Apparently, when Wigan failed to pay players their salaries during the 2022-23 season due to financial issues, it allowed the players to walk away for nothing due to breach of contract. Hughes himself could’ve left Wigan for nothing last summer but he decided to sign a new contact instead. I think that clearly shows he has a strong sense of loyalty to his hometown club so that they could profit from his transfer later on. It was rumoured that there was a £3.5 million release clause in this contract he signed last summer. Whether that’s true or not I’m not sure.
But they were all sent out on loan for a reason and I think realistically Simons is probably the only one you'd want in the squad. Oscar has come back to a lot of fanfare but he's not looked decent since Big Benji was fit in that first few games when they came in. He's not looked very good in pre season either, he's just looked himself. I liked Big Benji too, shame he couldn't stay fit and was a bit of a liability.
I wonder whether part of the problem with all these transfers is that other clubs are playing hardball because they know we have money to spend following the big sales we've made. I suppose it means we have to make a choice about when to bite the bullet and pay up and when to refuse to be held to ransom. It might be that we can't realistically sign anyone we want without paying a bit of a premium. Tricky situation if so.
Probably doubly so if so many clubs are struggling for money themselves. I can't imagine Wigan are in a position to just let Hughes walk for pittance.
I suspect that part of the deal was to support us to try and get to the EPL, and Acun went for it, particularly in January (I seemed to remember Acun saying McVities sponsorship help get Philogene deal over the line). Hence, maybe why Liam got the bullet, because we should have got into the playoff's with the signings brought in, but we failed. Though I would be surprised if McVities came back onboard if we reach the EPL.
Agreed , Giles is not a full back to me , he’s a reasonable winger . It would be good if Tan came out and said we are being held to ransom if the problem rather than silence .
Makes sense. Uses up a loan spot but then assume allows us to overspend on Hughes/Millar to get them over the line.
So another game we can now watch sunday and we will be able to see what he is like and have a bet on the game .
