Marked for Baba Adeeko
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market29 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Wigan Athletic is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market29 Mar 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Wigan Athletic heard it as anything else.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Sam Tickle in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wigan Athletic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sami Wattel is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Wigan Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justin Devenny is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market15 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Fraser Murray
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fraser Murray will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wigan Athletic the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom15 Mar 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Sam Tickle in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wigan Athletic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fraser Murray, and the manager let it.
Match13 Mar 2027
A 1‑0 win over Northampton Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Wigan Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Hungbo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Marked 7.97 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Wigan Athletic had the best player on the pitch.
Squad15 Mar 2027
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
The Wigan Athletic board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Match6 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Wigan Athletic's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Wigan Athletic has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Sam Tickle was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Morgan Fox commits to Wigan Athletic for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Justin Devenny falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match6 Mar 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Baba Adeeko gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market8 Mar 2027
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Wigan Athletic money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Sam Tickle was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Joe Wormleighton has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Wigan Athletic have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Joseph Hungbo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Match20 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad22 Feb 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
The bid was some way short and Wigan Athletic did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Sam Tickle in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wigan Athletic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Caylan Vickers 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Wigan Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Hungbo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Marked 7.78. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Feb 2027
5 new faces, and Wigan Athletic are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match30 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 49. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Sam Tickle in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wigan Athletic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Wigan Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justin Devenny is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Wigan Athletic are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market18 Jan 2027
The name of Callum McManaman has come up in conversations Wigan Athletic were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Marked 7.72 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Wigan Athletic had the best player on the pitch.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Fraser Murray knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fraser Murray trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Oct 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match24 Oct 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Caylan Vickers at 21 — 7.76
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Caylan Vickers did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Sam Tickle in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wigan Athletic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Wigan Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justin Devenny is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
At 21 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.52 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.34 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Baba Adeeko gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Stoke City for Fraser Murray was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sam Tickle commits to Wigan Athletic for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sam Tickle in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wigan Athletic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Wigan Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morgan Fox is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Fraser Murray
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Baba Adeeko's contract
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.