Shaun Maloney keen to reward young players following their vital role for Wigan Athletic this season

With an average age of 24, Wigan Athletic have one of the youngest squads in League One as academy graduates and young loanees have been crucial to the 2023/24 campaign.

Therefore, Maloney hopes to repay the rising stars with new deals in the coming months.

He said: “We’ll try and do some more of the younger players, I think. It’s brilliant for the club that we’ve taken players from the reserves team last year.

“The main thing is you have to reward them as well, you can tie them down because you feel that they are assets, but they’ve done so much now that they now have to be rewarded that they’re in the first team squad.”

Latics recently extended the contracts of Scott Smith, 23, and 20-year-old Baba Adeeko after the pair have enjoyed breakout seasons.

“The challenge now is that they have to kick on, they’ve got competition in their places, nobody’s assured of their place,” Maloney added.

“Baba’s been brilliant, he really has, from the two days before Derby in the first game, is when I really knew that he was ready. He started the next game against Carlisle, and he’s not really looked back.

“He’s had some last six months and there’s still loads more he can develop in.”

After a difficult time where the club was forced to sell players after going into administration in 2020, the Scotsman was keen to voice his appreciation for the club’s academy.

He said: “Our academy know that they’ve got my support, I need them. But they also need to know that a manager is going to give a player a chance.

“It was tough to let Callum Lang go, but we have Chris Sze coming in in that position so that’s why I didn’t sign another player in that position in January.

“Sometimes you have to create space for the young players, they’re not always going to be a nine out of ten every week, but I have trust in the academy and hopefully they trust me that I’ll create space for the young ones.”