Wigan Athletic chief drops huge hint regarding Liverpool loan man's future

The 21-year-old Scottish international, who is on a season-long loan from Liverpool, has made only five appearances for Latics so far.

Four of those were cameos off the bench in the league, while his only start came in the disappointing Bristol Street Motors Trophy defeat against League Two strugglers Morecambe.

Ramsay has not even been able to take advantage of Steven Sessegnon being ruled out since late August, with youngster James Carragher stepping up and making the right-back position his own.

Indeed, when Carragher was rested against Stevenage last week, Toby Sibbick was preferred to start on the right-hand side of the defence.

After frustrating loan spells last season at Preston North End and Bolton Wanderers, Ramsay was hoping to make it third time lucky under the watchful eye of his fellow Scot - and Aberdonian - Maloney.

So far, that's not been the case - but Maloney is not ready to give up on a player for whom Liverpool paid £4.5million two years ago this week.

"Calvin's still finding his feet here," acknowledged the Latics chief. "I really like him as a player, and the biggest thing - and I've spoken to him a lot about this - is understanding what I need from him in that position.

"He's found that hard, and that's not his fault, it's my fault. I need to find a better way of making him understand what we're doing here.

"But in the next couple of games, he'll definitely start one of them, and he knows that."

Maloney has already said Carragher has become 'impossible to leave out' due to his consistency of performance this season, his maiden in the first-team set-up.

However, with the games coming thick and fast, he also wants to avoid burn-out.

"I think in the closing stages against Exeter (on Saturday), Carra was starting to get fatigued," added Maloney. "And that's understandable given the rise he's had this season within our club.

"He has such a great mentality, the thing with him is I need him to keep pushing."