Wigan Athletic star eyes new link-up

The 22-year-old is back with Latics after being recalled midway through a season-long loan at Motherwell.

After five goals in 21 appearances north of the border – including two in the Europa League and one against runaway SPL leaders Rangers at Ibrox – Lang is hoping to fire Latics away from the foot of the League One table.

And he’s already eyeing up a potential link-up with man of the moment Kyle Joseph, whose emergence in recent weeks has alerted interest from the Premier League.

“Kyle’s a good lad, he’s similar to me with his work rate, and the way he wants to work for the team,” enthused Lang. “Hopefully we can add goals to the team.

“I saw his hat-trick against Burton, and his second goal was absolutely class. So it will be nice to form a good partnership with him.

“I think the supporters would be happy to see lots of Academy graduates do well.

“We’ve always had good young players coming through in my time at the club, and the senior players will help the younger players out.

"I feel like I have the experience myself to help some of the younger lads in the squad too.”

Having come through the Academy himself – before loan spells with Morecambe, Oldham, Shrewsbury and Motherwell – Lang is well aware of the sterling work done behind the scenes in recent years.

“There have been some really talented players move away from the club, and I think it shows the level of talent that has come through the Academy here,” he added.

“Even though the club has been put into a difficult situation, we have to see it in a different way, and consider ourselves fortunate to have such a strong Academy.

“If we didn’t have that, the club would be in a lot worse position. But the quality in there has softened the blow.

"And once we get the games back up and running, we can push on from there.”

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