Team Focus: Martinez Exit Could Prompt Wigan Exodus

With Roberto Martinez seemingly on his way to Merseyside, the draw of playing for Wigan Athletic may be so diminished by the Spaniard's departure that a train of players could be following him out the door. As is usually the case with clubs relegated from the Premier League, there will be an exodus from the DW Stadium this summer, but chairman Dave Whelan will have a job on his hands if he is to retain his best players for next season's fight to get back into the top flight, without Martinez there to guide them. 

The manager is the reason that Wigan play the short-passing game they do, and some of those that so enjoyed playing that way under him may look to move on in the coming months, rather than try and work their way back up to the Premier League under the guidance of a new Latics manager. Wigan's squad was relegated, however, through a lack of quality in their ranks, and they are not blessed with so much talent that everyone in their squad will be on the radars of the promoted sides. Nonetheless, the best certainly will be and of those, Shaun Maloney is likely to be one of the most sought after.

With an average rating of 6.98, Maloney was Wigan's highest-rated player in their ultimately unsuccessful Premier League campaign this year. Playing for the most part on the left of a front three, the Scot tended to drift in-field onto his right foot, often looking to shoot from such positions - 2.7 times per game, in fact, significantly more than any other Wigan player. He also maintained a fantastic pass success rate of 89.9%, lower only than Samir Nasri of all attacking midfielders or strikers in the whole Premier League. 

Thanks to his passing ability and a cool head in attacking areas, Maloney completed 521 successful passes in the final third this season, a figure at least 45 higher than any other player from a team that finished in the bottom half of the table. Resultantly, Maloney picked up 8 assists in league games this season, an astounding haul given Wigan only scored 47 goals; every player to pick up 9 assists or more managed to do so for a team that scored at least 70 times. 

With 6 goals all season, Maloney could arguably improve in that department, but he displayed his level head further in times of great pressure when scoring with direct free kicks to equalise at QPR and Arsenal late on in the season. His technical ability is undoubted, and the set piece threat he provides will only serve to increase any fee Wigan receive. Only two seasons ago, Sir Alex Ferguson declared that Charlie Adam's delivery was worth £10m alone. While that turned out to be a wholly inaccurate evaluation of the Liverpool-flop turned Stoke City long-baller, having someone who can take set-pieces with regular quality is a huge asset, as Martinez may well learn with Leighton Baines at Everton.

Another of Wigan's attackers, Arouna Koné could also be on the move. A fully-fledged Ivory Coast international who impressed in his only season in England is unlikely to be content in the second tier, and interest could be widespread. He was Wigan's top scorer with 11 goals, whilst with 1.3 successful dribbles and 1.2 key passes per game he tormented opposition defenders. Where he would end up is questionable, as it would be unlikely that he could improve a top half side, but that is not to say that a fair few Premier League sides could come in with bids.

Callum McManaman broke through into the first team this season and eventually ended up a regular in Martinez's team, playing the full 90 minutes at Wembley on his way to FA Cup glory. He popped up with key goals in the semi final, in the draw against Spurs and the winner at West Brom as the season drew to a close, and at only 22 years old he could have a bright future ahead of him. Born on Merseyside and a product of the Everton youth academy, he has unsurprisingly been mentioned in the same breath as Martinez's when discussing a potential move to Goodison. Given that Martinez showed such faith in him, he clearly feels that he is good enough to play at the top level and he is unlikely to be keen to play any lower down the leagues.

In central midfield, the James McCarthy-James McArthur combination is almost certain to be split up, with both established internationals and likely to move back into the top flight. Their position and names are not the only similarities, though, with the players dictating the play for the Latics, completing a pass on average every 1 minute 46 seconds and every 1 minute 43 seconds, respectively. Of Wigan regulars this term, these tallies make them by some distance the most frequent passers in the squad and thus hugely responsible for Wigan's 54.4% possession and 82.5% pass success rate (respectively the 6th and 8th best rates in the league). They are clearly used to coming deep to collect possession from their centre-backs, something those teams lower down the league do not tend to do, but it should mean both midfielders are rather more ready to play at a bigger side than those that were relegated with Reading, for example.

At the back, Wigan themselves will probably need to tighten up a defence that leaked a league-high 73 goals this term. Although the prospects of signing Gary Caldwell or the out-of-contract Emmerson Boyce are unlikely to excite fans of many a club, some will still exit and replacements will be needed. Antolin Alcaraz is thought to have attracted interest from Spain and could be on his way out. Injury meant he missed most of the season, but with a rating of 6.97 he was only marginally behind Maloney in terms of quality of performance. With 2.4 tackles and 2.8 interceptions per game, his experience and reading of the game is better than most and should be sufficient to earn him a contract at a bigger club. Maynor Figueroa is also out of contract and could well prove a decent centre-back for a team looking for a defender who is strong and comfortable in possession. In goal, while Joel Robles jumped ship and flew back to parent club Atletico Madrid, offers are likely to be - put lightly - few-and-far-between for error-prone stopper Ali Al-Habsi.

In each of the last few seasons, Wigan showed in the final weeks that they shouldn't have been in the position they found themselves, but this time around they simply couldn't manage yet another great escape. While Martinez was 'loyal' to the Latics when they were in the Premier League and other clubs came knocking, he hasn't shown quite the same dogmatic commitment now that they have been relegated and has made an escape of his own. Expect plenty of the squad to do the same.