour (Released)

This Season
Having only just narrowly missed promotion by losing to QPR in the players it is clear Wigan were not far from securing a return to the Premiership. Had their opening to the season been slightly better they may well have ended up securing one of the automatic promotion places. They have signed well this summer getting in players with Championship experience and they will certainly be in the shake up for promotion again this season.

Share this article

2 comments

  • Joe Flanagan says:

    Waghorn was with us last season and Jean Beausejour is another notable departure but otherwise a very accurate report. Riera came from Barcelona B as well, slightly less glamorous but hopefully just as effective!

  • chriswfc says:

    Hi Joe, thanks for that. Its now been updated

Comments are closed.