JCMUtdfan1

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Hi everyone,

I've always seemed to have a soft spot for Wigan when I first saw them play in the Premier League and hearing about their journey from League 2 to arguably the best league in the world. But after an impressive first season which saw them sit in second place in November as well as reaching the League Cup final, they have been struggling to stay in the Premier League. This is what prompted my story idea as I thought it would be good if I could secure Wigan in the Premier League and put an end to those 'great escapes', no matter how exciting they may be. Eventually the ideal would be to get Wigan challenging for European football and then challenging for the title etc, but I don't know if I'm a good enough player to be able to do that so I'm just going to see how it goes. If anyone is interested in following this then that would be great and the first update will be up soon which will have Pre-season and August in it. Hope you enjoy the story :)

*EDIT*
Just so you know in case you think that the story will be five seasons of just escaping the relegation zone, I've had more success than I thought I would. I won't be specific as it would give it away but I thought the title may give the wrong impression to some people.
 
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Martinez Resigns!

The much loved Wigan manager has resigned from his post this afternoon, declaring that he wants to spend more time with his family in Spain. The Wigan fans are upset but can understand the manager's decision, and he will always be loved for the 'great escapes' he led Wigan to over the seasons. Questions will now be asked as to who will take over as Wigan manager, and whether they can secure Wigan's survival in the Premier League or whether it will be a continuation of the season long battle against relegation. Paul Jewell is linked with coming back to the club he managed as well as names like Steve Kean and Mark Hughes. Dave Whelan and his team are expected to name their new manager by the end of next week.

 
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Wigan Hire Conroy

After taking a sabbatical from football, Jordan Conroy has taken a leap back into management with Wigan Athletic. The appointment comes as a bit of shock after Conroy's stints at high profile clubs such as Manchester United, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich; winning multiple league titles and European cups. The Wigan fans are ecstatic about the appointment, wondering if this spells the end of the months of nail-biting as they try to avoid relegation. In an interview Jordan said "The short term aim for the club is to secure it's status in the Premier League without having to perform miracles at the end of every season. Once survival has been consolidated the long term aim is to push for European competitions and even the title if we become good enough". People scoffed at the long term aims, thinking that he must be mad to think he can get Wigan Athletic into Europe. The fans are also skeptical about this but aren't going to complain if it happens. The season starts next month and we will see if Conroy can work his magic on Wigan Athletic.​
 
Pre-Season

I wanted to try and get my transfers done as early as possible, though with the limited transfer budget I needed to sell a few players before I could bring in the players I wanted. I signed Wellington Nem as everyone else has done on this game and I was surprised he wanted to come to Wigan. Another surprise transfer was Anderson from Man United, when I saw he was available I thought I'd try and snap him up and I was able to do so. I also brought a couple of people in on loan to cover positions and I managed to get Royson Drenthe on a free which I thought was pretty good.

View attachment 294260

Pre-Season Games

21/7/12 A
Wigan Athletic 5 vs. 0 Welling
Di Santo(8) Kone(14,53) OG(45) McArthur(64)

24/7/12 A
Wigan Athletic 4 vs. 0 Aldershot
Di Santo(25,74) Kone(29) Jones(84)

28/7/12 A
Wigan Athletic 4 vs. 3 Portland
Beausejour(8) Kone(22, 86) Caldwell(27)

2/8/12 A
Wigan Athletic 2 vs. 0 DC United
Di Santo(5) Caldwell(77)

4/8/12 A
Wigan Athletic 1 vs. 0 Philadelphia
Di Santo(48)

11/8/12 A
Wigan Athletic 1 vs. 0 Chivas USA
Boyce(82)

*Ramis injured 5 weeks*


August

Not the easiest start to a Premier League season by any stretch of the imagination but I thought we did pretty well. Playing out a thrilling 3-3 against Arsenal and going 2-0 up at the home of the champions was pretty impressive. I wasn't expecting to get at the end of those two games so I'm thrilled I managed to get a point out of them. Also a routine win in the Capital One Cup saw us out the end of the month.

Premier League
18/8/12 H
Wigan Athletic 3 vs. 3 Arsenal
Kone(7, 82) Di Santo(35)
Arteta(4) Giroud(9) Podolski(31)

Really pleased and surprised we managed to earn a point out of this game as we worked hard from the start.

25/8/12 A
Wigan Athletic 2 vs. 3 Man City
Caldwell(12) Di Santo(22)
Tevez(38, 43) Kolarov(61)

*Kone injured 4 weeks*

I thought another upset was on the cards as we went 2-0 up but it wasn't to be as City managed to fight back, what a scalp that would have been early on.

Capital One Cup
28/8/12 H
Wigan Athletic 3 vs. 1 Nottingham Forest
Di Santo(3) Wellington Nem(14) Miyachi(56)
Crusat(37)

A nice easy game to finish the month with compared to the first two though one of our departures hit back at me by scoring.

View attachment 294263
 
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September

A slightly easier month though it was interrupted by the incredibly annoying international break. The late winner at the start of the month helped us along as the first win is always important. We seem to be scoring well so far but that went out the window in the Capital One Cup 4th Round where we had about 3 easy chances to score which we somehow managed to miss before getting hit on the break. We made up for it by spanking Reading 5-1 at the end of the month to improve our goal difference.

Premier League
1/9/12 H

Wigan Athletic 3 vs. 2 Stoke City
Ninkovic(37) Boyce(54) Kone s/o(70) Di Santo(90)
Crouch(16) Jones(62)

Great to win the game in the last minute like that, nice to get the first win on the board as well.

15/9/12 A
Wigan Athletic 1 vs. 1 West Ham
Di Santo(57)
Carroll( 6) Nolan s/o(31)

Bit disappointed we didn't win this one as they had a man disadvantage for most of the game.

Capital One Cup 3rd Round
25/9/12 A

Wigan Athletic 0 vs. 1 West Brom
Dorrans(69)

*Ramis injured 3 weeks*

We should have won this game easily but we just couldn't finish our chances and paid the price.

Premier League
29/9/12 H

Wigan Athletic 5 vs. 1 Reading
Kone(22,35) Drenthe(24,32) Caldwell(40)
Roberts(49)

This made up for not being able to score last game but annoyed we couldn't get the clean sheet we should have had.


View attachment 294265
 
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October

Another interesting month with a couple of shock results thrown in. We start the month with the 2-2 draw against Chelsea as we seem almost unbeatable at home before doing to West Brom what we should have done last month as well as picking up our first competitive clean sheet. We lost the plot against Sunderland before smashing Liverpool 3-1 at Anfield to finish the month!

Premier League
8/10/12 H

Wigan Athletic 2 vs. 2 Chelsea
Alcaraz(10) Kone(77)
Ben Arfa(31) OG(82)

*Anderson injured 4 weeks*

A game where we were unlucky to draw really as it was only an own goal that got them the point as at that time they never looked like scoring

20/10/12 H
Wigan Athletic 3 vs. 0 West Brom
Kone(15) Di Santo(43) Wellington Nem(78)

A great game where we dominated throughout, we seem to be doing better than I thought this season...

27/10/12 A
Wigan Athletic 1 vs. 3 Sunderland
Kone(26)
Brown(36) Sessegnon(41) McClean(89)

*Ramis injured 4 weeks*

With their position in the league we should be doing better than that thought the 3-1 score does flatter them.

31/10/12 A
Wigan Athletic 3 vs. 1 Liverpool
Kone(36) Watson(82) Ninkovic(85)
Cole(73)

On Halloween it was Liverpool who went away with a fright as they went to pieces in the last 10 minutes which we took full advantage of.

View attachment 294273
 
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Good story man! I'll follow :) check out my Wigan story, "Room for potential" - The Wigan Athletic Story
 
November

A pretty tough month where we had our first home league defeat and the first game where we were completely outclassed. The two came at the start of the month where Tottenham battered us 4-0 before losing 3-2 to Man United at home. We then dropped more points against Southampton before winning against Norwich and QPR. We seem to be going well in the league, well above the relegation zone and I hope we can continue that later on in the season.

*2/11/12 - Brendan Rodgers sacked as Liverpool manager*

Premier League
3/11/12 A

Wigan Athletic 0 vs. 4 Tottenham
Sosa(9) Huddleston(40) Adebayor(45+1, 64)

Disappointed in this game as we never looked like scoring.

10/11/12 H
Wigan Athletic 2 vs. 3 Man United
Kone(27, 84) Figueroa s/o(88)
Rooney(4,22) Evra(83)

This game wasn't as close as it looked though we had a chance to nick a draw right at the end.

17/11/12 A
Wigan Athletic 1 vs. 1 Southampton
Kone(19)
Lambert(66)

Another lackluster performance away from home but at least we picked up a point.

*22/11/12 - Stuart Pearce hired as Liverpool manager*

24/11/12 A
Wigan Athletic 4 vs. 1 Norwich
Anderson(12) Di Santo(64,70,89 pen)
Morison s/o(40) Bennett(73)

This is more like it, a convincing performance as well as our first hat-trick of the season.

28/11/12 H
Wigan Athletic 2 vs. 1 QPR
Kone(8,21)
Cisse(27)

A narrow win where nothing much seemed to happen past the 30 minute mark.

View attachment 294275
 
December

Injuries are starting to set in this month which is terrible news as we don't have a very deep squad. Three injuries in one game was taking the **** a bit though we still managed to hold City to a 0-0 even with playing most of the second half with 10 men because of the injuries. The wins are becoming less frequent though we have had a tough run of fixtures which isn't likely to improve over January, I'm just hoping we'll be able to pick up enough points to keep ourselves in the top half of the table.

Premier League
1/12/12 A

Wigan Athletic 2 vs. 1 Swansea
Watson(3) Di Santo(24)
Shechter(10)

*Watson injured for 5 months*

A solid win away from home which we hadn't been doing earlier on this season but Watson being injured for so long is annoying.

8/12/12 H
Wigan Athletic 1 vs. 1 Everton
Drenthe(74)
Jelavic(49)

*8/12/12 - Martin Jol sacked as Fulham manager*

A game which we should be winning considering Everton's position in the table but it took a free-kick from Drenthe to earn a point.

15/12/12 H
Wigan Athletic 0 vs. 0 Newcastle

A boring game where neither side created many chances, a win would have been nice though.

*21/12/12 - Ian Holloway hired as Fulham manager*

22/12/12 A
Wigan Athletic 3 vs. 1 Fulham
Wellington Nem(12) Di Santo(13) Kone(70)
OG(17)

Our away form seems to be better than our home form at the minute which is a complete turn around from the start of the season where I couldn't buy a win away from home.

26/12/12 A
Wigan Athletic 2 vs. 3 Aston Villa
OG(17) Di Santo(72)
Benteke(10) Bent(35) Westwood(50)

We never seemed to get going in this game enough to win but we managed to pick up a couple of goals like we seem to do at home.

29/12/12 H
Wigan Athletic 0 vs. 0 Man City

*Kone injured for 7 weeks*
*Caldwell injured 1 week*
*Anderson injured 6 weeks*


This game really annoyed me in terms of injuries as three of my key players have been injured, and two for an extended period. On the other hand I was happy with the way we defended, even though City were wasteful.


Sorry but I forgot to take a screenshot of the league table this month, though I think we were still in 9th
 
Hey guys, I haven't updated in ages but have finally got myself back into the save and I've made more progress with it. I'll be updating tomorrow though I'll probably have a lack of screenshots to put up as I kept forgetting to take them but hopefully you'll get the idea :p
 
January

With injuries starting to hit, this month was quite a tough one as we struggled to pick up points until the end of the month. We did manage to get a run of clean sheets going at the end of the month which is quite surprising as they've been really difficult for us to get this season. I'm quite upset that we're out of the F.A Cup so early but I suppose we can now concentrate on the league and keep our top half finish.

Also I've been quite busy in the transfer market picking up a couple of players, most notably Adel Taarabt as well as some defensive cover and Milevskyi as an extra option up front. Also got rid of some dead wood and tried to free up the wage budget.

View attachment 308415

Premier league
1/1/13 A

Wigan 0 vs. 1 Arsenal

F.A Cup 3rd Round
5/1/13 H

Wigan 0 vs. 0 Wolves

Premier League
12/1/13 A

Wigan 2 vs. 3 Stoke
Di Santo (21) Murphy (55)

F.A Cup 3rd Round Replay
16/1/13 A

Wigan 1 vs. 3 Wolves
Caldwell (60)

Premier League
19/1/13 H

Wigan 2 vs. 0 Liverpool
Reina (O.G 21), Wellington Nem (24)

23/1/13 H
Wigan 1 vs. 0 West Ham
McCarthy (22)

29/1/13 A
Wigan 1 vs. 0 Reading
Milevskyi (39)

 
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February

A fairly quiet month here to be honest where not a lot went on. The loss away to Chelsea was disappointing but we responded well with four points from the next two games. A push for Europe seems unlikely this season and I think our best bet would be a good cup run in the next season or two.

Premier League
2/2/13 A

Wigan 0 vs. 3 Chelsea

9/2/13 H
Wigan 3 vs. 1 Sunderland
Drenthe (20) Wellington Nem (44) Sulejmani (62)
26/2/13 A
Wigan 2 vs. 2 West Brom
McCarthy (58) Wellington Nem (65)

 
March


Another really short month with tough games in it. We came out surprisingly well from it seeing as though we had to play Tottenham at home and United away. These international breaks are starting to annoy me as we can't get a decent run of games going.

Premier League
4/3/13 H

Wigan 1 vs. 1 Tottenham
Kone (4)

16/3/13 A
Wigan 1 vs. 3 Man United
Milevskyi (56)

30/3/13 H
Wigan 4 vs. 0 Southampton
Taarabt (30) Caldwell (41) Di Santo(66, 90+1)

 
April

Coming into the end of the season we needed to start picking up the points and we did just that, losing only once this month. Scoring goals a plenty which is positive but our defence can be a bit shaky at times. I'm sorry I forgot to take screenshots for the league table but I think we're around 8th/9th at the end of this month.

Premier League
6/4/13 H

Wigan 2 vs. 0 Norwich
Sulejmani (80) Ruddy (O.G 88)

15/4/13 A

Wigan 3 vs. 1 QPR
Hleb ( 6) Di Santo (48) Drenthe (73)

20/4/13 H
Wigan 5 vs. 3 Swansea
Di Santo(11), Wellington Nem(22), Taarabt(53, 61) Ninkovic(90)

27/4/13 A
Wigan 1 vs. 2 Everton
Di Santo (37)
 
May + End of Season


A really strong end of season for us with two wins out of three and we managed to secure 7th place. The last game of the season was irrelevant for us as we couldn't move up or down the league. Sometimes you can get into Europe on the back of a seventh place finish but it wasn't to be with Wolves winning the Captial One Cup. One thing's for sure and that is I'll need to reassess my aims for this story as I believe we should be able to get Wigan into the Champions League in the next two or three seasons rather than just securing survival. In the transfer window I'll be looking to strengthen my back line and hopefully bring in a back up goalie for when Al-Habsi is unavailable. Bring on next season!

Premier League
4/5/13 H

Wigan 4 vs. 1 Fulham
Taarabt(3, 7, pen 69) Wellington Nem (28)

12/5/13 H
Wigan 2 vs. 1 Aston Villa
Sulejmani (75) Wellington Nem (84)

19/5/13 A

Wigan 2 vs. 4 Newcastle
Taarabt (56) Kone (75)

View attachment 308442

Results:
View attachment 308443View attachment 308444View attachment 308445

Our team of the Season:
View attachment 308447

In other news...

I came second in the Manager of the Year award
Man United lost the Champions League Final 3-2 to Juventus
Chelsea win the league
Arsenal beat Everton to win the F.A Cup
Wolves beat Newcastle to win the Capital One Cup
 
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nice series!:)

Thanks mate :) I'm glad someone likes it because I was considering packing it in as no-one seemed to be following and I was enjoying the save too much to keep stopping to update but I'll add the second season soon then :)
 
Pre Season

This season I was looking to bring in another defender as well as a long term replacement for Al-Habsi as we need someone to cover in case he gets injured. I wouldn't mind some cover in midfield as I let Ben Watson go this summer as he wasn't that great but I need someone to replace him. A back-up for Kone would be good as well.

View attachment 309441

As you can see I managed to strengthen my defence pretty well, bringing in Tymoschuk, Kolo Toure and Kyle Naughton. I was impressed with Tymoschuk and Toure as they're quality player and it only cost 150K for the pair. I would have liked to bring Abu and Carroll in permanently but I was given a terrible transfer budget this season, I can't really remember what it was but it wasn't very good. Zoet was another loan brought in just to cover Al-Habsi.


Friendlies

20/7/13
Milwall 0 vs. 2 Wigan
Ramis(38) Caldwell(43)

27/7/13

Ebbsfleet 0 vs. 3 Wigan
Hleb(9) Naughton(13) Ramis(38)

3/8/13
Watford 0 vs. 2 Wigan
Anderson(2) Wellington Nem(16)

7/8/13
Wigan 4 vs. 0 Malaga
Taarabt(4, pen 39) McCarthy(21) Drenthe(33)

10/8/13
Blackpool 2 vs. 2 Wigan
Kone(48) Wellington Nem(53)

Summary

Not a bad pre-season, plenty of clean sheets which was promising as that was a big weakness of ours last season. The 4-0 win over Malaga was a personal highlight but the 2-2 draw against Blackpool brought us back down to earth. We have another tough opening day of the season as we play Arsenal at home which was the same as the opening day of last season. If we get the same result as last season (a 3-3 draw) I'll be happy with that. Let's see what the season holds!

 
Wigan make Perfect start!

Wigan Athletic have made a perfect start to the season under their rookie manager Jordan Conroy. This included an opening day win over Arsenal. People were surprised at Wigan's choice to hire an amateur when they had enough trouble surviving as it was but so far he's proved people wrong, guiding Wigan to a seventh place finish last season. The question on everyone's lips now is whether it was a one hit wonder or if Wigan will be able to push on from this and maybe even claim a European spot. If this early season form is anything to go by they could be up there at the end of the season, only time will tell.

View attachment 309451

August

Premier League
17/8/13
Wigan 1 vs. 0 Arsenal
Drenthe (69)

Great start to the season, wasn't really expecting this but a great free-kick from Drenthe gave us the points.

24/8/13
West Ham 0 vs. 2 Wigan
Taarabt (19, 84)

Another good result and a clean sheet away from home, looking promising.

Capital One Cup 2nd Round
27/8/13

Bournemouth 0 vs. 2 Wigan
Anderson(40) Carroll(73)

Easy enough.

(Sorry no league table this month but I forgot to take the screenshot)
 
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