Wigan Athletic recruitment well under way - Leam

But the Latics assistant boss has promised it’s all about quality rather than quantity in the hunt for reinforcements.

“People think the last ball gets kicked and then it’s away for a few weeks, but it’s an ongoing process,” he told the Wigan Post.

“We’ve got a lot of hard work ahead, a lot of preparation work to be done, to make sure we can hit the ground running next season.

“Coming off the back of a good year, we’ll obviously be looking to strengthen in certain areas.

“But I know the manager very well, and he’ll only be looking to strengthen in areas we need – not just for the sake of it.

“If what’s out there isn’t better than what we have already, we feel we’ve got enough good players at this club to be getting on with.”

It’s been a dream maiden 12 months at the DW for Richardson and manager Paul Cook, who this time last year were still celebrating leading Portsmouth to the League Two title before a sequence of events saw them move up to Wigan.

“The lads took to us straight away, and vice versa, and most of the credit has to go to the players,” he added.

“They broke all sorts of records this year, and to top it off with the title was something special.”