Wigan Athletic in the Championship

With Everton confirming that their new manager will be Roberto Martinez it will be interesting to see what Wigan Athletic will do in the Championship.

Martinez did a great job keeping the club in the Premier League for many seasons and winning the FA Cup but they now need to try and get back into the top division without him. The next manager has to come and in be successful because if they don’t get promoted at the first attempt I think they will be stuck in the Championship for many years to come and could even fall further down the leagues. Instead of looking at who the new manager could be, I am going to look at the players that could get them back into the Premier League. The club still does have some very good players and they play football in the right way so the players may be convinced to stay for at least one season to see how they do. One advantage they do have is none of their players are big names so maybe they will be left alone and none will be bought off them but Martinez may want one or two of the players.

I cannot see many defenders leaving the club because that was always their problem, too many mistakes at the back and a lack of quality. Emmerson Boyce and Gary Caldwell are two players that I think they need to keep because they will be good in the Championship and have enough experience to help the younger players in the squad as the second tier is a lot different and they will need their older players to make sure they follow their manager’s orders on the field. I think they will lose their best defender in Maynor Figueroa and they definitely need more quality at the back to succeed.

Midfield is probably where they are the strongest but they will face a difficult challenge keeping hold of them. James McCarthy and James McArthur are fantastic footballers and would fit into a lot of teams and I think they will play for bigger teams in the future. Callum McManaman is getting a lot of the headlines at the moment but I hope he stays for one more season to help himself develop rather than joining a club where he isn’t going to be guaranteed first team football. Shaun Maloney is another good footballer but I think he will struggle to get another Premier League club that won’t be battling against relegation.

Wigan have always been quite weak upfront but somehow they managed to get just enough goals to keep them up. For the first time they had a striker that could be a regular scorer in the Premier League and that is Arouna Kone who has had a decent season and will surely move this summer. Another good striker who doesn’t get enough goals but does add something is Franco Di Santo. I think he should stay at Wigan and hopefully get some confidence from scoring the goals that get the club back in the Premier League.

Are Wigan good enough for the Premier League?

After beating Manchester United 1-0, Wigan have given themselves a great chance to stay up this season but are they really good enough to stay up again this year?

Roberto Martinez has a 24.59% win record at Wigan

I am one of the few people that actually had faith that the club would stay up basically because they have been there and done it for a number of years now and they understand the pressure that they are under. It is the same reason why a lot of people believe that Manchester United have already won the title and that is because of their experience in their current situation. But even Alex Ferguson said Wigan are in a false position and are playing some of the best football in the league and yes some decisions went there way in this game but in recent weeks they have had some horrific decisions against them, in particular the Chelsea game where both goals could have been given as offside.

But anyway, Wigan have a lot of quality that may have been missed by a lot of fans and pundits because of the position they are in now. Starting with the manager, Roberto Martinez, he likes to play football in one way and sometimes it works against his team but on the whole they play some good football and are one of the best and most fluent attacking teams in the league when they are on form. If he could sort out the defence then I believe they would be a solid mid table side and wouldn’t have to worry about relegation.

However, saying that Wigan have one of the most underrated goalkeepers in the league in Ali Al-Habsi who has saved his team on many occasions and produced some stunning saves, surprisingly against United he was rarely stretched and you have to give credit to the whole team for that not just the defence. I think when Brad Friedel retires, Tottenham may look to sign Al-Habsi because he wouldn’t look out of place in a top four side.

In defence, they have a bit of experience but maybe not a lot of quality, Gary Caldwell has been there and done it, he has played for Celtic so he knows what it’s like to be under pressure to win games and in the last few weeks he has been in really good form. Scoring the winning goal against Liverpool must have given him and the whole club a boost and they have gone from strength to strength since then.

The midfield is full of quality with James McArthur, James McCarthy and Shaun Maloney who have all looked good in Scotland but now this season are proving they have enough talent to succeed in the Premier League but the stand out player is winger Victor Moses. He may not get as many goals as he should because his shooting and decision making can be a bit poor but his skills and his ability to create a chance out of nothing have been crucial in the last few weeks, even if they do stay up it might be difficult to keep hold of him this summer.

They do not have a lot of firepower up top but they do have a bit of talent in Franco Di Santo and Hugo Rodallega who maybe should get more goals than they do because they do have a goal in them and if they could have produced more consistently then they wouldn’t be in the position they are in now.

Like I said earlier, I always thought Wigan would stay up this year and it will still be difficult but they have given themselves a great chance of being a Premier League club next year and with a few more additions they may not be in this position again next year, although that is probably what the fans thought last summer.