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