United front led to Warren move

Warren Joyce admits he sought the advice of both Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson before becoming the new manager of Wigan Athletic.
Warren JoyceWarren Joyce
Warren Joyce

The 51-year-old was unveiled to the media at the DW Stadium on Thursday evening just hours after taking his first training session over at Euxton.

Having served as the Manchester Under-21 boss for many years with distinction, it was clearly a massive wrench to leave Old Trafford.

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But Joyce remains convinced he has made the right decision after speaking with some of the biggest names in the game.

“I spoke to Jose, and the people at Manchester United were great,” Joyce revealed.

“It’s a privilege to have worked with such top people, and seeing them at such close quarters, and you realise how classy they really are.

“Jose gave me some really good advice as did Sir Alex - he always told me to trust my gut instinct.

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“There were my own personal reasons why I didn’t leave the football club before.

“Obviously it’s massive to be leaving one of the biggest football clubs in the world.

“There’s that many good people there, with that many good memories, it’s bound to pull on anyone’s heart-strings.

“If there hadn’t been this approach from Wigan, there were still plenty of ambitions that I hadn’t realised at Manchester United.

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“But I’m not getting any younger, and if you look back at the age of 65, and what you’ve achieved with your life, I’d like to look back and have been a Premier League manager, and a successful one at that.”

“I’d like to leave a legacy, leave the football club with a clear footprint, of how I wanted to play, and having built things up all the way from the bottom to the top.”

Having sacked Gary Caldwell last Tuesday, chairman David Sharpe took less than 24 hours to contact United and secure permission to speak to his No.1 target.

And Joyce admits he didn’t need much persuading to move to the DW.

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“First and foremost it was the conversations with the chairman,” he acknowledged.

“If you have ambitions and things you want to do, you want to be working with like-minded people, otherwise those things aren’t going to happen.

“You have to trust your gut feelings with things like this, show honesty and integrity, that came across and hopefully I came across the same way.

“I think we’ve got shared goals in terms of how we see the future, and what needs to be done, and hopefully those ambitions can be realised in the future.

“Obviously everyone wants to work in the Premier League, although I know that’s a long way off.

“But you have to start somewhere, there’s no point not having that ambition.”