Never Again!

The release of last week’s financial accounts made for sobering reading for all Wigan Athletic supporters.

Never again can this club be allowed to reach the state it did and never again can we allow those that don’t have Wigan Athletic’s best interests at heart to use the club in the way it had been used since the start of 2020.

An underlying loss of more than £17.5m for last season is horrific for a club of our size, and with a significant amount being owed to HMRC along with un-paid wages it wasn’t dramatic to suggest that we were days if not hours away from liquidation before Mike Danson decided to save his home town club with a not insignificant amount of funds being set aside just to pay off the historic debts driven up by the previous regime.

There has been so much to enjoy this season since Mike Danson took over, yes there has been lots to be concerned about as well – we still don’t really know what the future holds for us and a Chief Executive would be helpful to take the pressure away from Ben Goodburn who is currently combining the role of CEO and Chairman.

Communication needs to improve and I’m sure we’ll all be much happier when Ticketmaster is up and running in full but and I will never tire of saying it we are in a far better position than I ever imagined in those dark days of twelve months ago.

So much in the way of thanks needs to go to Mike Danson and everyone involved in the purchase of the club but equally to Gregor Rioch and Shaun Maloney who helped to convince Danson to save us and kept the club functioning in the days and weeks before the takeover went through.

On the pitch with safety virtually assured it’s time to start looking towards the future and seeing just how strongly we can finish this season, without the EFL and our 8 points in their back pocket we would have an outside chance of the play-offs this season.

Not that that’s necessarily the right thing for us, promotion to the basket case that is the Championship at this moment in time could be our un-doing again but another year in League One under the belts of some our bright young talent could do wonders if and when we do return to the Championship.

Let’s end the season in the best way possible, celebrating that Wigan Athletic are still here – to fight another day – another day that has a brighter future than we could ever have imagined thanks to those that saved us. The sung and the un-sung.

Sean Livesey

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