A brace, and Ante Crnac takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ante Crnac provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wigan Athletic have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kai Payne will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wigan Athletic the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A 2‑1 win over AFC Wimbledon, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christian Saydee and Wigan Athletic agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wigan Athletic can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Michael Collodi has just signed for Wigan Athletic, and for once the answer mattered.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wigan Athletic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kai Payne will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wigan Athletic the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Wigan Athletic asked and Sheffield United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Wigan Athletic ran out of time with Everton. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Wigan Athletic and Everton have settled on $540.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.82 for the rest of it.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Wigan Athletic until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wigan Athletic can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Bournemouth, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kai Payne has agreed terms with Crewe Alexandra for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Wigan Athletic asked and Liverpool said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kai Payne will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wigan Athletic the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” James Carragher and Wigan Athletic agree another 4 years.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ante Crnac has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fraser Murray and Wigan Athletic agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Benjamin Cook could afford to be generous.
Kai Payne and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Finley Burns's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jensen Weir
Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wigan Athletic can pretend not to have heard.
Wigan Athletic asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joseph Hungbo. 2‑1 against Blackpool, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hindolo Mustapha. 2‑0 against Burton Albion, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.