Wigan Athletic head coach Ryan Lowe has admitted he was out of his comfort zone after the Latics endured a hectic transfer deadline day.
After an inconsistent start to the campaign, the Greater Manchester-based side made a number of changes to their playing staff earlier this week. Monday represented the final chance to make alterations to their squad before January, and they eventually saw three incomings and outgoings.
A deal was made for goalkeeper Toby Savin, who has been without a club since leaving Shrewsbury Town in the summer, whilst season-long loans were wrapped up for Swansea City’s Ollie Cooper and Coventry City’s Raphael Borges Rodrigues. Meanwhile, Josh Robinson, Dion Rankine and Jonny Smith all departed the club.
Lowe Happy To See Back Of The Transfer Window
With the window now shut, Lowe can set his sights firmly on getting his side back to winning ways. They travel to Lincoln City on Saturday in search of a first league victory since August 16th, having drawn two and lost one of their last three.
Reflecting on Monday’s business, Lowe admitted he would have liked to have completed their activity much sooner:
“I won’t be doing that again, because I’ve never had a transfer deadline day quite like that one, and I don’t like it. Although we managed to pull off three fantastic signings, I like to get my work done earlier than that.
“The problem was, we were governed by players going as well, but fair play to everyone, the hard work paid off, and we managed to get three good players.”
Continuing, the former Bury boss admitted that the departure of Jonny Smith came as somewhat of a surprise after the winger joined Gillingham on a season-long loan:
“Jonny was a bit of a bizarre one really…he came to see me after the Stockport game, and expressed a desire to leave on loan.
“That came as a shock to me, because we’d had a couple of conversations previously, with him and his agent, because there had been interest in him.
“First of all, Jonny is a fantastic lad, he’s one of the best kids I’ve ever met, and he’s a top performer. But I think he wanted to play left or right wing, cutting in and getting his shots off, and that’s fine.
“I asked him not to leave it too late if he was leaving…he did actually leave it quite late…but we had enough time to react and get Rodrigues in.
“That was massively important, because it would have left us massively isolated, and I wouldn’t have let Jonny go if we hadn’t been able to do that.”
Writer’s View
It certainly was an interesting deadline day for Wigan, who were forced to react to Jonny Smith’s late decision. However, Ryan Lowe is clearly happy that they managed to solve the problem. He will now be fully focussed on improving their league form, starting with a tough trip to Lincoln on Saturday.
