Gary Caldwell on Dan Burn's early form at Wigan Athletic that led to a phonecall from Dave Whelan!

"He's a very humble guy who's worked very hard for everything that's come his way, and never forgot his journey to where he's currently at," said Caldwell, who took a chance on Burn in the summer of 2016 following his release from Fulham. "That sums up Dan, he's always straight back to you, and let's be honest, he must have had thousands of messages last week...but he's just a brilliant guy.

"We've kept in contact over the years, I've messaged him when he's done well, after he'd moved, and obviously last week after the call-up and the cup win. He's someone who always gets back to you, and I think that's a big part of why he's done so well, his character and personality.”

Burn has certainly come a long way since those first few weeks at Wigan, which saw him struggle to settle into his new surroundings in the north west.

And led to another telephone message involving Burn - of a quite different nature!

"We'd just played Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, we lost 4-3, and Dan didn't have one of his better games," said Caldwell. "Graham (Barrow) got a call one day from Mr Whelan, asking who was the main guy responsible for bringing in Dan.

"Graham being Graham, he said it was a group decision, we all signed him, we all put our name to it, and he'd just take a bit of time to settle in. And once he did settle, he proved to be a fantastic signing for the club, which led to him getting a move back to the Premier League with Brighton, and then obviously back to Newcastle where he always wanted to be.

"He did take time to settle at Wigan, he didn't hit the ground running at all, but that just shows what happens with young players. You have to give them time to develop as players - especially those moving to a new club - allowing their game to come together at its natural pace. Every player develops at a different rate, and Dan was probably one of those who developed a little bit later than some of the others.

"But I still wind him up about his nightmare start...he always apologises for helping to get me the sack, and we can laugh about it now!"

Caldwell was speaking to Wigan Today from his base in Exeter, where he'd spent the day with assistant boss David Perkins - and coincidentally the man who helped to bring Burn to Wigan all those years ago."

Malcolm Crosby, who still scouts for us at Exeter, was chief scout for us at Wigan at the time," revealed Caldwell. "He'd worked with Dan while they were at Birmingham (Burn had a loan spell in 2013-14), that was the initial connection, he was a big fan of his character as well as his playing ability.

"Malcolm thought he was a good young player who was still developing, growing as a player, and just going through some difficult moments in his career.

"We'd just been promoted to the Championship, we were looking for players who could play at that level, but also at an age where they could potentially go even higher, for resale value. Malcolm was adamant we had to sign him, and he obviously managed to do that.

"You could see the potential he had...he had great size, left footed...I just think sometimes with big players, it takes time for them to kind of grow into their body, and coordinate, become comfortable on the ball. He was always a really good footballer, probably better than we thought when he came in.

"A big thing we did at the time was implement individual development plans. Alongside Lee Richardson, who is now at Liverpool, who was a psychologist who I brought in at the time, we wanted to get every single player on their own development plan.

"We looked at areas of a player's game that we thought could get better, and Dan's was actually mostly about heading the ball. Because he was so tall, he said people just assumed he was good at heading the ball, and he had never done any work with anyone about improving his heading the ball.

"I remember Peter Atherton doing a lot of work with him after training, that was his area of expertise, and I remember them doing a lot of individual sessions after the others had gone, working on his heading. You saw how much his heading has come on with his header in the Carabao Cup final last week, and it just shows how little things can make a big difference in their game."

Burn spoke recently about his time under Caldwell at Wigan – and his regret at the way things ended.

"I feel so bad for Gary Caldwell, and every time I see him, I apologise to him, because I pretty much got him the sack,” said Burn. “But he would always say, even though I wasn't playing well, what a great player I was and that the best was yet to come.

"He just wasn't given the time to see that, and I do feel guilty about what happened, because I felt like he really believed in me as a player, and gave me a regular run of games in the side.”