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Premier League preview No19: Wigan Athletic

This article is more than 12 years old
Wigan remain an enigma but they are due an improvement and a strong start to this campaign could prove the difference
Paul Doyle and Amy Lawrence assess Wigan's chances guardian.co.uk

Guardian writers' prediction 18th (This is not necessarily Paul Wilson's prediction, but the average of our writers' tips)

Last season's position 16th

Odds against winning the title 2,500-1

Not much was predicted for Wigan Athletic when they first arrived in the Premier League in 2005, and not much can be safely predicted for them six years later. Of course it is amazing that they have stayed the course so well, absolutely no one could have foreseen such longevity when Paul Jewell took the club higher than it had ever been taken before, but though the Latics now boast more Premier League experience than a third of the top division it is still difficult to compartmentalise them or say with any certainty which part of the table they will inhabit.

Last season they were the fall guys for Blackpool's opening day stunt of a 4-0 win away from home. That helped set the tone for the Seasiders' campaign but also for the rest of Roberto Martínez's season. Instead of ensconcing themselves in mid-table and setting their sights on the lower European positions, as their optimistic young manager had initially promised, Wigan found themselves playing catch-up, and spent much of their time in the bottom three before finally recording back-to-back wins for the first and only time under Martínez just when it mattered, in the last two games of the season.

That Martínez was offered the Aston Villa job on the back of such a modest achievement was frankly bizarre, and probably says more about Villa's chaotic decision-making than the Spaniard's managerial pedigree, as does the fact that the next man Villa turned to was the one who had been relegated beneath Wigan. All because Villa were worried about an adverse fan reaction to Steve McClaren.

Martínez is still at the promising manager stage, he talks a much better game than his players are in the habit of producing, and while no one bears any ill will towards a team with high ideals and an apparent disregard of danger, the Latics were easier to watch in every sense when they were solid at the back and effective on the break under Steve Bruce.

Under Martínez, Wigan still retain some of the naivety and brittleness of a newly-promoted side, although perhaps that is part of their charm. Not everyone wants to be like Stoke, even if Tony Pulis has demonstrated how to get from the Championship into Europe in a mere three seasons. If that is Martínez's ultimate goal – and it is hard to see how the Latics could possibly aim any higher under prevailing Premier League conditions – he is having to formulate his plans on the most modest of budgets. Dave Whelan seems willing to fund a competitive Premier League team but one without frills.

Transfer activity this summer has been limited, to say the least, though making Ali al-Habsi a permanent signing was an important and popular move. The Wigan goalkeeper generally has a lot of work to do, and for the most part Habsi has done his share extremely well. There are those who would suggest he did more than anyone else to keep the team up last season, though a much more convincing candidate for that honour would be Charles N'Zogbia, whose goals and assists in the closing stages were quite literally the difference between staying up and going down. The point was not lost on Alex McLeish, who had unsuccessfully attempted to take the player to Birmingham.

McLeish now has his man at Villa, and with the loan signing Tom Cleverley back at Manchester United there may be a shortage of creativity at the DW Stadium, where goals were never abundant last season. Martínez promised to address that failing over the summer, but so far no striker has been signed and one can only imagine N'Zogbia's contribution will be missed.

Whelan has pledged most or all of the £9.5m raised on N'Zogbia to fund the goalscoring replacement Martínez still says is a priority, though the club owner is bound to harbour some reservations about his manager's eye for a striker after the £6.5m wasted on Mauro Boselli. The Argentine striker has just been sent back to Estudiantes on a year-long loan, a frank admission, as if failure to register a single goal in his mere handful of league appearances was not enough, that Martínez may have misjudged Boselli's suitability for English football.

The Wigan manager has been linked with a couple of strikers over the summer, though no names have yet been mentioned to set the fans' pulses racing, and it appears the club will start with Victor Moses up front, who at least has looked sharp in pre-season.

Like his manager, Moses is no longer a promising young prospect, he has been around long enough now to start to deliver, and maybe this season he will. There ought to be goals in a Moses-Hugo Rodallega partnership, but with the departures of N'Zogbia and Cleverley, the Latics will have lost much of their width and penetration. Martínez is supposed to be out shopping, because last season clearly indicated which areas need strengthening, yet now he is back talking diplomatically about the importance of recognising the quality of players already at the club and claiming to be looking for the right characters to add to the blend.

That probably rules out a bid for Joey Barton, with whom the Latics have been briefly linked. The Newcastle malcontent would be a most un-Martínez-like signing, and Whelan would probably be unwilling to meet his wage demands in any case, but Barton ticks all the other boxes Wigan need ticking. He would certainly stiffen the side's resolve and add some of the streetwise spikiness the team has been missing. Shaun Wright-Phillips, another long-shot name in the frame, is unlikely to do so to the same extent, and to date Martínez has contented himself with just the addition in midfield of David Jones, formerly of Wolves.

How the season will go is anyone's guess, as usual, but the potential for an early surprise is multiplied by three this time. Last season it was just Blackpool on day one. Now Wigan have been given Norwich, Swansea and Queens Park Rangers as their first three fixtures. Then it's Manchester City, Everton and Spurs. Most clubs would gladly accept three promoted clubs as an introduction to a new season, and if Wigan can cash in on their luck they could get away to a flying start and never look back at the relegation dogfight. But then again, it would not greatly surprise anyone at the DW were Wigan to fare better in the second set of three games than the first. You just never know with Wigan, but a personal hunch is that they are due one of their better seasons. Martínez could be in demand again in nine months, hopefully this time for all the right reasons.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Premier League preview No20: Wolverhampton Wanderers

  • Premier League preview No18: West Bromwich Albion

  • Premier League preview No17: Tottenham Hotspur

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