Wigan Athletic boss Shaun Maloney has admitted that he is keen for Callum Lang to stay at the club for the rest of the season but admitted he would consider a sale if the player wanted to leave.
Lang has been a regular in Maloney’s starting lineup this season, having made 29 appearances in total for the Latics in all competitions, scoring three times and registering two assists in the process.
However, the 25-year-old has been linked with a move away from the DW Stadium since the January transfer window has been open. It was reported by Football Insider earlier in the week that League One rivals Derby County and Portsmouth are keen to prise the attacker away from Wigan.
Furthermore, the outlet are claiming that the former FA Cup champions are willing to sell Lang, despite the now-25-year-old being with the club since 2013 when he left Liverpool’s academy in search of a different pathway into professional football.
https://twitter.com/LaticsOfficial/status/1452711564864147456
More fuel was added to the fire on Monday night when Lang was dropped to the bench during Wigan Athletic’s huge cup clash with Manchester United. Thelo Asgaard took his place in the number ’10’ position, being flanked by Jordan Jones and Martial Godo. Lang wasn’t brought on until the second minute of stoppage time.
Having primarily played behind the striker this season under the Scottish coach, Lang currently boasts a market value of £1.3 million, as per FotMob.
Nevertheless, speaking in his pre-match press conference today ahead of Wigan’s trip to Northampton Town, Maloney made an interesting admission about Lang’s future [quotes via Wigan Today]:
“I really like Langy, I’ll never, ever forget he played for us when he wasn’t getting paid. I’ve got nothing bad to say about Langy whatsoever, and I’d love him to stay.
“I’m not looking for any of our players to go this month…the only thing would be if someone was to come to me and say they either need more minutes, or there was something out there that really suited them and their family more than here.
“In either of those cases, I would listen to what they had to say, but I want to keep the players I have here, if we could keep the majority of the squad I would be happy.”
Writer’s View
Unless Wigan Athletic receive an irrefutable offer for Lang, the club should keep hold of him as he offers real quality between the lines and is still one of the team’s top scorers this season. Furthermore, letting him go to Derby or Portsmouth would only strengthen their bids for promotion.
Unfortunately, Wigan are in a relegation battle in the third tier and need all the help they can get. Letting Lang leave certainly won’t help the Latics to retain their status in League One.
Deputy Head of Writing
