Jewell wants to establish Wigan

Jewell issued a rallying cry to his players today, urging them to prove the cynics and critics wrong in emphatic fashion.

Wigan's season starts on August 14 at home to champions Chelsea and he wants the tone to be set that day.

"When people ask my opinion I say Wigan are one of the favourites to go down on the mere fact that is what happens (more often than not to promoted teams)," said Jewell.

"But people have written us off without ever seeing us play or what we are about. That is cheap. People don't respect us. People are writing disparaging things about us.

"I don't like that and I'd love to stuff a few people's words down their throats.

"It is very exciting times but I don't want us to be going out there on August 14 with our autograph books and wanting to swap shirts."We will respect Chelsea before the game but when it starts it is every man for himself."

Jewell wants to change Wigan from a club admired for its' remarkable rise to the Premiership to an established top flight entity that strikes fear into the leading sides in England.

"We will be everyone's favourite second team this season because everyone thinks they can beat us and we are not a threat - maybe one day we will be disliked," Jewell told Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme.

"We have that image of pies and flat caps - but I don't want to play up to that stereotype. I want to take Wigan forward and the best way we can do that is with football.

"Wigan is a great place and it's buzzing at the moment because the team is in the Premiership.

"The club has had a meteoric rise. Twenty years ago the club was in the Northern Premier. This is a chance to prove all the people wrong."

But it will take time. Jewell has missed out on a number of transfer targets during the summer because Wigan are not considered the same draw as some of the bigger Premiership teams, even fellow promoted clubs Sunderland and West Ham.

Wigan offered Chelsea £10million for Scott Parker but the midfielder chose Newcastle and Jewell was not at all surprised.

But he is determined to change all that.

"We bid £10million, Peter Kenyon accepted it but if I had the chance as a player to go to Newcastle, Everton or Tottenham I'd go to one of the other three before Wigan.

"Wigan is about being part of something moving forward. It's a new adventure. No-one thought Wigan would be in the Premiership. But we are there on merit.

"We are a forward-thinking club that can't go and buy current internationals playing for England - but we can get better players and gradually build a squad up that way."

Hopefully in the 20 days before we face Chelsea we will get three or four more new faces in."

But it us unlikely Jewell will bid for Manchester City's troubled midfielder Joey Barton, who was sent home in disgrace from the club's pre-season trip to Thailand.

"Barton is obviously a good player," said Jewell.

"I don't know what's gone on over there. He is a good player but not one I've thought of at the moment."