Latics Chelsea the Connections

Wigan Athletic and Chelsea don`t share many connections on the playing front, of former or current Latics players only five have been employed by the West London club and one of these, ex-Latics keeper Bob Ward was the Physio at Stamford Bridge.

Dave Beasant, David Glenn, Mario Melchiot and Emerson Thome are players who have worn both the blue of Wigan and the blue of Chelsea

Whilst Ian McNeil, who was Latics first ever Football League manager also had a spell as assistant manager at Chelsea but the most intriguing of all connections is that of Ken Bates.

Ken Bates was a director of Wigan Athletic when in 1982 he bought Chelsea football club for the princely sum of £1 but also took on the huge debts that Chelsea had at this time.

Bates turned the fortunes of Chelsea around, along with others, and set up the deal to bring in Roman Abramovich which wiped off Chelseas £80 million debt and set them up as one of the Worlds top clubs

Bates had to give up his directorship of the Latics under football league rules when he took over at Chelsea, but said on leaving that the Latics would always have a special place in his heart and that he would never seem them in trouble.

By the late 1980`s Latics were in serious financial trouble and in danger of going out of business, in 1991 Stephen Gage, Ken Bates` son-in-law, bought an ailing Latics off the much maligned Bill Kenyon and steady the ship.

By 1995 the club had settled so much as to be an attractive proposition for current Chairman Dave Whelan and the rest as they say is history.

So Ken Bates has had a major part to play in both Latics and Chelseas recent history and its fair to say that neither club would be where they are today if it wasn`t for his foresight and guidance


Vital Latics - Bringing you the memories

Vital Wigans latest Latics Speyk podcast, Podcast 4 the Chelsea Preview is now available for download and as the title suggests it is a preview to the Chelsea Vs Wigan Athletic game this Saturday but it also features an interview with the hero of that night at the Bridge from 1980 Tommy Gore.


If you subscribe to itunes you can download the Latics Speyk podcasts to listen to whenever you want, its easy, just load up your itunes then click the itunes store button on the left side of the screen…then click on podcast, type Wigan Athletic into the search and low and behold there we are, Latics Speyk, why not subscribe, its free and you will get notified as soon as each new episode is broadcast.

You can listen to the current episode of the podcast now by clicking on the player here:

For the very latest Premier League odds

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.