Wigan face up to Hutchings mistakePremier League Wigan Athletic by Jonathan Stevenson - BBC Sport (U1987325) 05 November 2007 ![]() In the frenetic end to the 2006/07 season, Wigan’s appointment of Chris Hutchings as their new manager went largely unheralded. Wigan are beginning to look like a club who are slipping out of the Premier League Surely Whelan should not have made the same mistake seven years on? When Hutchings was appointed, these 606 messageboards were inundated with messages from Wigan fans worrying that Whelan had been panicked into making a decision. More ominously, there were plenty more missives from Bradford fans that served as a stark reminder of Hutchings’ failure during his time in charge at Valley Parade. Sadly for Wigan, Hutchings and Whelan, the doom-merchants were proved to be right. Now, six months on, Whelan has the most important decision of his chairmanship to make. He has done the sensible thing in putting Hutchings’ assistant Frank Barlow – who two seasons ago had a superb spell as caretaker-manager at Nottingham Forest – in temporary charge. Now, Whelan must bide his time and search for a manager who can inspire the current crop of players to win another fight against the drop. Wigan are beginning to look like a club who are slipping out of the Premier League. They have lost six games in a row, have plummeted to 18th after topping the table early on and are short on goals as well as confidence, finding the net just twice in their last five games. When you think about who might be able to conjure up another Houdini act, the name Paul Jewell springs to mind. But who do you think should be charged with trying to keep Wigan in the top flight? Latest 10 commentsRead members' comments or add your own
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wulfran (U8609432) posted Nov 7, 2007 Why does Bolton Barrass have to slag off a team he doesn't support when his own team seem to be in disarray? Without Big Sam they look useless.
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GroenGeelHart (U1775527) posted Nov 7, 2007 Many Bolton fans want to see Wigan stay up and do well in the premiership. All clubs have WUMs and idiots, we have our fair share on the Bolton message board.
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New123Zealand (U10292320)
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geefunkhammer (U8933644) posted Nov 8, 2007 was always going to be a mistake, like sammy lee taking over at bolton, so totally obvious to anyone that knows anything about the game.
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Leachy_No9 (U10282404) posted Nov 8, 2007 'inundated with messages from Wigan fans'
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BeachyHed (U5377980) posted Nov 9, 2007 I think John Gregory might be the only manager able and willing to take on an imploding Wigan. He needs a job and is aggressive in his approach which in such desperate times is the order of the day.
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carlos94 (U8278155) posted Nov 11, 2007 are you stupid he is not a good manager he always played sibierski up front and he played this team all the time.
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wiganathleticsrob (U10383452) posted Nov 16, 2007 Hutchings should of never been put in charge. When paul left we should of brought in a top class manager with experience in the top level. One option we had was Neil Warnock who had a good season with Shefield and he would of been a good replacement. My personal choice for manager would be Steve Staunton, he had a good spell with the Republic getting some good results against Germany and the Czechs and he could be the man who keeps us up.
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BloodyMarvellous (U2163770) posted Nov 16, 2007 Carlos - why do you keep putting Fitz Hall in your line-up? He's been lousy recently.
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Chris-H- (U2579089) posted Nov 24, 2007 Steve Staunton had an awful spell in charge or Ireland. We lost to cyprus 5-2 and beat San Marino 2-1 at with an injury time winner. Tactical nightmare and the players didnt respect him Comment on this article |