Wigan Athletic chief responds to Hull City comments on Charlie Hughes - 'It makes it harder for me and Charlie'

Hughes was left out of the starting line-up for Latics' opening game of the campaign - a 1-0 home defeat to Charlton Athletic.

It follows a fortnight of intense speculation over his future, which intensified on Saturday with comments from Hull vice-chairman Tan Kesler suggesting Hughes wanted to make the move.

Ironically, Hughes was at fault for Charlton's late winner, having replaced new signing Will Aimson - who had an impressive debut - in the last quarter.

And the future of the England Under-20 star was inevitably the main talking point after the game.

When asked the thought process behind leaving him out, Maloney acknowledged: "It felt like a big decision but, in the end, the decision was pretty easy.

"Charlie's an amazing guy, a brilliant player, and it's been a very hard few weeks for him - the last week or so has been even harder.

"Obviously being spoken about publicly has made it harder, but he's actually trained well for the last three or four days.

"The couple of weeks before, that was harder, and that's why we made the decision...when he went on, Will Aimson was starting to tire.

"Since the day I've been here, Charlie has been great for me, he's got so much credit in the bank for me, I've got nothing but good things to say about him.

"When he's right off the pitch, I'm sure you'll see him at his very best again."

The Latics crowd made no secret of their feelings when he appeared off the bench, chanting 'We want you to stay' as he entered the field.

"I didn't hear that," said Maloney. "And I've no idea what's going to happen. In these situations, it's very much dependent on another club.

"But that's also football, and we've tried to sign players, and it hasn't happened for whatever reason.

"I hope he stays...but if another club makes a decision that takes it out of my hands, that's life."

Maloney also chose his words carefully in discussing the conduct of Hull - a club with whom he spent two years at the end of his career.

"You know, I spent two years at Hull, and I actually loved my time there, I loved living there, I lived just north of the city," he said.

"I enjoyed playing there, I loved the support...it's obviously a different ownership now. If they want to talk publicly about one of my players, I can't really do much about it.

"It does make my job slightly harder, and a little bit harder for the boy, but it's out of my control."

The comments from the Hull end were given to BBC Radio Humberside, during a pitchside interview with Kesler.

"I think we're going to find a common ground, I think it's going to happen," he said. "I think Wigan are trying to talk to Charlie, and I can't comment on that, I don't know anything about that.

"We're interested, we'd love him to join us, and hopefully Wigan can find a resolution with the player so we can have him. I don't know how much else I can say, there are some ongoing conversations between Charlie and the club.

"I'm not saying it will end up negative, I'm saying it will end up positive, but unfortunately it's a very sensitive one."

When asked whether the player wanted to join Hull, he replied: "Yes, I think so, I hope so."