Kolo Toure makes pledge to Wigan Athletic supporters following Head Coach appointment | OneFootball

Wigan Athletic have entered an exciting new era with the appointment of Kolo Toure as their new head coach.

The Ivorian, who was a Premier League winner in his playing days with both Arsenal and Manchester City, has been honing his coaching craft with both Celtic and Leicester City under Brendan Rodgers for five years, and has now taken his first steps into management.

Despite claims that the Latics initially tried to make an approach for his younger brother Yaya, who is currently a youth coach at Tottenham Hotspur, it is the elder Toure brother that the Championship strugglers have settled on after parting company with Leam Richardson last month.

Toure has arrived at a team that are sitting 22nd in the Championship table, but with such a tightly- contested division so far this season, a few early wins could see Athletic climb up the league standings.

Quiz: Have any of these 25 ex-Wigan players ever played for a London based team?

1 of 25

Gavin Massey?

Yes No

And in his first interview since being confirmed as Wigan’s new number one, Toure has pledged to make the club’s fanbase proud with the work he does with the playing squad.

“The first thing I want to do, and my staff wants to do, is to make sure the fans can be proud of the team,” Toure said, per Wigan Today.

“In every single game, we will be playing with the heart, with energy, and working as hard as we can.

“Any team that wants to beat us will have to work very hard to do so – that is my philosophy.

“That is how I was as a player, and that will never change now I am a manager.

“It’s all about the process, and we want to build here.

“We have to trust the process we are looking to implement.

“We’ve all had a good chat – with the chairman and the chief exec – and we know where we want to go.

“And we will be doing everything we can, every single day, to take this football club where it belongs.

“I want to be the best that I can be, and I believe we have a really good group of players here, really honest guys who want to work hard.”

The Verdict

Toure was certainly a risky appointment from the Wigan hierarchy, but all managerial decisions come with a risk.

Leam Richardson didn’t have too much experience as a number one when he was handed the gig two years ago, but he managed to not only save the club from the drop to League Two, but also got them back to the Championship.

That is why Toure needs to be given a chance, and with the names he knows in football he could use his contacts to bring in some good players in January to give the Latics more of a fighting chance of survival.

He may not have been everyone’s first choice at the DW Stadium, but Toure could bring some excitement back to Wigan Athletic.