After a difficult few years, Wigan Athletic is once again heading in the right direction as manager Shaun Maloney wants to push for promotion in 2024–2025.
However, as late as the 2022–23 Championship season, the Latics appeared to be in serious trouble. The EFL docked them three points because former owner Abdulrahman Al Jasmi routinely neglected to pay employee and player salaries on schedule.
Maloney’s team was facing an HMRC winding up petition by the summer of 2023, but current owner Mike Danson intervened to keep things afloat at the Brick Community Stadium.
The Latics’ situation on the pitch did not improve much in 2022–2023; despite their point deduction, they would have been relegated regardless. This was primarily due to Kolo Toure’s disastrous take over as manager halfway through the season, which followed Leam Richardson’s dismal run of play.
The Latics’ ability to finish in the top half of League One last season gave the team’s supporters newfound optimism, even though they were subject to a transfer ban because of the club’s prior financial mismanagement.
However, the terrible 2022–2023 season will always hurt Brick Community Stadium supporters, and Ashley Fletcher is one player linked to that difficult time.
The Tangerines recently announced the signing of Fletcher on a two-year deal, and Latics supporters will be surprised if the forward’s move to the seaside proves to be a success.
The main reason why the Latics were relegated back to League One following the 2022/23 Championship season was due to their lack of potency in front of goal.
In fact, the Greater Manchester outfit managed to score just 38 goals in their 46 second tier games, and finished the season with a goal difference of -27, the joint-worst in the division that year.
Fletcher, then on loan from Watford, did very little to help the Latics address their goalscoring issues, and scored just two goals in 26 Championship appearances with the club.
