Gregor Rioch on why Ryan Lowe is the man to get Wigan out of League One

Gregor Rioch believes that Ryan Lowe is the man to get Wigan Athletic back into the Championship after overperforming at his previous clubs.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, we obviously had a playing career and cross paths at Shrewsbury Town many moons ago.

00:08Ryan Lowe, the player, 20 years ago is different to the Ryan Lowe, the head coach, manager of today.

00:19We've never socialised between that time. We've bumped into each other at games.

00:24What I do know and what I've always known about Ryan is his infectious character, personality and his love for football.

00:33Seeing him at games, some games where you would think you would not see people at,

00:38and then all of a sudden Ryan Lowe's at that game and watching under-18s football, under-21s football, midweek, always out watching games.

00:48He's obviously been to the brick on a number of occasions, he's very close with one or two parents,

00:55obviously with Jamie, been to a lot of the games.

00:59I think what's attracted us to Ryan is that he's had really good experience as a manager,

01:08got promoted, he's done what we want to do, he's got promoted out of this league

01:14and he knows what it looks like to be in the Championship and that's where we want to get to and that's where we want to build from.

01:21It's really important we have somebody that understands that, that's experienced that, that can give us that knowledge to move forwards.

01:29I think it's important that you have a competitive budget but then you look to outperform it as well.

01:37When you look at Ryan's CV, when you look at his experiences at Bury, he managed a promotion under the most unique circumstances

01:46where players weren't getting paid, staff weren't getting paid for months,

01:50but he managed to galvanise and rally a group for that period of time to actually achieve probably what was an impossible dream.

01:59So he's outperformed at Preston, when you look at probably Preston's playing budget to where they eventually ended up in the league.

02:09So you can do that, if we can provide, which we will do, a top ten budget for next season,

02:17then there'll be expectations but then there's ambitions and can we outperform them,

02:22can we maybe try and achieve the impossible over the next 12 months,

02:27still building and improving over the next 24 months and beyond to try and get out of this division in the right manner.

02:36That's why I mentioned before that he's a different guy from 20 years ago with the same characteristics as far as his upbringing.

02:44He'll never change in that sense but from football in terms, what I would say is that he's extremely football smart.

02:52He's got an absolute love for the game and I love the fact that he loves his club, his real club Liverpool.

02:59He follows them everywhere, loves football but when we speak about football,

03:08when you think back to those days and you look at what he's achieved certainly in managerial years,

03:15you don't do what he's done without having a real intelligence in football and knowledge.

03:23He loves the game, he knows the game, he knows loads about the players that he's worked with that he hasn't worked with

03:32and he's got an infectious personality, that's never changed.

03:36That love for football oozes every time I've had a conversation with him and same as the ownership,

03:45when they've spoke with him we can feel a real passion for the game and I think that's really important for us.

03:52I think it's important when we turn up for work every day that it doesn't feel like work,

03:57there is a time to work but we all look forward to going in and Ryan said yesterday to all the staff,

04:03he expects everybody to come in with a smile on their face, with a bounce and an energy

04:07and I think that's what he'll bring, not only to the training ground but to the football club as a whole

04:11and hopefully we can feed off that as other staff, the players but also the supporters as well

04:17and get behind the lads with the same enthusiasm.