Next Wigan Manager Odds: Four candidates to replace Shaun Maloney

Wigan Athletic are searching for a new manager following the departure of Shaun Maloney after two years in charge.

EFL pundit Gab Sutton runs the rule over four candidates to replace him in the next Wigan manager odds.

1. Ryan Lowe

On paper, Ryan Lowe’s record is flawless.

League Two promotion with Bury in 2018-19, and Plymouth Argyle in 2019-20, laying foundations with the latter for them to achieve what they subsequently did under assistant Steven Schumacher, before stabilizing low-budgeted PNE in Championship midtable for two-and-a-half years, culminating in last season’s top-10 finish.

For a League One club, that’s as attractive a CV as it’s possible to come across.

At the same time, Lowe’s sides have looked more impressive from a coaching perspective when he worked alongside Schumacher, even taking fully into consideration the disadvantages in terms of resources he was at with North End.

Plus, there are high-profile rumours that key man Alan Browne’s issues with Lowe were one of the reasons he rejected an enormous contract offer to stay at the club he’d been at for a decade, in order to take a pay cut at Sunderland.

We may never know Lowe’s side of that particular story, or for certain it’s accuracy, but - for now at least - it’s not irrelevant to the process of weighing up a managerial candidate.

2. Grant McCann

When he was reappointed Doncaster boss in summer 2023, Grant McCann made little secret of his ambition to build a career for himself higher up the English football pyramid.

And, realistically, it’s unlikely that all of his ambitions can be fulfilled at Rovers, who may not have the resources and infrastructure to do much more than stabilize in League One.

In that sense, the Wigan job might appeal to McCann: the Latics might not be in the greatest spot right now, but this is still the 2013 FA Cup winners with a billionaire owner.

However, the Northern Irishman will also want to try and win promotion with his current employers, as opposed to leaving at a crucial stage.

In terms of what McCann would bring, it’s an aggressive, high-energy team that reflects him in his playing days for Cheltenham, Peterborough and Scunthorpe, with a front-foot style - kind of like a lower league equivalent of Jurgen Klopp.

Typically, his strategies manifest themselves with a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 including a destructive #10; either way, the setup hands lots of freedom to wide men to stay high up the pitch and focus on delivering the big numbers.

At their best, they can press teams into submission and cut them open, while other times they have an industrial efficiency that allows them to grind out results.

At their worst, his sides can be guilty of rushing their passes and therefore losing an element of control, especially when there’s no go-to playmaker in midfield.

Overall, McCann’s a good manager who deserves a presentable League One opportunity, but the stumbling block could be whether Wigan would be willing to wait until the end of his season - which could be as late as the last week in May - to get their man, or move quickly for somebody else.

3. Ian Evatt

There are plenty of reasons to think Ian Evatt would be a good appointment.

He enjoyed four successful years of continual progression with Bolton, playing a similar style to the one Wigan want, was twice a game or two away from the Championship, and wouldn’t have to relocate himself to take the job.

Latics fans, however, probably wouldn’t see it that way, because of how Evatt antagonized himself while Bolton manager, calling his side the best team in the league the season the Trotters finished 9th, and Wigan won the title.

It would be difficult for supporters to start relating to him differently now he’s their own team’s managers, especially if results went south.

4. Jon Brady

Off the back of four years of excellent work at Northampton, Jon Brady sees himself worthy of a job at an ambitious League One club, and Wigan fit the bill.

The Aussie’s out-of-possession work is greatly admired in management circles, and if he can pair himself with a specialist in-possession coach with an elite, developmental background, he could be on for an extremely exciting career.

Inheriting a plummeting side from Keith Curle, Brady oversaw lower midtable form in the second half of 2020-21 in League One but it wasn’t quite enough to keep them up.

Helped in the rebuild by the brains of Martin Foyle and Colin Calderwood, Brady’s side missed out on automatic promotion by a single goal in 2021-22 – they’d have gone up had Bristol Rovers beaten Scunthorpe by six goals instead of seven.

They did go up automatically, though, the following season, building on a strong defensive base and set piece proficiency that was the cornerstone of the previous promotion bid, by becoming a better footballing side thanks to the impacts of Sam Sherring and Marc Leonard.

The above was achieved on a middling League Two budget, and in League One, what they had was a fraction of that of most competitors – yet still, a safe, 14th-place finish was achieved.

With that in mind, Brady has more than earnt the next challenge: a reliable leader with excellent people skills, and an uncanny ability to respond to the problems with pragmatism, flexibility and an agile mind.