NO TIME OFF FOR GAFFER

Martinez continuing his work throughout summer to prepare for new season

After a long season full of drama most of us will be looking forward to some time off this summer, maybe take a well-earned holiday and even try to catch some of the football action whilst we’re at it.

However whilst Roberto Martinez will be in South Africa for this summer’s World Cup, relaxing and catching some rays will not be on his agenda as the gaffer continues his work to get Latics ready for the 2010/11 campaign.

Shortly before jetting off the gaffer gave us an insight into what he’s hoping to get out of the World Cup, the work that has already been done in the transfer market and the work still to be done:

“I’ll be watching every game whilst I’m out there and in particular following the players who we’ve been tracking for a long time,” said Martinez.

“Hopefully some of them won’t have too good a tournament so that their valuation stays low and we’ll be able to do some good deals.

“Already we have signed two players who are going to be involved at the World Cup and who we were able to sign on free transfers.

“Of course we know Steve very well having spent the last half of the season on-loan with us, and in Antolin Alcaraz we have a player who we have been following for a while now.

“He has Champions League and Europa League experience with Club Brugge and he’s an international defender who is ready to come to Wigan Athletic and give his all for our club.

“All of our fans know that we never stop working to try and keep building on what we have here.

“We’re going to try and find out as much information as possible of all the targets we’ve been following for some time, that won’t change and is the reason why there are so many names linked with the club.

“We want our fans to be confident and know that when the time is right we will make the announcements that need to be made and make sure we have the right balance needed at Wigan Athletic and improve on what we did last season.

“To say that we’re not in a position where we have to sell players is a massive strength to have nowadays in football.

“It is the perfect way to carry on working and developing the squad we have and that’s the situation we’re in.

“We don’t have to sell any of the players we have and I believe they are all at a perfect age where they can continue to develop with Wigan Athletic.”

Enhancing the strength of squad in time for next season is one thing, preparing them for another long campaign is quite another, but Martinez explained that the current pre-season training programme and arranged friendly encounters are the perfect warm-up for when the new season arrives;

“We’ve got plenty of games lined-up with a few confirmed already,” said the gaffer.

“We’ll be travelling to Austria again where as well completing a specific training programme we’ll also play two games before heading back home.

“Over here we’ve got a game against Oldham Athletic away, a few behind-closed-door games to give us the necessary fitness exercises we need, and we’ve also announced the only pre-season friendly to take place at the DW Stadium against Real Zaragoza which will be a fantastic challenge for both sides.”