I'm here 'as long as the club wants me', pledges Wigan Athletic boss

The Latics boss looked like a broken man during his post-match conference following the season-ending draw against Rotherham at the DW.

Although fortunes did improve since he took charge in January, Latics finished bottom of the Championship for the first time in their history.

With so many questions needing to be answered regarding off-field matters, it promises to be a critical summer.

Maloney, though, is adamant he is 'all in' to the task of turning things around.

"I have a deep desire to succeed at this football club," he said.

"But I think it's at a stage where, if we don't get that stability, it becomes almost impossible.

"Whatever the budget is, whatever points deductions we have, whatever league we're in, it won't faze me.

"If it takes me one year, two years, five years, to get back to this level, that doesn't worry me.

"As long as there's life in the club, and as long as the club wants me, I'll be here.

"The biggest priority has to be that the club is here.

"And unfortunately I don't have enough of a...it's not my position to make that happen.

"But I'll try my very best to give the owners assurances I will run the club responsibly no matter what the budget is to keep this club alive."

Just weeks after chairman Talal Al Hammad promised there wouldn't be another late payment of wages, several players took to the field against Rotherham having not received their money due last Friday.

For Maloney, it's more issues that are clearly out of his control.

"The initial reaction is deep disappointment, like a real deep disappointment," he said.

"In that every little bit of feeling of positivity we'd been trying to instil - even though we've been relegated - took a huge knock, a massive knock.

"The supporters, the staff, the squad, you could sense that, although we'd had a really disappointing season on and off the pitch, we did have a forward sort of momentum.

"Which is crazy considering we'd already been relegated, but it has been there.”

Maloney admits his short time at the club has already been a massive eye-opener.

"As manager of the club, obviously I see a lot of the things behind the scenes,” he added.

"I've worked extremely hard as a coach over the last five or so years, but what I've learned in the last few months is that there's so much behind the role in terms of the finances of the football club.

"It's very, very difficult for everyone - the board included - because they've invested a huge amount of money, which it looks very, very difficult for them to sustain.

"I'm very aware that my decisions on a day-to-day basis impact on how stable this club can be, and that has to be the case moving forward.

"I pray that we find a solution to this, because what we want to achieve, more than anything, is the stability of the club.

"Not for the next two months, or two years, but long term, we need that stability.

"And that's everyone, from the ownership down.

"If we have that stability, and the consistency of knowing the situation, then we can start to plan for next year.

"If we don't have that, there are so many permutations to that.

"We've spoken about what we might want to achieve in League One next season, but we can't even discuss this at the moment.

"The bigger picture has to be we need a club to start with, a club with stability, and once we have that, we can start to plan our targets on the pitch.”