To gauge Shaun Maloney’s popularity at Wigan, look no further than the patrons of the Phoenix Lounge at the DW Stadium on Friday who spotted the manager conducting a TV interview at pitchside, stepped outside and sang his name throughout. They were attending a wake at the time.
A release from the sorrow: the mourners in the Phoenix and Wigan can identify with that. A club that almost went out of business last summer and started the League One season on minus eight points have hope again. Saved from a winding-up order when taken over in June by the local billionaire Mike Danson, the Wigan Warriors’ owner, Wigan are now above the relegation zone and rebuilding with a promising young team under Maloney.
The priority this season is survival but the FA Cup has delivered an early reward for the 2013 winners with a third-round tie at home to Manchester United. For Wigan’s promising young manager, a boyhood United as well as Celtic fan, it is an occasion to savour.
“I joined Celtic at 16 and started to learn about the Lisbon Lions, the history and individual players, then I started doing the same about Manchester United,” he says. “You go through the era of the late 50s, early 60s and the story behind it and what they achieved under Sir Matt Busby. And there was Denis Law, Paddy Crerand, Brian McClair. Now there’s Scott McTominay. There was always that link with Scotland and I love the history of the club.”
The strongest Scottish link for Maloney and biggest influence on the decision to choose United as his English team is Sir Alex Ferguson. The 40-year-old grew up in Aberdeen, where Ferguson made his name breaking the Old Firm’s dominance of Scottish football before heading south in 1986.
“That’s the reason why I began to support United and I’ve been really lucky to meet him a couple of times,” says the former Celtic, Aston Villa and Wigan winger. “When I was still at Belgium [as a coach under Roberto Martínez] I went to meet him in his office in Wilmslow. I was on a train heading down to London and his son [Jason] walked by. We got speaking and I said that I would love to meet his dad. We swapped email addresses and the very next day he sent me an email. I got in touch and his secretary arranged for me to meet him. It was just by chance, really fortunate, and I just sat and listened to him for two hours.
“Because I was such a big fan as well, I just wanted to ask him questions about the history of the club. Also, Belgium had some really elite players, still do, massive players like Hazard, De Bruyne, Courtois, Kompany. He had lots of players at that level through Manchester United and that was the main basis for speaking to him. Man-management was a big part of it. It was incredibly gracious of him to give me two hours.”
Incredibly indeed, considering Maloney’s winner for Wigan against United in April 2012 helped Manchester City pip their local rivals to the title on the final day. That 1-0 victory remains Wigan’s only success against United in 19 meetings. “He didn’t speak about it, no, and funnily enough I didn’t bring it up,” Maloney says of the goal. “You don’t forget it though, do you?”
Martínez was another major influence on Maloney’s career as a player and manager. Wigan’s FA Cup-winning manager was back at the club last week to see the 2-0 win over Carlisle and will be on punditry duties at the DW on Monday. The pair spoke at length at the Carlisle game, with Martínez sharing his thoughts on United having attended their meek Champions League exit against Bayern Munich.
“He’s a good man, a really good man and I owe him a lot,” says the Scot. “He was a huge influence, particularly with a certain style of play that I hadn’t been coached before. And then with really big moments, such as this on Monday, and this inner belief that has to transpire to the players.
“Some of the best things about Roberto when I was a player and with Belgium is in the biggest moments, it was just stable. He had a stable mood, everything was completely stable. How he acted and how we trained was exactly the same whether you were playing Manchester United or a lower-division team. If it was a game we had to win to stay in the division or going into the FA Cup final, his behaviour was exactly the same. That was a real big attribute he had and I hope my players feel that over the next few days.”
Wigan are in cliche “no lose” territory against United, for whom the FA Cup represents their last chance of silverware this season and whose manager, Erik ten Hag, can ill afford to be on the wrong end of an upset.
“I’ve not been a player or a coach at Manchester United but I know the pressures and I know the scrutiny is far superior than what it is on the manager of Wigan,” Maloney says. “But there is still pressure here. When you’re an underdog it’s never quite as easy as ‘the pressure’s off’. It’s my job to ask Manchester United a couple of questions. The history of that club, that I know, is if you wanted to fight them they would fight you and if you wanted to try and outplay them they would outplay you nine times out of 10. I need to try my best to ask this Manchester United team those two questions and see if we can get the answers.”
