Hopes and Fears, Fans Thoughts #5

The latest episode in the fans 'Hopes and Fears` series sees Wigan Athletic supporter Darius Lee from Melbourne in Australia, better known on Vital Latics as d_manga_fanatic giving his thoughts on the coming season now that summer is drawing to a close, over to you d_manga_fanatic:

The season's about to kick off and since not many sites are doing preseason reviews of our great club, we'll do them ourselves. The excitement of the new season will bring many things, not just for us but for all teams... the hopes of getting off to a good start... to finally challenging the big boys... to not being the next derby county and set new 'lowest ever' records and for fans (especially for those overseas...) the relatively perfect weather for football and to sing in full voice (the bleary early mornings not withstanding for those unfortunate ones).

But enough of my jibbajabba... time to look at our expectations, hopes and fears..

Hopes:

Mid table obscurity without the at times spineless efforts that plagued us last season once safety was confirmed. To reach safety is the main priority and the earlier the better... hopefully we actually try put in some effort once safety is confirmed and finish comfortable mid-table.

Fears:

Relegation, its what we all don't want. We need to get off to a good start so that we don't end up in a relegation scrap come end of the season (a la Sheffield United last day of the season heart attack) and with a lot of inexperienced premier league players, this could be a reality but we will see how well they adjust.

Another fear would be selling our best players which as already happened with Lee Cattermole leaving for the black cats for what is considered a pathetic sum of what could have been obtained. All we need now is to sell Figueroa, Kirkland, Bramble and N'Zogbia and we would just about be done but hopefully DW isn't sniffing around for more profit considering who has left in the past 6 months.

Key Players:

Cattermole, but he`s gone so now there are 3 main players who we need to perform week in week out in order to compete at this level.

Titus Bramble: Was a rock at the back last season and arguably the season of his career. Needs to equal last season's effort and better it if possible. With the defence looking shaky in the pre-season, he needs to step up or we could be in trouble.

Chris Kirkland: The big shot-stopper had a decent season last time round but is by far the number 1 keeper in our squad. If hes on form and firing, extremely hard to beat and has saved many a point for us over his career here. Needs another relatively injury free season as back up may not be at the required quality.

Hugo Rodallega: Our number 1 striker unless a bigger established name comes in. Was unlucky to take so long to score his forst goal for us but since then, has never looked back. Has taken time to acclimatise to the English game but the dead rubbers after safety were confirmed only help to speed up his development. Will need to produce a double figures output goal wise as support again may not be of the required quality.

Predictions:

Premier League Finish: 12th

Carling Cup: 4th Round

FA Cup: 4th Round

Player of the Year: Jordi Gomez

Flop of the Year: Jason Scotland

Most Improved Youngster: Tomasz Cywka

Golden Boot: Hugo Rodallega

Player to produce the biggest fail moment of the year: Jason Koumas (nut-megging himself and snapping knee ligaments in the process of turning around to chase the striker who surged past him)

Interesting fact: Wigan has done the double over at least 1 team since it entered the premier league and hopefully this trend continues (im not 100% sure but I`m 95% sure of that fact.. :P)

Cheers

d_manga_fanatic


d_manga_fanatic

Hopes and Fears #1 by fazman can be found and read here

Hopes and Fears #2 by wigan-latics can be found and read here

Hopes and Fears #3 by lathamwafc can be found and read here

Hopes and Fears #4 by centrelink1 can be found and read here









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