Wigan Athletics' academy the backbone of the club

To start this off we have to look at the most successful of Wigan’s academy products and that is former Everton and England full back Leighton Baines. Baines came through the Latics academy in 2002 where he went on to play 145 times for Latics scoring 4 including an absolute stunner against Ipswich town. Leighton would achieve promotion to the top flight with Latics in 2005 being a key part in the young squad impressing all season. In 2007 he moved to Everton for a suspected £7.5 million fee which was huge for the club and allowed for reinvestment in the top flight.

Another premier league academy success is FA cup man of the match and winner Callum McManaman. The scouser came through the ranks while Latics were in the premier league and impressed during his first stint at the club staying in the premier league and of course that display in the cup final. After relegation and a failure to get straight back into the top flight Macca went to West Brom for a fee around £6 million which was a huge financial boost for the Latics at the time. Macca is now on his third stint at the club and is loved by the fans even though he is limited to an impact sub. Another success out of the academy

Macca after FA cup final MOTM

The tough period

between Macca and around 2019 Wigan’s academy seemed to have stopped producing good young players aside from the odd one here and there with Tim Chow, Jordan Flores and Sam Cosgrove all forging successful careers in the game. Instead we seemed to focus on bringing in other clubs young players and developing them to be sold on for a profit rather than our own. Names like Wildschut, Grigg and Burn all fetched a decent profit for Wigan in the period we were not producing our own talent.

The academy is a big source of income if you can get it right and we have seen that with the financial success of Baines and Macca so not producing any top talent sees us miss out on important funds. A player I have to mention that came through in this period however is Callum Lang for me Langy represented everything I love about Wigan Athletic a funny and hardworking character who embodied the club to perfection. Played for us in admin integral in the league win and played for free at the end of the Talal era for me one of the biggest academy successes despite how it ended.

2019-present

If you look at the talent Wigan Athletic have been able to produce from 2019 to now it is outstanding. Joe Gelhardt, Alfie Devine and Jensen Wier all top talents who made Wigan a good amount of money when they needed it most (although not as much as they could have done). Joffy a premier league goal scorer Devine on the books of Spurs and Wier has made his return and looks immense in that midfield already. The admin sales of these players were painful but needed in keeping the club alive and without the academy who knows what position the club would be in today.

The admin season of 20–21 saw the peak of academy players getting minutes. A defensive duo of Emeka Obi and Adam Long behind the double pivot of Merrie and Perry and then Lang, Aasgaard and Joseph in attack was what kept Wigan in that division. All bar one of these players have forged their way in the game at different levels which is good to see and of course the players that have been sold made a good amount of money for Wigan. In the darkest hour of the club’s history it was the academy that saved us.

Since the admin season we have continued to see the academy pump out good talent the highlights of which being Hughes and Tickle. Hughes of course has just been sold to Hull for a good amount of cash and I can see Tickle doing the same. This season has seen a new academy hero come out in the name of James Carragher son of the Liverpool legend Jamie he has impressed so far and all Latics fans look forward to seeing his progression. Academy players have been huge over the past five years and I have mentioned names like Baba Adeeko, Owen Evans and so many more who have helped the club massively.

The importance of the academy now

with Danson having the goal of financial stability it is massively important to keep producing these players who will make us millions so Danson can reinvest. We’ve seen the potential with Hughes and now I think Danson is looking at Aasgaard and Tickle to be his next big sales. I can see players like Kai Payne and James Carragher being the ones to follow them with names like Adeeko and Sze either fetching a small profit or having a role in the squad.

The Wigan academy at the moment is one of the best in the EFL with young lads constantly being given the opportunity to prove themselves. This is to the big credit of Gregor Rioch and Shaun Maloney who have been able to produce and provide opportunity to so many young lads.

Thanks for reading. Up the tics