Progress With Loyalty

Well it’s been another great day to be a Wigan Athletic fan. Since the news first broke a few days ago the majority of Wigan fans have suffered sleepless nights at the thought of losing our young, promising, much sought-after manager.

Personally I never once doubted Roberto would stay. Why? Because he IS Wigan Athletic. He lives and breathes the football club. Were it not for this football club he could be leading a simple life back in Spain and may not even be involved in football. Roberto himself knows this and therefore he has incredible ties to the club and indeed to the town of Wigan.

Many people connected with Aston Villa will be disappointed but it’s no slur on them that Roberto is staying put. No one doubts Villa are a far bigger club that Wigan are or ever will be. The fact is that the job he has at Wigan has only really just begun.

He’s always talked of a five-year plan for the club and even today, hot on the heels of announcing he is staying, he was talking about improving the training facilities, improving the squad and making sure the club moves forward and makes progress. That, to me, indicates a man that has had those thoughts ever since that great day at Stoke and it’s all he’s thought about ever since. To not even discuss the Aston Villa job with Randy Lerner backs up that theory.

I’ve heard a few Swansea fans criticise him and his supposed lack of loyalty but I think that’s rather harsh. Yes he loved Swansea City and spent a considerable time there as a player and a manager but his connections to Wigan Athletic are far greater and he simply couldn’t turn down the chance to take over the reigns at the club that helped to make him who is he today. I find it hard to accept that Swansea fans cannot see or accept this to be perfectly honest.

Looking at the Villa offer, it would have been a huge step forward for Roberto. A bigger club, bigger transfer budget, bigger wage budget, higher expectations and ambitions, etc. That’s all well and good, but the minute he walks through the door at a club like that he has to start a clean slate and win over the fans, the board and, ultimately, the owner.

In choosing to join Wigan in the first place he instantly knew what the club was about and everyone connected with the club knew exactly what he was about. All that legwork was done, and that’s half the battle. Could you imagine Roberto taking the Villa job and having results like a 9-1 loss at Spurs, 8-0 loss at Chelsea or the two horrendous results we had at the start of last season (0-4 v Blackpool and 0-6 v Chelsea)? He would be out of the door before the full time whistle had sounded.

Throughout the whole of the last two seasons Dave Whelan has backed Roberto to the hilt stating that, even if the club are relegated, he has a job here for life if he wants it. That’s the sort of backing a manager needs and, other than his ties to the club, it’s the main reason I feel he didn’t even consider joining Aston Villa. 

Furthermore, he’s only 37 for God’s sake!! Since he became a manager at Swansea in 2007 his stock has risen season by season and I don’t doubt he’ll get better as a manager over the remainder of his days with Wigan. With that in mind, and age on his side, he won’t be short of bigger and better job offers in years to come and this too is a big factor in him staying put I feel. And who knows, his next job offer could well be from a club bigger than Aston Villa.

For now though, he loves the challenge that he's faced with of improving the club from top to bottom, changing the philosophy, the style of play and eventually leaving us far better than when he found us. He regularly talks of a top ten finish and has even hinted about European qualification. Given what he's achieved so far in trimming the wage bill but keeping the club in the top division, you wouldn't back against him achieving his goals before he moves on to bigger and better things.

One thing I will add into the mix is that football is a crazy business. At half time against W*st H*m a few weeks ago he was a Championship manager and a small number of Wigan fans were calling for his head. One fan even had to be escorted out of the DW Stadium after throwing his season ticket at Roberto! But we turned it all around against the odds and won 3-2 followed by that massive win at Stoke and suddenly a game and a half later Roberto is being linked with all the top jobs in Europe! It’s a crazy game at times.

My hope now is that the small number of fans that have done nothing but criticise him and call for his head for two years realise just how lucky we are to have him in charge of our football club and start to back him a bit more. In his two seasons in charge, average attendances have dropped from 18,500 to just shy of 17,000.

I don’t doubt that the economic climate is a lot to blame for that, but I do know quite a few fans that say “I won’t go again while he’s in charge” That’s just not right and we, as a club, can ill afford to be losing fans in such numbers for reasons such as that.

Just a last word of tribute towards the Chairman, Dave Whelan. He too has been heavily criticised throughout Roberto’s time in charge, unfairly in my view. The way he has acted and spoken this week has been absolutely out of this World. He’s been honest, up front and dignified throughout and he deserves a lot of respect for the way he’s handled the whole situation.

Deep down I don’t feel the Chairman felt for one minute that Roberto would leave so soon into his five-year plan and he hinted as such in his various press interviews this week. He could never go as far as saying Roberto wouldn’t leave, he had to wait until it was all confirmed, but I think he knew all along.

And so on to Friday, when the fixtures for Wigan Athletic’s seventh Premier League season are announced. I’m so pleased we don’t have to go into that days events thinking more about who is going to be our next manager than who our first fixture is against. Instead, we can look forward knowing that OUR Roberto is still in charge and still fighting for the club he loves.

Progress with loyalty