Wigan Athletic manager makes transfer admission

Latics have made four signings this summer in the form of Liam Morrison, Jonny Smith, Callum McManaman and Matt Smith.

But with more than double that number of players having left since the end of last term, Maloney is short on numbers with the new season less than a month away.

And despite the club still in the process of restructuring following the recent takeover by Wigan-born billionaire Mike Danson, Maloney is hopeful of plenty of incomings over the coming days.

"We need it," he said. "In certain positions, we're a little bit light.

"But yeah, the club's working extremely hard to get that done.

"Obviously we lost the recruitment team, or department.

"But there are people behind the scenes working extremely hard to get the type of players and people we want at the club.

"Hopefully that will happen in the coming weeks."

Tendayi Darikwa, Steven Caulker, Joe Bennett, Ryan Nyambe, Jordan Cousins and Gwion Edwards were all released at the end of last season.

Since then, Tom Naylor has joined Chesterfield, Graeme Shinnie has moved to Aberdeen on a permanent basis, and Max Power has been given the green light to secure a lucrative move to Saudi Arabia.

That meant some 13 of the club’s Under-18s and Under-21s made the trip to Hungary for a warm-weather training camp, but Maloney is anxious not to hamper their development by placing too much onus on them too soon.