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Signed by Roberto Martinez from Celtic, Gary Caldwell immediately became a main piece of our defensive jigsaw at Wigan Athletic. However over the past couple of seasons, continual hip injuries have meant that our trusted captain has struggled to play and keep fit, the result has been errors in games and long spells out on the sideline.
However once the club believed he was up to speed at the back end of last season, Uwe Rosler took the gamble to play our influential captain and well in a couple of games it paid off. Much like Mike Pollitt, Caldwell is a respected figure within the Latics camp and it appears Rosler has quickly identified that and moved to keep the player on board at the club.
Something we should massively praise out manager for. If Rosler has shown one thing as a manager here at Wigan, is that he isn't going to fix that which ain't broke.
After much speculation surrounding his future Gary has penned a new one year deal, for both playing and coaching at the club. Talking to the official website Rosler spoke of how happy he is to keep Gary at the club and also to give the player the chance to coach at the clubs academy. This has the double effect of keeping a talented defender at the club, to allow him to play when we need him, but also start to allow Caldwell to build his coaching CV.
Many had suggested that Gary would be slowly absorbed into our coaching staff, which for me is the right thing to do. Keeping key influential figures in whatever way possible is the best way to build the club up, instead of loosing talented players and coaching retaining and building a strong unit has been proven to be the way forward.
Great to have you staying Gary and hopefully you can put on some performances for us in the forth coming season!