by As the words “Sir Alex” leave Shaun Maloney’s lips, the Wigan manager is visibly moved. From a meeting room on the club’s small training ground, Maloney is looking forward to Monday’s FA Cup final against Manchester United.
Anyone who would suggest he’s lost the competition, it’s good to spend a little time with Maloney. Although he grew up in Aberdeen, his loyalties were equally divided between Celtic and United. Why the latter? Simple: Sir Alex Ferguson.
“He had a God-like status. He still does. My father was an Arsenal fan, but he didn’t convert me. As a child, I traveled down to Manchester United on the supporters’ buses. They were very long trips, going back at four or five in the morning.
“I was at Bayern Munich’s group game in December 1998, the season United won the treble. Roy Keane scored, and I was a row or two behind where Sir Alex stands now. I’ll never forget that.”
Maloney pauses a moment. Telegraph Sport is about to ask another question when Maloney starts again. “I can be a bit patriotic – the connections with Scotland, with Aberdeen, with Denis Law, it created an affinity with that club that I felt.”
Maloney keeps company, sometimes magical. It is clear that he has a deep love for the history of football. A wide grin stretches across his face as he recounts schoolboy life at Celtic.
John Clark – one of the Lisbon Lions, the Celtic team that won the European Cup in 1967 – was the manager of the kit and hardly a day went by without a former team member visiting for tea. Maloney would always do headphones. “And my first year as a professional for Celtic was an exciting year,” he recalls. “John Barnes; Kenny Dalglish; Ian Wright. We still had Henrik [Larsson]. [Mark] Viduka. Paul Lambert. An incredible year to be a 16-year-old cleaning boots.”
The spiers can be seen as he remembers one of his “favorite nights ever”. It was just listening to Hugh McIlvanney telling stories about Jock Stein, Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Ferguson. Being so self-conscious may have pre-ordained a move to management.
Against United, Maloney has a chance to make new history. He is already part of the Wigan tapestry from his playing days. Back then, times were very different. The club was in the top flight. Among his 15 Latics goals is the winner in what is, so far, their only win over United. That was April 2012, and a year later Maloney set up Wembley winner Ben Watson. Manchester City were defeated, and Wigan lifted the FA Cup.
“I remember feeling really confident,” Maloney explained, when asked about her memories of that event. “That was one of Roberto’s great gifts [Martinez] – in the biggest games, there was no change in his behavior or his level of composure. Good or bad. Whether you win or lose.”
Martinez’s influence is a theme that runs through the conversation. The Spaniard was central to Maloney’s life. Sitting in the same room, on the same chair, in his Glasgow flat, Maloney received a pair of career-changing phone calls from Martinez.
The first came in late August 2011. Maloney’s second spell at Celtic was marred by injury, and Martinez took him to the Premier League with Wigan. The second came seven years later. Maloney had recently retired and was coaching Celtic’s B team.
He and Martinez, the Belgium manager at the time, had exchanged “the odd text” and the pair reconnected by chance during Champions Celtic’s trip to RSC Anderlecht 11 months earlier.
Maloney, however, had no knowledge of the upcoming job offer, assuming the call was related to players.
“The first part was about Dedryck [Boyata],” Maloney explains, his eyes twinkling at the memory. “But the second part was to offer me a job as one of his assistants.
“I will forever be grateful to Roberto. I had two serious injury problems at Celtic, and he gambled on me. He then took me from the Under-19 team to the Belgian national team.
“I can’t put into words what he has done for my career as a player, as a coach. When someone has such a positive impact on your career and, ultimately, your family’s life – I will be forever grateful. Anything he ever wants from me; he knows I’m there for him.”
After three and a half years with Belgium, Maloney took up club management with Hibernian. He loved the club, the city, the history. “But unfortunately, the relationship with important people ended after a month.” Maloney was out of work three months later. He felt “partly like relief because of how uncomfortable” things were.
And it also required some soul-searching, which Maloney felt he was keen to do because of the master’s in coaching he had by then received from the Johan Cruyff Institute. After a period of healing, Maloney gathered his team to pick up the bones. “It was really about digging deep and being honest with myself. It was the best thing we could have done. It gave me clarity and an understanding that ‘okay, not everything we did was wrong.’ And basically, I prepared for the next job.”
That next job was Wigan. Maloney was almost appointed in November 2022, and instead the role went to Kolo Toure. Just 59 days later, Toure was sacked, and Maloney moved Wigan four points clear in the Championship.
Despite a rise in results, a siege followed. But given the context and the club’s precarious finances, Maloney is “proud” of those few months.
The owner – Abdulrahman Al Jasmi, who rescued Wigan from administration in 2021 – could no longer financially support football operations. Wages were continuously delayed. How did he deal with the issue of the unpaid workforce? “I made it very clear to them that I wouldn’t judge anyone for not working when they weren’t getting paid. But when they came to work, I expected everything they had.”
Post-relegation, worse was to come. HMRC issued a winding up order as a result of unpaid taxes. For more than two weeks, “we didn’t know if the club was still going to be here the next day.
“It should have been about the profile of the players, how to defend, how to attack, but my only focus was to create a presentation to show that we could run the football side in a very different way. We wanted to make it as self-sustainable as we could.”
Eventually, billionaire Mike Danson stepped in and the rebuilding began. Hampered by an eight-point deduction and barred by EFL regulations from paying transfer fees until next summer, Maloney’s focus is on youth. Four of the five most used players this season are 21 or younger; including goalkeeper Sam Tickle, who received his first England Under-21 call-up in September.
“This season will be a constant battle on the pitch. Even when we lost one game out of 11, we weren’t really away from those bottom four. We lose three in a row and bang, we’re right back there.”
Maloney admits that progress of the field is necessary slowly. Ultimately, he wants to “bring back” the “DNA” of former Wigan and Swansea. All roads lead, it seems, to Martinez.
“The other thing is I want it to be exciting. Last year, we had to make it very difficult to beat us and it must have been difficult to watch. But hopefully this season, if anyone asks ‘is it exciting to watch Wigan?’, the fans say they at least enjoy the 90 minutes they spend watching us.”
Maloney sees the United game as a “reward” for all those involved with Wigan. Participants; supporters; owner of both.
The win would undoubtedly be the best of Maloney’s new coaching career so far. He knows that there must be exceptional moments for them to succeed on such occasions.
“My job is to put players in certain areas,” he said. “But it’s also my job to make them believe they can do it. You always need a bit of luck, but we have talent. I know it’s there. I have to help them believe that they can show it on the biggest stage.”
