Talal Al Hammad: Wigan Athletic chairman says he has long-term strategy for League One club

Wigan Athletic have taken seven points from their opening four League One games this season

New Wigan owner Talal Al Hammad says he has his eyes wide open to the perils of running a League One club and will not walk away from the Latics if they fail to achieve promotion this season.

The Bahraini businessman stepped in to rescue the club from administration in March.

After paying to watch the club's own streaming service and see Leam Richardson's side avoid relegation by a single point last term, Al Hammad has flown to the North West to meet his UK-based executive team and oversee the first few games of the season firsthand.

A massive summer recruitment campaign, including the return of Republic of Ireland winger James McClean, has seen Wigan installed as one of the favourites for promotion to the Championship.

However, Al Hammad is cautious and, ahead of Tuesday's Carabao Cup second-round tie with local rivals Bolton Wanderers, he told BBC Sport he is committed to a long-term strategy.

"If you don't know football, I don't recommend you invest [in] it," he said.

"Football is up and down. It's not a one-year or two-year investment. If you are aiming to buy a football club, and take it to the Premier League in two or three years, you are dreaming.

"It would be a crazy to take Wigan from administration to promotion in one year. If it doesn't happen, I'm not going to give up on the team and walk away. We have a plan."

'You can't go into a season with six players, it's simple maths'

It is a measure of how the fortunes of Bolton and Wigan have suffered over the past two years that their most recent meeting - in March 2019 - was in the Championship.

Between them, the pair have suffered three relegations since then, plus Wigan's near miss last season, when Bolton returned to the third tier after a single campaign in League Two.

Wigan recruited striker Charlie Wyke (left) from Sunderland, where he finished last season as top scorer

The demise of nearby duo Bury and Macclesfield during that period underlines the precarious nature of finances in the Football League, which is why eyebrows have been raised over the money Wigan have spent to bolster Richardson's squad.

Al Hammad says there is a simple explanation for that.

"Everyone knows at the end of the season we only had six players," he said. "You can't go into a season with six players, it's simple maths, so we had to sign some.

"We are not splashing cash as everyone is saying. I think the papers have the numbers of salaries that all the clubs are spending, and we are not top of the list, we are not even in the top three.

"I'm not going to talk about other clubs' finances. It's easy to talk about other clubs to avoid dealing with your own fans.

"They know how to manage it themselves, it's their club. Everyone has a vision. It's up to them. But for us, I think we are in safe hands."

'Watching games as chairman is stressful'

Bolton have sold their full 4,700 allocation for their trip to Wigan, which means the DW Stadium will almost certainly play host to its biggest EFL Cup crowd since Bradford's visit in 2012 and - maybe - the most since the two sides last met in the competition, when 13,401 attended a quarter-final meeting in 2005.

Jason Roberts scored both goals when Wigan beat Bolton on their way to the League Cup final in 2005-06

It underlines the optimism around the respective clubs, both of whom have made encouraging starts to their League One campaigns, with Bolton seventh, two places above their rivals, thanks to an additional draw rather than the defeat Wigan suffered on their opening-day trip to Sunderland.

"It is hard watching games as chairman," said Al Hammad. "If you're enjoying a football game on TV, it doesn't matter to you. You want to see a good game, with good passes and good tactics. That's it.

"But if you are sitting there, watching the team as chairman, you have a lot of ideas in your head. It's very stressful."

You don't have to spend too much time in Al Hammad's company to realise he knows his subject.

His love of football dates back to the 1998 World Cup, which featured Dennis Bergkamp's brilliant goal against Argentina, and triggered his decision to support the Netherlands.

He dismisses suspicion of why someone from Bahrain should get involved with a town club like Wigan. "Why not?" he replies, pointing out that company law allows it and there are numerous examples of overseas owners from the top to the bottom of the English game.

Evidently, he is placing a lot of importance on the club's academy, without which Wigan may not have survived administration given it both provided a source of income through player sales and bolstered the first-team squad.

The sense is that if Wigan have not returned to the Championship in the first two years of his stewardship, the finances will be reset and the vision altered.

For now, the club are looking forwards. And, after a truly dreadful year, when at points it seemed Wigan would cease to exist, that is the most important thing.