Wigan Athletic administration left supporters with burning Premier League question: View | OneFootball

Wigan Athletic administration left supporters wondering how far the strong 2019/20 squad could have taken the club

Wigan Athletic have rarely threatened a Premier League return since their relegation from the top-flight in 2013, an event which was bizarrely coupled with the club's remarkable FA Cup triumph.

In fact, the only time the Latics have ever landed a Championship play-off spot since their Premier League glory days was at the end of the 2013/14 season, which immediately followed their top tier stint.

By 2015, the Greater Manchester outfit faced relegation to League One, and the club have predominantly bounced between the second and third tiers ever since.

Wigan were on the right track in 2019/20... on the pitch

But during the 2019/20 season, the Latics, then managed by Paul Cook, began producing the sort of high quality football in the Championship which the Brick Community Stadium faithful had not seen since their side finished in the play-offs six years previously.

Wigan began that campaign in a sorry fashion, earning just two victories across the months of August and September, and looked destined for relegation.

Relegation did eventually come for Cook's men, but not in the way in which anyone involved with the football club could have imagined.

By the second half of the campaign, the Latics were producing some stunning results, such as a 1-0 victory over Leeds United at Elland Road in February 2020, before enjoying a six-game unbeaten run, including three wins, before the season took a long pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lockdown had seemingly not phased the men in blue and white, who won three games on the spin against Huddersfield Town, local rivals Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City in June 2020.

Despite not being able to attend games at the stadium, a real sense that the Latics had turned a corner swept over the Brick Community Stadium on 30th June 2020 as Cook's side hammered the Potters 3-0.

But while on-field matters couldn't be any better for a side who had maintained seven clean sheets on the trot, disaster struck off the pitch as the news broke that the Tics had entered administration on 1st July 2020 due to the financial wrongdoings of former owner Stanley Choi.

A 12-point deduction followed, which sealed Wigan's fate, and relegated a side who would have otherwise landed a comfortable 13th placed spot, despite a woeful start to the season.

Wigan fans will always wonder if Cook's side could have landed a play-off spot

Due to being in administration, the Latics were forced to sell nearly all of their squad, an eventuality which saw Cook's strong team picked apart.

Had the Greater Manchester side not been plunged into the financial doldrums, they would have landed a mid-table spot despite looking like relegation fodder earlier on in the 2019/20 season, which is testament to the strong performances the Tics put on during the latter half of the campaign.

Latics fans will forever wonder how far that squad could have gone, and even if they could have reached the Premier League once more, via the play-offs the next campaign, had things turned out differently.

Finishing in the top-six was arguably a highly achievable outcome for a squad which boasted striker Kieffer Moore, who has subsequently won two promotions to the top-flight with both Bournemouth and Ipswich Town, and also displayed prolific form while with Cardiff City, left-back Antonee Robinson, who continues to impress in the Premier League with Fulham, Jamal Lowe, who was promoted with Bournemouth alongside Moore, Sam Morsy, who now captains Ipswich in the top-flight, and the list goes on, including Kal Naismith who reached the play-offs with Luton Town.

But what will arguably always hurt the Latics the most is that their academy products were prised away courtesy of administration, including Joe Gelhardt, who has scored in the Premier League for Leeds, and Alfie Devine, who scored in the FA Cup for Tottenham Hotspur at just 16 years old.

Whether that Latics team could have finally been the one to bring top-flight football back to the town of Wigan will always trouble supporters.

2020 events will always hurt Latics fans

Since entering administration, with a squad which boasted Championship play-off credentials, the Tics have only set foot back in the second tier on one occasion, the 2022/23 season, following which they were immediately relegated back to League One.

Sadly for the Brick Community Stadium faithful, the ownership group which followed Choi's financial mismanagement, also failed to keep the club's monetary matters in order, and the eventually failed ownership of Abdulrahman Al Jasmi saw the club become subject to a winding-up petition in the summer of 2023.

Current owner Mike Danson has sensibly implemented an ethos of financial sustainability at the Brick Community Stadium, in light of the events of recent years, but the Latics now reside in League One, while that Cook side could have promised so much more.