Published on September 06, 2005

Wigan Athletic, better known as the Latics up in Lancashire, are providing a welcome of their own for the likes of Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich, Sunderland’s Bob Murray and all Premiership chairmen heading theirway.

No, proud Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has not gone overboard with the bottles of bubbly, whisky, gin, vodka and beer which have always been part and parcel of home hospitality at all major clubs.

Instead he dishes out Joe’s mint balls, good old-fashioned meat pies and anything else that is typically Wigan.

There is even a pie eating contest between Wigan and visiting fans before each home game, though so far no one has deposed the local champion whose record is four in five minutes – many of us wouldn’t get through half of one in such a short space of time.

When Abramovich visited Wigan at the start of the season, he was given the use of Whelan’s helicopter pad just 400 yards from the JJB stadium. While the Russian may be a pound billionaire 4.5 times over, the Wigan chairman can also boast of a decent bank balance – ?250 million isn’t to be sneezed at for a man whose soccer career ended when he broke his leg in the Blackburn v Wolves 1960 FA Cup final.

But Whelan, 23 when his playing career came to a premature end, didn’t start feeling sorry for himself and instead built up and made a fortune when he launched and successfully developed the JJB sportswear company.

Why JJB? Well the previous three owners of the grocery shop Whelan originally purchased in hometown Wigan and later sold to a supermarket chain, were Messrs Broughton, Braddock and Bradburn who all had the initials JJ, making the adaptation natural.

Whelan at first specialised in selling angling equipment including the UK freshwater fisherman’s favourite bait, maggots. The business took off rapidly during the 1980s and there were 119 outlets when it was floated on the stock exchange in 1994. Today that figure stands at close to 500.

Now he fronts Wigan Athletic of premiership standing, quite amazing for a man who only took charge there 10 years ago with perhaps one of the most famous rugby league clubs in the world, Wigan, sharing ground facilities.

Everything must have seemed an eternity away when Wigan entertained Chelsea in their first premiership game three weeks ago as Whelan recalled a crowd of just 1,452 at their old Springfield Park ground against Hartlepool in February 1995 when he first took charge of the club.

Wigan’s lot this season will also put them in the trivia quiz book for when Arsenal complete their 2005-06 premiership programme, the last visitors to Highbury before the Gunners move to Ashburton Grove will be Whelan’s men from the JJB.

That’s on May 7, but will Wigan still be in the premiership by then? Well manager Paul Jewell kept Bradford up on the last day of the 1999-2000 season so who is to say he won’t succeed again – and remember who the visitors to Valley Parade on the last day of that season were? Correct if you said Liverpool, who were beaten 1-0.

Talking of Lancashire hot pies, Wigan are at West Bromwich Albion this Saturday and the Baggies chairman Jeremy Peace can serve up a couple of tasty Black Country dishes himself before enjoying the delicacies which will be offered to him at the return game on Sunday, January 15.

Groaty Dick Pudding is one, and it’s a fair bet Whelan will have no idea what it contains if he ever sinks his teeth into one. The other is grey peas (pronounced pays in the local jargon) and bacon, a pub favourite.

Not far from Wigan is the Reebok Stadium, home of Bolton Wanderers whose latest recruit Hidetoshi Nakata, signed on loan, lives and plays his football surrounded by a constant circus that defines the game’s appeal in Asia.

While David Beckham remains the number one soccer icon in Japan where giant ads of the England captain dominate the Tokyo skyline, designer clad Nakata who gives every indication he loathes publicity, runs him a close second.

Nakata spent seven years in Italy’s Serie A. Once a ?13 million signing for Roma, he was later farmed out on loan to Fiorentina for a year, long enough for him to gain sufficient motivation in his own eyes to give up the sweet life in Florence for the grime of playing in Lancashire for unfashionable Bolton.

Sam Allardyce, the Bolton manager known to call a spade a spade, refuses to bend to the opinion that the 28-year-old Nakata has been hired as a money-spinner.

“He is here as a player and not a commodity, and anyway we don’t have a marketing network at Bolton which could exploit his off the field activity,” are words which could yet come to haunt our Sam.

Nakata is followed by an army of Japanese journalists and film crews who admit “he doesn’t like us, he thinks we invade his privacy”.

John Dee

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