Gary Caldwell strives to rebuild Wigan’s identity after their traumatic decline

Life Beyond the Premier League

Gary Caldwell moved on more than 20 players after relegation to League One (PA)

For the visitor entering the main building at Wigan Athletic’s Christopher Park training ground, the first sight that greets the eyes is a large blue FA Cup, painted on the white walls and accompanied by the words “Home of the FA Cup winners”.

It is only two-and-a-half years since their fairytale Wembley triumph under Roberto Martinez but it underlines Wigan’s fall from grace that they are not even competing in the second round this weekend after a first-round defeat by Bury.

The Latics are now a League One team after Owen Coyle, Uwe Rösler and Malky Mackay all failed to stop the rot that followed relegation from the top flight just days after the Cup final. According to Gary Caldwell, “the whole club lost its identity” during the ensuing slide – and the task now facing the former club captain is to rebuild it as Wigan’s fourth manager since Martinez’s departure.

“Once you lose games it becomes a habit and it’s very difficult to change that,” says the 33-year-old, reflecting on where it went wrong. “Players’ confidence can go and that becomes an issue with different managers, different styles and different players. Hopefully we’ve hit rock bottom. We’ve addressed it and we can start enjoying success again.”

Caldwell took the reins as manager in April. Four games later, Wigan’s demotion to League One was confirmed and he and David Sharpe – the 24-year-old who has replaced his grandfather Dave Whelan as chairman – began the rebuilding job. “As soon as relegation happened I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” says Caldwell. “I felt the players had been on that negative slide and as many of them as we could get out the better.”

More than 20 players left in the summer, with a similar number coming in. The new faces include veteran goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen, former Manchester United defender Reece James, midfielders Max Power and David Perkins, and £900,000 striker Will Grigg. Behind the scenes, Caldwell restored harmony with the help of a backroom staff who understand the fabric of the club – ex-players Graham Barrow, Joe Parkinson and Mike Pollitt – while another old boy, head of operations Matt Jackson, is now in charge of player recruitment.

Results have been encouraging: Wigan are fifth in the table after a run of one defeat in 13 league matches. “Long term, I want to take them back to the top,” says Caldwell. “They’ve done it before so there is no reason why we can’t do it again. Short term, it is working with the players and trying to make the club improve every day and the players improve every day and see a team Wigan fans can be proud of.

“From our first game at Fulham I said, ‘This is how we’re going to play’ and that first game we passed the ball really well. I suppose there is some similarity to the style that Roberto brought but there are a lot of different things that I would like to think I could put in the team that maybe Roberto’s teams didn’t have.”

The former Scotland centre-back has the advantage of having both Martinez and Gordon Strachan, his manager at Celtic, “on the end of the phone if and when it is difficult” and he believes his time as a captain under both men has helped him with the step into management.

“As a captain you have to organise and think about the game, you have to lead your team and at times make decisions on the pitch. My lack of pace helped too – I had to really think about the game, I couldn’t use my physical attributes to get me out of trouble so always had to be one step ahead.

“At Celtic it was quite a British core and I had a British manager,” he continues. “At Wigan the dressing room was very multi-cultural and I had to learn at times when to speak my mind and when to take a step back and think about things rather than jumping straight in. Roberto was great at teaching me that, it is helping me now I’ve become a manager.”

For Caldwell, the final step came courtesy of his predecessor, Mackay. Caldwell had missed Wigan’s Cup final triumph with a hip problem – “I was getting injections just to train and taking two injections to play” – and a subsequent surgery left him able to play only five more times.

“He [Mackay] said, ‘Why don’t you get more involved in coaching?’ and it was a relief. I almost needed somebody to tell me ‘this is the next part of your career’. I had done a bit under Uwe [Rösler] but was still trying to be involved as a player. At that point I stopped training pretty much altogether and focused my work on the academy.”

Today his focus is the first team – and Wigan are starting to feel the benefits.