Owen Coyle has been appointed as the new manager of Wigan Athletic. The president of the club, Dave Whelan, announced Coyle’s signing on Friday.
Coyle has replaced Roberto Martinez who left the Latics earlier this month to join Everton.
Coyle had been without a job since the last 7 months. He had started the last season as the manager of Bolton Wanderers, but, because of the dreadful performance of the Trotters at the start of the season, he got sacked in October last year.
Announcing the appointment of Coyle, Whelan said, “Getting back to the Premier League is our first priority next season and I have made Owen aware of that.”
“This is not a new scenario for Owen. He has done it before when he was the manager of Burnley.”
“Yes, he didn’t have that much success at Bolton, but, there were quite a few reasons behind that. He had to deal with several injuries there and he was also unlucky at times.”
Coyle himself was also present in the press conference. He said, “We ended the last season on a high by winning the FA Cup, but, it was not a successful season overall. We lost our Premier League status and that was a big blow.”
“The target is to make our way back into the league. It will not be easy, but, we will put in hard work and try our best to do that.”
The Wigan players also seem to be quite happy with Coyle’s appointment. The Latics midfielder James McArthur wrote on his twitter account “Glad to hear that Owen Coyle has taken over as the manager of Wigan Athletic, another manager from Scotland. I am looking forward to play under him.”
Wigan Athletic will start their Championship campaign next season against Barnsley on 3rd of August.