Wigan athletic manager Uwe Rösler has tried to not get into any mind games ahead of the play-off semi-final with Harry Redknapp’s QPR. This weekend will be the first leg of the play-off semifinals. QPR qualify for the stage of the competition a long time ago, while Wigan had to wait until the final game of the regular season in order to be sure of their place. However, ahead of the match, Redknapp has raised a few eyebrows by claiming that Wigan will be the favourites for victory in the first leg. Rösler, though, has claimed that such suggestions are laughable considering that QPR were the table leaders for most of the season.
It was only during the last few months of the campaign that they lost the momentum, which allowed the likes of Leicester City and Burnley to claim automatic promotion spots. QPR also has the highest wage bill in the Championship after being relegated to the second division only in the summer.
They still have a lot of players who used to play for them in the Premier league. Wigan, meanwhile, come on the back of a very long campaign due to their commitments in the Europa league after winning the FA Cup final last season.
“What we have now is ‘pressure bingo’. I was preparing myself today and thinking: ‘I’m not going in that direction.’ But when Harry says we are the clear favourites for promotion then I have to smile a little bit about that one. Harry said we have the best squad – I think we have a very good squad – but Harry has probably three times a bigger wage budget than we have. Every team that’s in the play-offs deserves to be in the play-offs,” said the manager, who led his team to the FA Cup semifinals this year.
