Wigan Athletic never got what Norwich City did with powerful attacker: View | OneFootball

Wigan Athletic were relegated from the Premier League to the Championship at the end of the 2012/13 season, following a remarkable eight-year stint in the top flight.

Ahead of their second tier return, the Latics went through a rebuild following the departure of former manager Roberto Martinez, who left for Everton after winning the FA Cup with the 'Tics in 2013.

Martinez was known for instilling an attractive, possession-based style of football at the Latics, but after he left, the club decided to change tact and appointed ex-Bolton Wanderers manager Owen Coyle, who adopted a more direct approach.

Hence Coyle's style of play, the DW Stadium outfit opted to sign a target-man style striker, so experienced target man Grant Holt was brought to the club from Norwich City ahead of the 2013/14 Championship season.

Holt arrived in the North West with a good reputation, after scoring 15 Premier League goals for the Canaries in the 2011-12 season, helping his club to an impressive 12th place finish in the top flight.

In the following 2012-13 campaign, the striker scored eight goals as the Canaries finished in an even higher 11th position, whereas the Latics, who he would go on to join in the summer of 2013, were relegated.

Due to Holt's clear ability to score goals in the Premier League, Wigan fans will have been hopeful that the former Sheffield Wednesday man could help spearhead their side to an immediate top flight return.

Furthermore, during the Canaries' 2010-11 automatic promotion winning season - which was Holt's last season at Championship level before signing for Latics - the striker scored 21 goals.

This sort of return would have been what the Greater Manchester outfit will have expected upon signing the Canaries forward, but he was unable to deliver.

In 16 appearances and nine starts during the first half of the 2013-14 Championship season with the Latics, Holt scored just two goals and produced a solitary assist.

Despite under performing with his new club in the second tier, the target man joined Premier League outfit Aston Villa on loan in January 2014, where he would score just one goal.

Holt went on to endure a loan spell with Huddersfield Town during the 2014-15 season, in which he scored just two goals in 15 appearances.

During the 2014-15 season, the Latics could have done with a striker in the sort of form that Holt displayed at the Canaries, as they were relegated to League One just two years after their FA Cup triumph.

Holt also spent underwhelming loan spells at both Wolverhampton Wanderers and Rochdale during the 2015-16 season, before leaving the DW Stadium on a permanent basis, to join Hibernian in the summer of 2016.

Despite Grant Holt's woes, Wigan Athletic had a successful 2013-14 campaign

The former Canaries forward did not meet his expectations after joining the Latics, but his new club still had an overall successful campaign during his first season at the club.

After sacking former manager Coyle in December 2013, the Latics appointed Uwe Rosler, who guided the club to a play-off position at the end of the campaign.

Ultimately, Wigan lost out in the semi-final stages to eventual 2014 play-off winners Queen's Park Rangers, but they achieved their primary objective of obtaining a top-six spot.

Furthermore, the Latics put up a remarkably brave defence of their FA Cup title, and reached the semi-final where they would only lose on penalties to Arsenal, who would go on to become champions.

In that historic cup run, Rosler's men defeated Cardiff City, then of the Premier League away from home, and most memorably of all, beat Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in the quarter-final, who they had defeated in the final the previous season.

The 2013-14 season also played host to the Latics' first ever season in Europe, as they had earned themselves a place in the Europa League after winning the FA Cup in May 2013, but the Wigan faithful may wonder what they could have achieved in the Championship that season if Holt managed to find his goal-scoring touch at the DW Stadium.