- Andy Delort struggled to make an impact for Wigan Athletic, failing to score in 11 appearances.
- Delort’s disappointing stint contrasted sharply with his impressive goal-scoring record in France.
- Wigan fans may rue Delort’s inability to replicate his French form, a possible factor in the team’s relegation.
On September 1, 2014, Wigan Athletic signed Andy Delort, a former French Ligue 1 star, from Tours in the hopes of strengthening the Latics’ offensive line.
Delort arrived at the DW Stadium with a reputation as a clinical goalscorer, having scored 24 goals in 36 Ligue 2 games in the 2013–14 campaign.
Latics supporters had high hopes for the 2014–15 season as well, having advanced to the Championship play-offs in 2013–14 under Uwe Rosler’s leadership.
When the German took over as manager in December 2013, he was faced with a mixed bag of players, most of whom had been signed by former managers Owen Coyle and Roberto Martinez, whom he successfully led to the top six.
Rosler’s summer 2014 hiring was a source of hope for the DW supporters, as he managed to lead the Latics to a play-off spot without having the luxury of building his own team.
But a lot of the players the former Brentford manager brought in failed to live up to expectations while playing for Wigan, with striker Delort being a standout example.
Delort’s underwhelming stint with Latics
Despite making 11 appearances for the Greater Manchester team during the 2014–15 Championship, the former Algerian international failed to contribute to a single goal, which was unexpected considering his stellar Ligue 2 performances.
DW had great expectations for the striker Delort, having paid a reported fee of almost £3 million to sign him, and hoped he could perform well in the second division.
Latics had a difficult start to the 2014–15 season after a successful 2013–14 season that saw Rosler’s team advance to the FA Cup semi-final. By November of that same year, the team was sitting 22nd in the Championship, and the manager was fired.
After his dismal performances at the DW, Delort was sent back on loan to Tours in January 2015. However, it was evident that he had lost the confidence he had displayed the season before, as he only managed two goals in the league in 14 appearances.
However, it was evident that the forward was still well-liked in France because, prior to the 2015–16 season, he permanently moved from Wigan to Caen, which was then in Ligue 1.
With 12 goals in 36 Premier League games, Delort did a respectable job leading the team to a seventh-place finish, four points shy of the Europa League qualifying spots.
Latics fans will be frustrated by Delort’s record in France
After spending a season with Caen, the forward signed a contract with Tigres, a Mexican powerhouse, for the 2016–17 campaign. Despite making only 16 appearances and scoring four goals across all competitions, the forward struggled to establish himself there before joining Toulouse in January 2017.
Delort scored just 10 goals in 51 appearances during the second half of the 2016–17 season and the whole 2017–18 campaign, indicating that it would take him some time to regain the goal-scoring form he had at Tours and Caen.
But the former Latics player would find his best form in 2018–19 while on loan at Montpellier, where he scored 14 goals in 36 league games to lead the 2012 Ligue 1 winners to sixth place.
Strangely, Toulouse, his former parent team, could have used similar goal-scoring prowess that season as they finished 16th, just four points above the relegation zone.
After deciding to permanently relocate to Montpellier in July 2019, Delort scored 12 goals from 31 appearances across all competitions, with nine of those goals coming in 26 Ligue 1 games in the 2019–20 season.
The next season, the forward turned in his most remarkable goal-scoring performance, finishing with 19 goals in all competitions and a stellar record of 15 goals in 30 Ligue 1 appearances, to go along with nine assists.
Delort would demonstrate his lethal goal-scoring ability once more in the 2021/22 French top-flight season with Nice, where he netted 16 goals and gave teammates two assists.
Given how awful Delort was at the DW Stadium, Latics supporters will be shocked by his stellar goal scoring record in France.
One could argue that the Latics would not have ended up in League One at the end of the 2014–15 Championship season if they had a firing striker on their team.
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