All would appear rosy in the garden of Wigan Athletic at the moment. Despite riding high on the back of successive Premier League victories an old foe could well return to haunt us.
In modern day football where players an truly multi-national and loyal largely only to their wallets and own ambitions the Latics have regularly fallen foul to players desires to move on.
I fall short of using the word progress because Antonio Valencia and Leighton Baines aside there are none too many who have departed the DW Stadium to go on to significantly bigger and better things, but that's another point.
From Christmas onward last season both Momo Diame and Hugo Rodallega played insignificant parts in our season. At the time both were key members of the squad and many supporters were left frustrated by their absence.
Entering the final sixth months of their respective contracts with the club both players were available to the highest bidder in a move that is widely seen throughout the modern footballing landscape.
Thankfully Robero Martinez and Wigan Athletic were able to rise above this by not only refusing the play the mercenary two-some, but also managing to put in some heroic on the field performances to survive in the top flight.
If we hadn’t learnt the lesson already we surely would have learnt it after missing out on transfer fees that could easily have escalated above £10 million.
Fast forward to the present season and our star centre forward, aged just 23, is out of contract in the summer with the club making the same noises about talks on going.
This message worked for a time with Rodallega as Martinez spoke of his agent in Columbia being hard to contact and that a dialogue was open between the respective parties. We’re now getting something similar with Franco Di Santo.
Di Santo joined for a fee of just £500,000 after a loan spell with Blackburn Rovers yielded just a solitary goal. Despite blistering form for Chelsea’s reserves the Blues did not feel him good enough to progress toward the first team, a feat that Victor Moses is enduring at present.
With the time and effort displayed by both manager and player alike, over his two and a half years with the club, Di Santo has grown in the supportive environment of Wigan Athletic and has become a very good player indeed.
Whilst we continue to hope that the noises coming out of the club surrounding Di Santo’s new deal are true, Wigan Athletic supporters are all too aware of this situation and are bracing themselves for the worst.
It is difficult to decipher, particularly for smaller clubs such as the Latics. The correct attitude to adopt to such a situation is difficult as either main option is a double edged sword.
Once a player experiences success and is linked with some of the bigger names, and money, of the game, their heads are often turned.
Option 1 is to continue to play Di Santo in the hope that he performs well and helps the team with the downside being that he can leave for free at the end of the season.
Option 2 is to sell the player before he enters the last years of his contract which on three years deals leaves only two meaningful years with the club, with often the first year spent learning and settling into the club.
There is no right or wrong answer and perhaps support must be offered to less powerful.
Whilst the bosman ruling has done a lot to remove the old power of the clubs it has at the same time given far too much players power. This has helped to fuel the influx of star players to our league, and Wigan Athletic has benefited from that.
But at the same time we are seeing bigger and bigger wages and clubs fight for the success and best players that their fans crave as managers come under increasing pressure for instant success.
At the end of looking into situations such as this I am left frustrated that the Latics often seemingly lose out on players such as Diame, Rodallega, and potentially Di Santo. However we are also the winners because our football club has a sustainable ethic flowing through the heart of it.
If Franco Di Santo choose to leave the Latics then as with Diame and Rodallega we will find replacements (McArthur and Kone). If he chooses to stay then he can help be a part of what could well be a historic period for the Latics.
But Wigan Athletic Football Club is, and always will be, bigger than any of the players. We refuse to be drawn into the silly money stakes and we refuse to stump up to agents. We are investing our money into building a club, from the youth and grass roots all the way through to the first team.
This is how Wigan Athletic can compete and our present eleven are testament to this ethic and methodology. Looking deeper into the future this is the only sustainable way we can develop as a football club.
For as long as the power is with those with the money, if Wigan Athletic are to continue to prosper we must fight the tide of those clubs with more resources than ourselves by remaining sustainable and finding our edge through sources that do not require incomprehensible amounts of money.
Mr Whelan’s money may well have got us to the Premiership but it is now Roberto Martinez’s brains and culture that are helping us to grow and prosper.