After the team's stirring performance against Portsmouth last weekend Charlton fans will be hoping for more of the same when the new season kicks off at the Brick Community Stadium this Saturday at 5.30pm.
Despite their eight point deduction last season Wigan achieved a creditable twelfth place finish. However, a brief skim through the Vital Wigan website suggests that their fans' expectations for this season are modest. There are concerns about the relative youth of the squad and whether they have enough fire power up front. Although a few are hopeful of the play-offs the majority seem to expect a top ten finish at best.
Unlike Charlton, Wigan have made extensive use of the loan market this summer and they have been shopping at the top end. Five twenty year olds have been brought in on loan from Premier League clubs - Luke Chambers and Calvin Ramsay (Liverpool), Joe Hugill (Manchester United), Michael Olakigbe (Brentford) and Silko Thomas (Leicester). In addition the club have signed up Dion Rankine (21) from Chelsea, Tyrese Francois (24) from Fulham, Toby Sibbick (25) from Hearts and Will Aimson (a veteran at 30) from Exeter. Charlton fans will be familiar with Steven Sessegnon and Matt Smith but won't be able to welcome back Josh Magennis as Wigan decided not to offer him a new contract despite the fact that he was their captain last season and scored seven goals. He has since joined Exeter and we will have to wait another week to see Sean Clare who has now joined Leyton Orient.
Nathan Jones is not so keen on taking players on loan:
"You only take loans when they are categorically much better than what you could sign permanently,” he said. “They’re of a real quality and they give you a real boost. Otherwise you’re developing other people’s players. What we prefer to do is get our own players, work with them, make them better and then everyone moves forward."
Last season at Wigan the Charlton team surprised everyone by going into half time 3-0 up. Two late goals from the hosts meant a nervous finale but the visitors managed to hang on for a first away win of the season. In the return game at The Valley highly rated Wigan defender Charlie Hughes put us 1-0 up with an own goal but it needed a 79th minute equaliser from Chuks Aneke to get us a point after QPR loanee Charlie Kelman scored two in four minutes to put his team ahead. Both games emphasised the defensive frailties which Jones has sought to address.
Despite acknowledging that Saturday's game will be "very, very difficult" he is very positive about pre-season and the squad he has at his disposal. "We're in a wonderful place" he believes.
“We wanted to sign more leaders, and we have,” he explained. “We’ve done that, we’ve got a lot more leaders in the building now, in terms of how they train, how they act, how they speak. We could have had two or three [captains], whereas last year that probably wasn’t the case."
Photo by Rhea Spencer-Newell