Now that Wigan are sleeping with the fishes in League One, this time-honoured cliche has become less ubiquitous, yet it still rears its head during the last few weeks of the season when several clubs are trying to stave off relegation: "will they," muses the pundit, "copy Wigan's annual Houdini act?". God forbid any club does become the new Wigan, escaping the drop year after year by the skin of their club crest, or we'll never hear the end of the great magician and his skillful feats. Instead, perhaps we should use the fact that Wigan did, despite becoming famous for great escapes, eventually plummet into the badlands of the lower leagues, to ban one of football's most well-worn cliches from the vocabulary of commentators.
