Wigan Athletic chief targets 'biggest success of the lot'

The 52-year-old joined Latics in the summer of 2017, having led Portsmouth to the League One title.

Prior to that, he’d won the League Two title with Chesterfield, whom he then guided into the League One play-offs the following year.

Since arriving at the DW, he enjoyed League One title glory in his first year, before steering Latics to safety last term.

But he feels repeating the trick this term – given the odds facing his side – would eclipse all of that.

“I look back at my career, and I have had success, but my biggest success to date would be to keep Wigan Athletic up this year,” he said.

“That would mean we’d have stayed up in this division for three years, and that’s not happened for a number of years.

“I’ve been lucky enough to win promotion and titles with Portsmouth and Wigan and Chesterfield.

“But I believe staying up this year would represent the biggest success of the lot.

“That would mean going into a third year in the Championship as a manager, and there’s not many managers last three years at this level!

“And by the way, I might not even see this season out, and that’s football, and I’m okay with the rules.

“But this is the biggest challenge I’ve had in my career, by far.”