Wigan Athletic are likely to ask Roberto Martínez to remain as their manager even if the club are relegated this season, due largely to the mutual respect built up between Dave Whelan and the man he signed as one of the Spanish "three amigos" shortly after buying the club, then in League Two, 16 years ago. Wigan, with last Saturday's bottom-of-the-table 3-3 draw with Blackburn Rovers having ended a run of eight defeats, are still buoyed by Martínez's demonstration of loyalty in the summer, when he turned down Aston Villa's approach to stay at the Wigan empire Whelan built.
The club's chief executive, Jonathan Jackson, appointed last summer, says Wigan are aiming to survive in the Premier League and building for a stable future, with Martínez integral to those plans. "We still feel the team is playing well and the results will come," Jackson says. "But if the worst happens, we have made provision so that it will not be a financial disaster, and I think there will be patience and loyalty for Roberto.
"We are developing the club throughout, and stability is very important. There are many examples of clubs which do not change their manager and have success, whereas clubs who have changed their managers frequently have often not been successful."
Whelan learned that himself, scorching through six managers in six years after taking over his hometown club and declaring the ambition, widely scoffed at then, of taking Wigan to the Premier League. It was his seventh choice, Paul Jewell, who achieved that promotion, and although Martínez, the third manager since Jewell, is staring up at a huge survival challenge, it remains remarkable that Wigan, who joined the Football League in 1978, have lasted seven seasons in the Premier League.
The small-town club with average gates of 17,500 compete for fans with Wigan Warriors rugby league club while the Premier League's giants market to the masses worldwide. In the era of huge money determining success, Wigan are the Premier League's corner shop. Their total income of £43m in 2009-10 was just over a fifth that of Manchester United, the great club 20 miles away Whelan always rues not buying from Martin Edwards when he had the chance in the early 1990s.
Jackson said Wigan's matchday income – a season ticket costs around £250, children under 16 pay £50, scores of tickets are given free to schools and youth clubs – amounts to around £4m a year, about the same as United now make every game at 76,000-seat Old Trafford. "It is remarkable that we compete on the same field as some of the world's biggest football clubs," Jackson says, "but that is what we strive to do, and we are planning to grow stronger every year, develop the fan base and the football side; not for this to be the end of the journey."
It is a mistake to portray Wigan as too romantic a homespun story, owned by the stubbornly local Whelan in a league of sheikhs, oligarchs and American billionaire buyers. In their trajectory through Leagues One and Two, and in the Championship too, Wigan were the financial arrivistes, paying players' wages beyond their competitors, backed by a pile of Whelan's massive fortune.
He famously made his first venture into business with a market stall and stock bought from his £340 loyalty payment from Blackburn, for whom he played at left-back before breaking his leg in the 1960 FA Cup Final against Wolves. He developed his chain, JJB, on to retail estates nationwide from a single Wigan sports shop, JJ Bradburn, he bought in 1971, and in 2007, demonstrating keen timing, he sold his 40% stake for £240m; the company's fortunes tanked soon after.
He bought Wigan when the club was in the old Fourth Division and playing at Springfield Park, which Blackburn, on their way to the Premier League title under their own magnate backer, Jack Walker, were using for reserve matches. Whelan, having decided not to buy United because he believed it would damage JJB's replica-shirt trade if he were associated with one club, bought Wigan following a plea for support from a then director, Stan Jackson – Jonathan's father.
"I was the only kid at school who was a Wigan Athletic supporter," Jackson recalls, "because the Liverpool and Manchester clubs are within easy reach. But we have grown a fan base which is 90% local and we are doing very good deals for children and youngsters to try to change that, and get them hooked young on Wigan Athletic."
Whelan agreed to buy and back his local club, and then built the new stadium, now named DW after him and his fitness chain, for £25m. In August, Whelan converted to shares, and in effect wrote off, £48m he has loaned to Wigan, the cost of funding them from bottom to top.
Wigan's promotions and Premier League survival have been achieved with an eye for shrewd rather than marquee signings, Jackson citing Antonio Valencia (sold to United for £16m), Wilson Palacios (to Spurs for £12m) and Leighton Baines (a former Wigan trainee who Everton signed for £6m) as standout successes. Some players will inevitably be sold if Wigan's Premier League stay does end in May, but Jackson says the club's players have standard contracts that stipulate wages reduce substantially on relegation, to ensure the books will still balance.
Whelan, since dropping the bombshell in his interview with FC Business magazine that he may ask his 21-year-old grandson, who works in his DW sports business, to take over after him, was on holiday in Barbados this week, not returning calls. Back in Wigan, they explain the owner is still wondering how best to plan for the club's future. For all Wigan's charms and achievements, Whelan is not finding many takers.
