Roberto Martinez: The Road to Wigan Cheer
Andy Greeves reflects on Wigan Athletic's remarkable FA Cup Final victory and talks to the club's manager Roberto Martinez.
On May 11, 2013, Wigan Athletic played their one hundredth FA Cup fixture as a league club - a run that had started with a 2-2 draw with Bury at their old Springfield Park ground on November 25, 1978 and culminated with the Latics taking to the field at Wembley Stadium for the FA Cup Final against Manchester City last Saturday.
"The Wigan Athletic story is an incredible one," manager Roberto Martinez told Soccerphile prior to the weekend's showpiece occasion. "When I arrived (as a player) in 1995 I knew that the project was something special, the Chairman (Dave Whelan) was something special, but I could never have imagined that we would reach the heights we have."
They have scaled heights indeed. Only 16 years ago, the Greater Manchester outfit were playing in the bottom division of English league football and 19 years earlier weren't even a Football League club. The turning point came in February 1995 when Bradford-born former Blackburn Rovers and Crewe Alexandra footballer David 'Dave' Whelan purchased the club.
Whelan had built a successful business career after retiring from playing in 1966, selling a chain of supermarkets called Whelan's Discount Stores for over £1m and developing JJB Sports into one of Europe's biggest sports retailers. In January 2007, he sold £50m of his shares in JJB before selling his remaining 29% stake in June 2007, making a total of £190m from JJB Sports' sale.
More recently he has acquired a number of fitness clubs and the stores attached to them, called 'DW Sports Fitness'. Wigan's stadium is now called the DW Stadium, carrying both the name of Whelan's latest venture and his initials. Perhaps fitting, given that he funded the £30m construction cost for the ground, which opened in 1999, out of his own pocket.
Ten years on from Whelan's purchase of the Latics, the club were promoted to the Premier League as Championship runners-up in 2005. This fulfilled the promise the Chairman had made to their fans of achieving top-flight status during his tenure with the club, with the other promotions achieved from the old Division Three in 1998 and the old Division Two in 2003. To date, he has invested £48m of his own money into Wigan Athletic and is currently the only former professional footballer to own a club in the top flight of English football.
"The Chairman is the reason why we have achieved what we have achieved," says Wigan manager Roberto Martinez. "In football you always need to have someone who has the vision to drive a project forward. When he started at Wigan Athletic I don't think anyone apart from him could visualise the success that was going to come. He had a difficult personal experience in the 1960 FA Cup Final (Whelan broke his leg playing for Blackburn Rovers in that final) and now it is as if his involvement brings everything full circle and so gives closure on everything."
Saturday's match saw Wigan Athletic appearing in their first FA Cup Final, while opponents Manchester City were making their tenth appearance. Experience counted for nothing though, with the side in an all-black kit looking very much at home under the Wembley Stadium arch and City looking under par. The game's key moments came in the closing stages, with Pablo Zabaleta sent off for City on 84 minutes and Ben Watson's goal for Wigan in the first minute of stoppage time at the end of 90 minutes. His header sent one half of the 86,254 crowd into delirium, the other into despair.
Many have mentioned Wigan's victory in the same breath as Sunderland, then of the old Division Two, beating much-fancied top flight side Leeds United in 1973. Or Wimbledon's 'Crazy Gang' overcoming the mighty Liverpool in 1988. Certainly when you compare Wigan's £47m spend on transfers over the last five years with Manchester City's near £550m outlay in the same period, it was certainly one of the biggest upsets in FA Cup Final history. A true fairy tale come true for Wigan.
"Traditionally, I think the FA Cup allows you to have a dream and to follow it," commented Martinez, who added that his team revelled in the role of being the firm underdog going into the final. "It serves as inspiration for us to look back and see clubs that have defied the odds. We are a team that has been doing that for years and we embrace that."
Going into the final, Wigan were already guaranteed a place in Europe, owing to Manchester City already achieving UEFA Champions League football next season because of their guaranteed second place finish in the Barclays Premier League. In doing so, another major dream of Wigan and Martinez has been recognised.
"Qualifying for the Europa League has been a big target for us since I arrived at the football club, and I made sure that everyone knew that we were working towards that," adds Martinez.
The irony is that despite Wigan's most famous season yet, things could all end on something of a sour note come Sunday if not sooner. Writing a few hours before the Latics kick-off their vital Barclays Premier League match at Arsenal on Tuesday, only a win tonight will do if they are to harbour hopes of saving their top flight status on the last day of the season.
There is doubt too over the future of inspirational manager Roberto Martinez, who has been linked with the vacancy at Everton when the position comes up when David Moyes moves to Manchester United next month.
Whatever happens over the next few weeks and months though at the DW Stadium, no one can deny the rise and rise of Wigan Athletic over the last few decades.
Quotes from Roberto Martinez were supplied by Yahoo! Sport. For more insights from other leading managers plus exclusive Premier League highlights visit Soccerphile.com
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