THIS season isn’t even over, but Wigan Athletic manager Shaun Maloney has already challenged his young team to reach the League One playoffs next term!
Relegated from the Championship in financial disarray last year, the Latics began the current campaign on -8 points after repeatedly failing to pay wages on time under previous owner Abdulrahman Al-Jasmi.
But a takeover by local billionaire Mike Danson saved Wigan from administration and Tuesday’s 2-2 draw at Charlton effectively secured survival with three games to spare.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the players,” says Maloney, who won the FA Cup with Wigan in 2013 and returned as manager in January last year. “I think they’ve been a massive credit to themselves and to the club.
“The points deduction wasn’t something you could just speak about at the start of the season and then put to bed. It’s been a constant battle. It magnifies the knocks,
and makes every defeat seem bigger.
“It feels like you’re constantly pushing uphill, so I’ve had to be a bit more patient than I would be under normal circumstances. That’s especially because we’ve used a lot of younger players, who need a bit of space to make mistakes.
Different
“But next season will be different. There’ll be no excuses. I’ll demand more. This season, we got to 50 points with seven games remaining. To be completely honest, the level of the team dropped after that, and I didn’t like it.
“What I’ve said is that if you’d added those eight points back on with seven games left, we’d have been five points off the play-offs.
“So can we improve on that? When the March international break comes round next season, can we be less than five points off the play-offs? That’s got to be the target now.”
Maloney also paid tribute to Danson, a data guru and publishing tycoon whose arrival in June staved off a winding-up order, banished a transfer embargo and eradicated over £6m worth of debt.
“What’s not really been mentioned much is that our owner came in and immediately paid off all of our debts,” said the former Celtic and Aston Villa midfielder.
“There wasn’t a settlement or a CVA with a certain amount of pence in the pound. There was no attempt to shortchange anybody.
“I know other clubs in similar positions have
