Wigan Athletic parted company with manager Malky Mackay after less than a year in charge, as even the arrival of the former Cardiff City manager failed to improve the club’s fortunes.
They have resorted to appointing their former club captain Gary Caldwell as the new manager. This is the first managerial job for the 32-year-old who had to retire from football owing to persistent injury problems. He is extremely popular with the Wigan supporters for having represented the club during their glory days in the Premier League. Those glory days seem long away from coming to the DW stadium once again, as the club are close to being relegated to the League One.
Failure to win the last four matches has seen Wigan get further adrift of safety with only three matches left in the season. They have to make up a seven-point deficit in these matches. The goal difference is the only positive aspect for Wigan. Caldwell certainly faces a mountain to climb in order to keep the club in the division. However, he is confident of doing so in the last few matches. Wigan will be coming up against the likes of Wolves and Brentford. These are teams that have something to play for in the campaign and this could in turn help Wigan.
“Having played here in the great survivals of the Premier League era I believe that nothing’s impossible.There were times when we were down and out. I think of the run we went on when we beat Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal – they are things that at the time seemed like miracles. It can happen and we still believe it can,” said new manager Caldwell. “We speak a lot but he’s over in Barbados. He didn’t know what I was doing on Monday night I spoke to him after and he’s 100 per cent behind me and Gary,” said new chief executive David Sharpe about sacking Mackay.
