Wigan Athletic's new owners 'very different' to last lot - Lisa Nandy

Latics have finally been rescued after almost nine months in administration, with a deal to be officially ratified by the end of the month.

And after months of rumours, speculation, near misses and brick walls, the Wigan MP is confident the new owners will prove to be worth the wait.

"Everyone involved in the group has been at great pains to get to know me, get to know the Council and, most of all, get to know the fans," she said.

"They've found it very difficult having to withhold important information from the fans until the deal had the green light.

"They've already reached out to Wigan Warriors, and they are very keen to be involved in the town.

"All of that says to me that this is very different to where we were before, with Stanley Choi, where we didn't even know who the owners were, we'd never met them.

"The new chairman is going to come over as soon as he can, he wants to meet with me and the fans.

"So this is about as positive an outcome as I could ever have imagined.

"There were moments over the last nine months where I never, ever thought we'd get to this point.

"I think after the hell of the last nine months we should just 'bank this' and just be really optimistic and positive about the future.

"I think we've all earned this...after being so worried about Wigan Athletic for so long."

Ms Nandy also revealed the club's burgeoning Academy - which has helped keep the club going on and off the pitch - will remain central to the club moving forward.

"They've made very positive noises about the academy, and you'd be absolutely mad not to be," she told the 'Progress With Unity' podcast.

"The Academy is a huge asset to Wigan Athletic, and they want to focus on protecting that as well as building the first team back up."

Get 20% off our sports subscription package and stay up to date with all the latest Wigan Athletic news with a year’s subscription to WiganToday for less than 9p a day. Use promo code TRANSFER20