Shaun Maloney is hoping to retain the services of out-of-contract quartet Jordan Jones, Jason Kerr, Callum McManaman and Harry McHugh, but has a simple message if Wigan Athletic are unsuccessful - 'that's football'.

Latics have released their retained list, with senior players Ben Amos, Stephen Humphrys, Josh Magennis, Tom Pearce and Charlie Wyke off to pastures new.

Shaun Maloney lifts lid on early contract offer as Wigan Athletic release big fi...

Four other players out of contract - Jones, Kerr, McManaman and McHugh - remain in discussions over contract extensions, but Maloney is calm about all eventualities.

Shaun Maloney is hopeful of keeping hold of (clockwise from top left) Callum McManaman, Jordan Jones, Jason Kerr and Harry McHugh

placeholder image — Shaun Maloney is hopeful of keeping hold of (clockwise from top left) Callum McManaman, Jordan Jones, Jason Kerr and Harry McHugh

"Look, our budget for next season will have changed, even from the season we've just had," he said. "But we also want to keep hold of certain players, and retain certain profiles in our team.

"I'm really hopeful that will happen...but if it doesn't, again, that's football, and players will always move on to other clubs.

"We're well on the way, and we're pretty prepared for them to sign...if we don't both parties will move on."

Latics also officially said goodbye to loan players Luke Chambers, Martial Godo, Charlie Goode, Charlie Kelman, Liam Morrison, Liam Shaw, Kell Watts.

But again, Maloney is not closing the door completely on all of them.

"We'll definitely try to keep a couple of players we've had on loan, but also that is difficult," he said. "Because some of the players from Premier League clubs...they do very well in League One, and then the next step of progression would be the Championship or, in some cases, stay and fight for a place in the Premier League.

"We will try to keep one or two of them but, again, if it doesn't happen, we'll look in another direction."