Owen Coyle has revealed the reason he left Wigan Athletic was because of his poor relationship with Dave Whelan, the club’s chairman.
The Scot appeared to be a shrewd appointment when he was named as the successor to Roberto Martinez, who left for Everton in the summer of 2013. At this point the Latics were still basking in the glory of their sensational FA Cup success over Manchester City at Wembley Stadium, yet at the same time they were reeling over their relegation from the Premier League just days after.
Coyle was tasked with leading the DW Stadium club back into the top-flight, but he was dismissed in December less than six months into his job. This came on the back of three successive home defeats, but rather than point at such a record for his departure, the former Bolton Wanderers manager insists he had to walk due to his relationship with Whelan, who he never saw eye-to-eye with.
“I didn’t get on with the chairman from day one, truth be told, so I never actually signed my contract when I went there,” Coyle, who is still looking for a route back into the game, said. “I don’t have any regrets as such but I shouldn’t have taken the Wigan job when I did. I’ve not got any issue with being forgotten. Wherever I’ve been we’ve done very well. We never left Wigan for football reasons.
“We were three points off the play-offs with a game in hand, brought in £19million, spent £4.5million and were a game away from reaching the knockout stage of the Europa League, the only second-tier team in the competition. We left Wigan because the chairman and I never saw eye to eye. We had a couple of blazing arguments and I told him what I thought. So that’s the real reason why we left.”
It has certainly been a difficult time for Wigan since that memorable afternoon at Wembley in May 2013. Uwe Rosler, who was appointed as Coyle’s successor, was sacked earlier this season and has been replaced by Malky Mackay, who is still under investigation by the Football Association due to homophobic and racist text messages he is alleged to have sent whilst in charge of Cardiff City.
Upon appointing Mackay, Whelan felt the need to show his support for the Scot, and revealed his opinion that the text messages sent by his new manager were not necessarily offensive before going on to make comments which have also landed him with a Football Association charge. The 78-year-old Latics owner has until 6pm on Friday December 5 to answer these charges.
Was Coyle harshly treated by Whelan, or did he have to go based purely on Wigan’s poor results? Let us know what you think by joining in the discussion below.
