Wigan Athletic spent 8 seasons in the top flight before being relegated.
A tiny, mostly non league, team this was a glorious period for them. Even reaching two cup finals and winning one, which is more than a lot of other clubs have done in that time period. FFS, Moyes.
It's a big achievement.
The question is, given their tiny crowds, is it managerial genius that kept them there or did Dave Whelan give them enough money that you'd expect them to do it?
Wigan under Paul Jewell
After having gained promotion twice in three years to take them from the third flight to the top, while spending barely any money (he literally didn't buy a player for their championship promotion campaign) Jewell set about keeping them up.
In 2005-06, Wigan only paid their players 20.6 million combined. The third lowest in the league above only west brom and sunderland both of whom went down. They also sold 7.8 million pounds of talent as their players got noticed. They did however spend nearly 11.5 million in the market. Only 12 teams had a bigger net spend that year. Though wigan admittedly had more room for improvement than others.
Still they had an excellent season. 13th biggest spenders (net transfers), 18th biggest spenders (wages), 10th in the league, Cup runners up.
2006-07, they again had the third lowest wage bill in the league above only two relegated teams. They spent 15 million but earned 10 million from transfers. 11th biggest spenders (net transfers), 18th biggest spenders (wages), 17th in the league, early exits in the cups.
And them Jewell left. In his two seasons in the top flight he spent 9.25 million net in the transfer market (27.05 million gross) and paid 48.1 million in wages. So a total expenditure of 28.7 million a season. No other club spent that little in either of his seasons and stayed up.
The Bruce years
In 2007-08 wigan's wage bill had risen to 38.4 million, the 15th biggest in the league, they also spent just over a million in the market, selling players for 11 million and buying others for 12.
18th biggest spenders (net transfers), 15th biggest spenders (wages), 14th in the league, early exits in the cups.
By 2008-09 that wage bill had increased again to 42.1 million but was still the 15th biggest in the league. They did however spend no money in the transfer market. Selling players for 15 and a half million, they invested only 15 million of that back into the market and made a profit.
14th biggest spenders (net transfers), 15th biggest spenders (wages), 11th in the league, early exits in the cups.
And then Bruce left. He'd spent less than a million net but, like Jewell, 27 million gross. In total, transfers and wages, he spent 81.15 million or 40.6 million a season. They were one of the five lowest spenders in the league in both seasons and never finished in the bottom 6 in his time there.
Martinez
2009-10, in Martinez' first season his first order of business was to sell off two of bruce's buys for a combined fee of 22 million. Nice. Only 6.7 million of this was spent on transfers. The other 15 million was made by the club. Not only that but their wage bill dropped to 39 million.
16th biggest spenders (net transfers), 15th biggest spenders (wages), 16th in the league, early exits in the cups.
2010-11, he invested 7.5 million of the money earned the previous year into transfers, buying 9 million pounds worth of players and selling only Bramble and Scotland. The wage bill rose back up to 39.9 million.
9th biggest spenders (net transfers), 15th biggest spenders (wages), 16th in the league, early exits in the cups.
2011-12, wigan made nearly 2 million from transfers. They spent only 8 million and sold nzogbia for nearly ten just by himself. Their wage bill also dropped to only 38 million.
15th biggest spenders (net transfers), 17th biggest spenders (wages), 15th in the league, early exits in the cups.
2012-13, wigan again made nearly 2 million in the market, this by time by selling moses to Chelsea and reinvesting only 8.3 million back into the market. Their wage bill remained just under 38 million.
18th biggest spenders (net transfers), 19th biggest spenders (wages), 18th in the league, cup winners
Martinez has been very clever about getting good money for players he sells, he has made 11.65 million in the transfer market and yet has a relatively quality team. His current squad cost him 30 million in transfer fees, compared to reading and Norwich's 17 million or the 20, 22, and 27 million Fulham, west brom and Swansea paid for theirs and yet he made a profit doing so. That shows what good value he is getting out of the transfer market.
In his four years he spent 154.6 million on wages and made 11.65 million in the market (though he spent 32.1 million gross) so 142. 95 million in total or 35.8 million a season. They were the third lowest spenders in every single one of his seasons (normally they had a slightly bigger wage bill than the bottom 3 but funded it by a negative net spend).
So yeah, it's a club that should be going down and only very good management by all three of their managers kept them up as long as it did.
The interesting thing about this from an outside point of view, is jewell spent 9 million net on transfers, bruce less than a million and Martinez made more than 11 million in the market.
It seems to mean not less money being spent but rather a change of tactics. Jewell kept his team up (and indeed into the top half and to a cup final) while paying them basically championship wages (the third lowest wages in the league). By the time Bruce took over someone clearly decided that they weren't going to keep staying out of the bottom 3 without offering more money as wages than that as they wouldn't be able to either attract or keep players of the standard required.
Since then they've made an effort to be paying at least more money in wages than 3 to 5 other teams. (Though I suspect Whelan has a wage cap of 40 million and that's why Bruce left.) And they make up this money by not spending all their outgoing transfer fees.
Again I suspect Martinez has been told by Whelan that his wage bill has to be below 40 million and anything above 35 has to be funded by outgoing transfers. In short they're gambling that they're good enough at buying low and selling high to pay a wage good enough to attract players good enough for 17th. They're not gambling on a manager who uses tactics and motivation to get players on low wages to play better than the market dictates like they were under jewell (Indeed they went down this season when their wage bill was one of the bottom 3 in the league for the first time since Jewell). The manager's main job is to raise money in the market, which Martinez and Bruce have done excellently in.
It was almost inevitable that when the other clubs around them started matching their wages without having to fund that by selling their best players that Wigan could go down, and so they did. Partly this can be put as a failing of the manager, Martinez simply wasn't capable of producing a team who over 38 games would perform better than their agents reckoned their players would, his team was basically the sum of it's parts. If he paid 50k a week to eleven players then his team played like a team worth 550k a week, managers like allardyce, moyes and jewell who favour organistaion and systems over individual brilliance tend to get their teams higher than the wage bill dictates, martinez didn't. But the financial situation was basically a strightjacket for him in that the need to sell to fund his own budget stopped him ever being able to advance his team as he had to tear it apart every year and it was almost inevitable he would fail eventually. And he did win an FA cup which is difficult to argue against.
A tiny, mostly non league, team this was a glorious period for them. Even reaching two cup finals and winning one, which is more than a lot of other clubs have done in that time period. FFS, Moyes.
It's a big achievement.
The question is, given their tiny crowds, is it managerial genius that kept them there or did Dave Whelan give them enough money that you'd expect them to do it?
Wigan under Paul Jewell
After having gained promotion twice in three years to take them from the third flight to the top, while spending barely any money (he literally didn't buy a player for their championship promotion campaign) Jewell set about keeping them up.
In 2005-06, Wigan only paid their players 20.6 million combined. The third lowest in the league above only west brom and sunderland both of whom went down. They also sold 7.8 million pounds of talent as their players got noticed. They did however spend nearly 11.5 million in the market. Only 12 teams had a bigger net spend that year. Though wigan admittedly had more room for improvement than others.
Still they had an excellent season. 13th biggest spenders (net transfers), 18th biggest spenders (wages), 10th in the league, Cup runners up.
2006-07, they again had the third lowest wage bill in the league above only two relegated teams. They spent 15 million but earned 10 million from transfers. 11th biggest spenders (net transfers), 18th biggest spenders (wages), 17th in the league, early exits in the cups.
And them Jewell left. In his two seasons in the top flight he spent 9.25 million net in the transfer market (27.05 million gross) and paid 48.1 million in wages. So a total expenditure of 28.7 million a season. No other club spent that little in either of his seasons and stayed up.
The Bruce years
In 2007-08 wigan's wage bill had risen to 38.4 million, the 15th biggest in the league, they also spent just over a million in the market, selling players for 11 million and buying others for 12.
18th biggest spenders (net transfers), 15th biggest spenders (wages), 14th in the league, early exits in the cups.
By 2008-09 that wage bill had increased again to 42.1 million but was still the 15th biggest in the league. They did however spend no money in the transfer market. Selling players for 15 and a half million, they invested only 15 million of that back into the market and made a profit.
14th biggest spenders (net transfers), 15th biggest spenders (wages), 11th in the league, early exits in the cups.
And then Bruce left. He'd spent less than a million net but, like Jewell, 27 million gross. In total, transfers and wages, he spent 81.15 million or 40.6 million a season. They were one of the five lowest spenders in the league in both seasons and never finished in the bottom 6 in his time there.
Martinez
2009-10, in Martinez' first season his first order of business was to sell off two of bruce's buys for a combined fee of 22 million. Nice. Only 6.7 million of this was spent on transfers. The other 15 million was made by the club. Not only that but their wage bill dropped to 39 million.
16th biggest spenders (net transfers), 15th biggest spenders (wages), 16th in the league, early exits in the cups.
2010-11, he invested 7.5 million of the money earned the previous year into transfers, buying 9 million pounds worth of players and selling only Bramble and Scotland. The wage bill rose back up to 39.9 million.
9th biggest spenders (net transfers), 15th biggest spenders (wages), 16th in the league, early exits in the cups.
2011-12, wigan made nearly 2 million from transfers. They spent only 8 million and sold nzogbia for nearly ten just by himself. Their wage bill also dropped to only 38 million.
15th biggest spenders (net transfers), 17th biggest spenders (wages), 15th in the league, early exits in the cups.
2012-13, wigan again made nearly 2 million in the market, this by time by selling moses to Chelsea and reinvesting only 8.3 million back into the market. Their wage bill remained just under 38 million.
18th biggest spenders (net transfers), 19th biggest spenders (wages), 18th in the league, cup winners
Martinez has been very clever about getting good money for players he sells, he has made 11.65 million in the transfer market and yet has a relatively quality team. His current squad cost him 30 million in transfer fees, compared to reading and Norwich's 17 million or the 20, 22, and 27 million Fulham, west brom and Swansea paid for theirs and yet he made a profit doing so. That shows what good value he is getting out of the transfer market.
In his four years he spent 154.6 million on wages and made 11.65 million in the market (though he spent 32.1 million gross) so 142. 95 million in total or 35.8 million a season. They were the third lowest spenders in every single one of his seasons (normally they had a slightly bigger wage bill than the bottom 3 but funded it by a negative net spend).
So yeah, it's a club that should be going down and only very good management by all three of their managers kept them up as long as it did.
The interesting thing about this from an outside point of view, is jewell spent 9 million net on transfers, bruce less than a million and Martinez made more than 11 million in the market.
It seems to mean not less money being spent but rather a change of tactics. Jewell kept his team up (and indeed into the top half and to a cup final) while paying them basically championship wages (the third lowest wages in the league). By the time Bruce took over someone clearly decided that they weren't going to keep staying out of the bottom 3 without offering more money as wages than that as they wouldn't be able to either attract or keep players of the standard required.
Since then they've made an effort to be paying at least more money in wages than 3 to 5 other teams. (Though I suspect Whelan has a wage cap of 40 million and that's why Bruce left.) And they make up this money by not spending all their outgoing transfer fees.
Again I suspect Martinez has been told by Whelan that his wage bill has to be below 40 million and anything above 35 has to be funded by outgoing transfers. In short they're gambling that they're good enough at buying low and selling high to pay a wage good enough to attract players good enough for 17th. They're not gambling on a manager who uses tactics and motivation to get players on low wages to play better than the market dictates like they were under jewell (Indeed they went down this season when their wage bill was one of the bottom 3 in the league for the first time since Jewell). The manager's main job is to raise money in the market, which Martinez and Bruce have done excellently in.
It was almost inevitable that when the other clubs around them started matching their wages without having to fund that by selling their best players that Wigan could go down, and so they did. Partly this can be put as a failing of the manager, Martinez simply wasn't capable of producing a team who over 38 games would perform better than their agents reckoned their players would, his team was basically the sum of it's parts. If he paid 50k a week to eleven players then his team played like a team worth 550k a week, managers like allardyce, moyes and jewell who favour organistaion and systems over individual brilliance tend to get their teams higher than the wage bill dictates, martinez didn't. But the financial situation was basically a strightjacket for him in that the need to sell to fund his own budget stopped him ever being able to advance his team as he had to tear it apart every year and it was almost inevitable he would fail eventually. And he did win an FA cup which is difficult to argue against.
Last edited:
