Clearly a muted point during his time with the club, Jewell is now free to roam in his well supported sleeping giant that is Derby County and he must be revelling in the embarrassment that he is now in charge of.
Adrift at the foot of the table without a hope in hell of surviving in the top flight, Jewell is the boss of a well populated grave yard.
Derby are in serious danger of being relegated with the lowest ever points total of a Premiership club. Sunderland currently hold that record of 15 points, and few would argue against Derby beating that.
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Clearly Jewell thinks otherwise. The former Liverpool player and Bradford manager has been outspoken about the fantastic support that Derby has. He even went so far as to say they are the best supporters he has encountered as a manager.
Maybe a comment to try and win the Derby lot over, but he has done himself no favours in Wigan and such talk will taint his return on Saturday. To put things in perspective, it is a little similar to Wigan supporters hailing Bruce as the clubs best ever manager.
Pride Park was full for our trip there earlier this year, but the only atmosphere came from the loyal and very much sold out away section of the stadium as the Latics faithful voiced their support.
It was much the same on the pitch with Jewell's concoction of has beens, playboys and so called promising players being dominated by a well organised Wigan side.
This was early in Jewell's tender at the club and now with a transfer window behind him, and enough time to organise his outfit, Saturday should be a different test.
It was the first game for players such as Savage, Villa and Laurent Robert who were going to turn around struggling Derby's fortunes. This is still a long way from materialising.
In the time Steve Bruce has amassed over fifteen points for the blue and white of Wigan Athletic, Paul Jewell has managed just three points for the Rams.
Fitz Hall, David Cotterill, Denny Landzaat, Julius Aghahowa et al were some of the later Jewell signings with the Latics and he is far from a consistent master of the transfer market.
Now, with little signs of Jewell turning Derby round, the supporters are getting impatient and a bad result at the JJB on Saturday against his former club could see the pressure mount even more.
Finally, it is worth remembering that the Wigan Athletic team that earned Jewell so much success was built on fight, courage and bottle. These words could well be associated with the town of Wigan as a whole, but as for Derby…?
Maybe Jewell is onto his next Sheffield Wednesday, a sleeping giant that the angry Scouser couldn't awaken, no matter how hard he tried.
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