Shaun Maloney will increase his efforts this week to kick off Wigan Athletic’s summer recruitment.
The Latics manager will be busy again over the off-season, having discharged five senior members of his first-team squad and seen another seven loan players return to their parent clubs.
He also hopes to obtain contract extensions for Jordan Jones, Jason Kerr, Callum McManaman, and Harry McHugh.
However, with the number of potential incomings this summer almost guaranteed to reach double digits, Maloney understands the clock is ticking.
“We’ve been working on this window for a while,” he stated. “There’s a lot of hard work being done behind the scenes, but being done very quietly.”
I think we had a fantastic January window once Stephen Gormal took over as head of recruitment; he’s another guy who gets on with his work with minimal fuss.
“He has a tremendous work ethic, and he’s been focusing on this summer window since February 1. There are many plans in place, and I am looking for a variety of profiles for our team.
“With each passing window, we hope to bring in less and fewer players, and we’ll be more targeted. This window will need us to work extremely hard, but that is where we are.
“I’m very specific in terms of the kind of profile we will need to enable us to play the way we have done these last few games, that will help us to get even better.
“We’ll be young, and we won’t be among the top in terms of size or budget. But I want more in terms of league position; I want to finish in the top six.
“I know our budget indicates it shouldn’t happen, but I believe we can outperform if we play a specific way and acquire the proper recruits.
