Divided loyalties

Neil Pye has got a problem. Can it be Wrexham - or is it Wigan?

A football fan with a split personality tells us all about the Auto Windscreens Area Final. The games against Wigan were interesting. We saw everything from players being sent off to pitch invasions and goal action. To any respected football supporter this was a must see. But what interested me most was the background to this encounter. Wigan have lots of money and are challenging for promotion. Wrexham are literally stuck in th emiddle. They appear to be run by a board with little ambition except security. What does the future hold for both teams in an age where football has become a big business dominated by money and greedy players?

Wigan: I have been a Wigan supporter for 12 years on and off. I am so glad that they have got to Wembley. In fact, I am over the moon, but I would rather see them at Wembley for a play-off final than a Mickey Mouse cup. Why? Watching them over the last 12 years Wigan are an enigma. They have been in sight of the play-offs before but failed to progress on numerous occasions. However, this time we have a secret weapon...Dave Whelan has given us a team that we can be proud of. He has given the fans a new stadium and should we get promoted to the first division this season - a shot at getting into the Premiership. This club has come a long way in such a short space of time. Mr Whelan is a dream come true to every Wigan fan. We love him!!!

However, should it all go wrong and we do not reach the play-offs, failure could lead to Mr Whelan's very short patience snapping and the disappearance of Ray Mathias from the dreaded hot-seat. Mathias' predecessor, John Deehan, failed to get us near the play-offs last season. We had a great spurt up the table after a very poor start and mediocre performances affected by a silly squad rotation system. Mr Deehan jumped ship before he was kicked into touch. I hope that Ray Mathias is kept on. If we fail to go up this season, next season we are going to walk the division.

I sincerely hope that we go up this year because football is a rapidly changing environment. It is important for Wigan's progress that we make the grade and perhaps at the end of next season hit the Premiership. Only then we can believe Dave Whelan's famous quote from the distant days when Wigan visited Torquay. Whelan quoted by a fan said that "In five years time we will be a Premiership team". That was three years ago. If we achieve promotion Mr Whelan's words will be prophetic. I really hope that we do become a Premiership team. After what we went through the pre-Whelan days, I would not wish that on any team or Wigan ever again. It was horrible.

Wrexham: The pitch invasion at the end of the game against Wigan at the Racecourse said it all. Too much money spent on cosmetic changes and not enough money spent on the playing side of things. Wrexham have an excellent coaching staff at their disposal, but I get the feeling that there are too many big names on the sidelines which is creating too much confusion with the players and the direction of the team. There needs to be a leader in charge. Somebody from the top-down. Sadly, there isn't one. Joey Jones and Ian Rush have had respectable careers in the game having played in

European Cup Finals and won league championships. Brian Flynn had a very respectable career at Leeds working with coaches like Jimmy Armfield, et al. The roll call is impressive, but what is going on with the team itself at Wrexham?

Dave Brammer's two-fingered salute to the travelling Wrexham supporters at the end of the first leg was disgraceful. How Brian Flynn can back the player I do not know. If that had happened in the Premiership, Mr Brammer would have been certainly hauled up before the FA on a disrepute charge and possibly arrested for crowd incitement. If I was the manager I would have severely fined him. It is well out of order when players make gestures like that to the supporters who pay their wages. The fact that Mr Flynn backed Brammer to the hilt smacks of indiscipline in the Wrexham ranks and that cannot be good for the club itself. However, in both legs of the Auto-Windscreens final, Wrexham played two blinding first halves in both games, but they lacked the firepower and steel to overpower Wigan. The lack of firepower and steel was the only difference between the two teams. Wrexham created some good chances but there was no end-product. If I was manager I would be furious. Where have I heard that before?

As the calls for Brian Flynn's head grow louder, the fans should remember that football is now a big business and Wrexham have done well to preserve their existence around safe house-keeping after their financial problems during the 1980s. However this is not enough to satisfy the restless natives. The people in charge have done very little to endear themselves to the fans. It is alright for the fans to criticise those who do not get behind the team but when the board continue to sell off the best players (Marriott and Brammer) and do not purchase adequate replacements, questions have to be asked about the future direction of the club.

When the Wrexham fans began shouting "What's it like to have some money?" at the Wigan fans it was strange. The same chants were aimed at teams like Birmingham City and Derby County in the pre-Whelan days at Wigan a few years ago. Money talks in football and Wrexham have it but they do not spend it. Speaking to a disgruntled supporter inside the Turf, he told me that last season the club made a £125,000 operating profit. With the sale of Brammer et al, this figure could be higher at the end of this season.

However, Wrexham could pay the price for selling off their best players. Before Mr Whelan came along, Wigan went along the same route as Wrexham selling off the likes of Kevin Langley, Mike Newell, Warren Aspinall, Joe Parkinson and Peter Atherton without adequately replacing their talents. The cost of this to the football club almost culminated in the near loss of Wigan's league status. This could happen to Wrexham if they are not careful.

Wrexham's first priority should be the team. If the team are successful then the fans will come. The board at Wrexham have gone about it the wrong way around. Putting cosmetic changes before the team as a priority is dangerous. You would think that the people running the club would have learnt lessons from the likes of Chelsea in the 1970s and more recently teams like Reading and Crystal Palace who have invested heavily in ground improvements and various cosmetic changes, whilst at the same time neglecting the team itself.

At Wrexham a new stand is being built along with some impressive training ground facilities, but the consensus amongst the fans is that at the same time the team are going nowhere. Another reservation that I have about Wrexham has to be the manager Brian Flynn. He has done an excellent job in the time he has ben there but I feel that the game has passed him by.

In both games against Wigan, Flynn's tactics were questionable. The team are coached on tactics that were applicable for football 20 years ago. Wrexham play 4-4-2 with one winger. I would like to see them vary it a bit more. It's nice to watch teams pass the ball around, but if there is no end-product it can be a bit worrying. Wrexham have two good wingers in their ranks who I feel are played out of position. I like the look of Gibson. In the first leg he played on the left. I would have played him on the other side where he could hurt the full-backs with his dribbling ability. He has skill in abundance but where he is played he cannot use it because he is one-footed and with coming onto his right all the time he cannot put in good crosses from the by-line.

From watching a lot of football in Spain during my time living there, I like to watch teams with players who can turn the full-backs, get to the by-line and whip the ball into the danger areas in and around the six-yard box, and then capitalise on those chances. Wrexham have these type of players but do not play such a system. I may be a bit utopian in my beliefs about football, but if the game is about winning matches then a team should have a set pattern of play. Wrexham do not have that. The team is always changing with the various loan signings being brought in. From speaking to some of the fans at the game, Mr Flynn is not a fan of agents. To buy a player these days you have to go through agents and if he doesn't like this then it is about time that he woke up. The fans are complaining of transfer deals collapsing because of problems over fees and wage demands, hence the Carl Griffiths saga.

Another problem for Wrexham is the fact that now the chants for the board to go have transmitted themselves onto the national airwaves. On Saturday night an angry Wrexham fan rang up Talk Radio's 505 complaining of the lack of ambition in the club from the board level. I only hope that this momentum against those in charge does not snowball. However, the writing is on the wall, and the board are treading on dangerous waters. What happens must remain to be seen...