Luis Signs On At Trademark!

My best wishes go to Luis Antonio Valencia who has signed for Manchester United™ for an ‘undisclosed fee’ (about £16 million!). ‘LAV’ was a great player for Latics, his pace and creativity causing many a side a problem during his 3 years with the club. He also had the ability to ‘get stuck in’ which is a rare quality in such a player, in these modern times.

Paul Jewell (or if you believe what the press say, Steve Bruce) ‘unearthed’ Luis after watching him play for Ecuador in the 2006 World Cup, where they were knocked out by a lacksure England side in the second round.

I remember being away at a college at the time and reading in the paper about how we signed him, I was excited as I had seen him take the piss out of Ashley Cole (not that difficult really) at the World Cup. I showed a mate (a Liverpool fan from er Stevenage!) and he didn’t have a clue who he was. And I thought ‘true football fans’ are really knowledgeable about the game? Needless to say, he’ll know who he is now!

I’m a bit saddened in a way that he has gone to Trademark United, a club who I have come to hate more than anyone else last season. Some of you may think I’m jealous, well I’m not. I’ll tell you a bit about myself – I used to ‘support’ United. That’s right, that great team of Robson and Hughes etc not girly prima donnas like Ronaldo or Rooney, by the way. Sorry, I digressed for a minute there!

All this quickly changed when my Dad took me to see Latics play Lincoln City at Springfield Park in Division 3. I was instantly hooked on Latics. Within a few months I got rid of my Man United shirts and squealed with delight when my Dad bought me my first Latics top. You see, I don’t care what division my team is in, they are MY team and being a Wiganer, I belong to them and they belong to me. That is what supporting a football club is all about. Manchester United™ are just a business, a fashion accessory, they don’t need you as there will be plenty more deluded muppets to take your place. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL CLUB!

With Latics getting ‘bigger’ in the time I’ve supported them, I’ve had to endure people who didn’t give a toss when we were in the lower leagues now swanning around in replica tops, talking shite about the club. But the fact still remains that Wigan Athletic are still a club for local people. You are likely to see your mates, people who live down the street from you or birds you are trying to avoid (not in my case, obviously) at the match, can you say that about these BIG clubs? I think the thing we have at Latics is a refreshing change to the ‘norm’, which is a big surprise coming from a town that is losing its own unique identify by every passing year.

Anyway, this is supposed to be about the Ecuadorian Michael Jackson (whoops), so good luck to the lad and I hope he keeps on improving (except against us!) His comments about how he owes Wigan everything and his thanks to the fans who supported him are very welcome (and a nice change, I wonder if a certain delusional Austrian centre-half will say the same things?), so respect to the guy!

I can’t finish this without a comment about the United fans (well those on the interweb anyway!) who are angry because he ‘isn’t a big name signing’. It just shows that these pricks know absolutely nothing about football. Cristiano Ronaldo was a HUGE name when he arrived from Sporting Lisbon wasn’t he? Twats.

Anyway, back to the DW (40) Stadium and we’ve signed a player who we wanted to sign last year – Honduran midfielder, Hendry Thomas. Thanks to work permit regulations (we let in asylum seekers who we know nothing about and yet refuse to let in footballers who will be paying a lot of tax - I don’t get it?) we couldn’t sign him because he hadn’t ‘played enough international games’. Thankfully he has now, so we’ll see whether or not he’s better than Wilson Palacios, because that’s what we’ve been told by ‘people in the know’!

Hendry joins Jordi Gomez in ‘the arrivals lounge’ (© Wigan Evening Rugby Post) as Bob Martinez continues to build his squad. I get the sneaking suspicion that we’re going to be playing 4-5-1 next season, I’m more of a 4-4-2 man myself and I don’t think that a five man midfield produces ‘attacking football’ as well. So we’ll see whether the man who has been in professional football all his working life is a better tactician than me, who can hardly direct myself home after a few pints, never mind a football team!