Latics guest player column - Dan Burn

There was a lot of speculation about a number of the lads, but thankfully we’ve managed to keep a very strong squad here.

I think that shows the good place the club’s in at the moment – being able to keep hold of our best players.

We’ve got a very good squad, we’ve had a very good start to the season – which obviously helps with keeping players happy.

Obviously you see the speculation – not just with yourself but with other players, like Griggy and Powelly – and there’s not usually smoke without fire.

But until something concrete comes through, all you can do as a professional is keep your head down and focus on your football.

As far as I’m concerned, I am and always have been fully committed to Wigan.

That’s always been my stance – and I’m happy to be here.

I’ve still got two years left on my contract, and that’s fine by me.

Since the manager’s come in, it’s been a nice place to be.

I always said for me to move it would have to be worth my while, because I love it here and I’m really settled.

I’m part of a great car pool with Griggy and Crackers, and we’ve just drafted in Reece James on trial – we’re just waiting to see whether we keep him on or not!

It’s not exactly intellectual banter in the car - just coffee drinking and singing badly to music to be honest.

But we’re all good mates and it’s good to have that camaraderie.

We’ve obviously got no game this weekend because of the international break, and hopefully that will work in our favour.

On one hand you want to crack on and try to keep the good start going, because we’re playing well.

But on the other, it’s good to have a break, go away for the weekend, and come back in on Monday and ready to go again.

I’ll be going back up to Newcastle with my wife for a couple of days.

We got married earlier this summer, but we’ve been together for eight years, so it’s no real difference.

We’ve recently got a new dog – a little chocolate lab – who’s small at the minute but she’s getting bigger, and she’s got sharp teeth!

It was such a big decision for us to get a dog to be fair – much harder than we thought it would be.

But it’s nice to have that solid family behind me, and it adds to be settled both on and off the pitch.

I’m the first to admit it took me a while to settle here when I moved up from Fulham last summer.

I started bad for the first 10 games, and I hold my hands up – that wasn’t the level I wanted to be at.

There were contributing factors to that – finding a place to live, being in a new area, stuff like that.

But I soon got over that and I’m happy with the way I performed for the rest of the season.

Obviously I would have thrown all that away for us to have stayed in the Championship. But it’s just one of those things, and we’re very hopeful and confident we can get back up there this season.

I don’t think anyone can fault anything to do with the new regime so far, with the gaffer and his management team.

The way we’re playing suits the team, and it’s an enjoyable place to be at the moment.

We feel we should have had a 100 per cent start to the league campaign, only to drop those two points against Portsmouth at the weekend.

But we’ve got a solid platform, and we’re all looking forward to the rest of the season.

Away from football, like a few of you I stayed up all night to watch the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Obviously the whole event was over-hyped massively, it’s all everyone’s been talking about since it was announced!

They did their bit so well by selling the fight, so fair play to them both.

Anything with McGregor involved with sells – he talks such a good fight – and I have to say really wanted him to win on the night.

But then the fight started and I realised I’d been very, very stupid thinking he might do it...because Mayweather was so good and gave him a boxing lesson!

We’ve been doing a little bit of boxing this summer as part of our training at Wigan, and there’s probably one or two of the lads who wouldn’t mind a crack at Mayweather!

There were a few lads who fancied themselves a bit – Reece James was very good.

I was just trying to fight Crackers, because I know I can take him easily!

I’ve obviously got the reach advantage, and he couldn’t get near me with my jab!

It’s a totally different type of fitness – it was so, so hard – but it’s nice to be able to change things up a bit.

* Dan Burn was speaking to Paul Kendrick