In case you missed it, yesterday Wigan got picked up and broken over Tottenham’s collective knee. Wigan’s not had a great season, but it’s not been terrible, either; still, any time you lose to another team 9-1, fans start thinking things like “Why the hell did I travel to see these bastards play?”
In order to mitigate those kinds of feelings, Mario Melchiot has announced that the Wigan players plan on at least taking the financial sting out of the loss.
In an announcement on Wigan’s website, Melchiot made the following statement:
“We feel that as a group of players we badly let down our supporters yesterday, and this is a gesture we HAVE TO make and pay them back for their tremendous loyalty.
“There is not a lot else to say, just that as a group of professionals we were embarrassed by the way we performed, we feel it was below our standards and this is something we feel we owe to the fans.
“Now we have to draw a line under the game, focus completely on training this week and bounce back on Saturday.
“We are professionals, we will take it on the chin and move on but it’s important that we do not take our supporters for granted.”
As someone who seems to make a history of supporting underachieving/embarassing teams, I think that’s pretty cool. Not as cool as, you know, playing better against Sunderland on Saturday…but cool enough to keep me from padlocking the practice facility to force them to train longer.
Still, this sets a dangerous precedent for other Premier League clubs; how long before Hull City fans start expecting this same treatment?
Wow. I’m impressed. Now Can you forward this article to the Browns’ Front Office? I think Clevelanders at large are owed thousands of dollars apiece by now…
The Nationals are working on a similar plan for away games next season, except instead of cash one lucky fan gets to pitch the next night.
Perhaps they could be persuaded to play ONLY away games next season?
If Wigan are setting a league standard here, at what score would the big 4 four clubs have to pay money back to their fans?