Wigan Athletic should expect Ipswich Town transfer approach this summer: View | OneFootball

He may only be 20-years-old, but Wigan Athletic centre-back Charlie Hughes is already a wanted man.

The Sun reported that both Ipswich Town and West Ham United were keeping tabs on the young defender in January, who has impressed since making his breakthrough into the first team last season.

The Tractor Boys have found clean sheets hard to come by this season, with only nine shutouts in their 33 league games so far, so a young star like Hughes would slot into their backline easily and help tighten the rearguard.

Manchester City and Liverpool upbringing has rubbed off on Hughes

Hughes is a player who has always been highly regarded right through his youth, with spells at Manchester City and Liverpool as a youngster, before making the move to Wigan in 2017 at the age of 13.

That talent has also been recognised on the international stage, with a call up to the England U20 side last November, where he featured against Italy and Germany.

Not only is the defender a solid performer at the back, but with the education from those clubs higher up the pyramid, Hughes boasts an assurance on the ball well beyond his years.

Kieran McKenna is well renowned for wanting his team to be comfortable on the ball in all areas of the park, and the young defender has that in spades.

Whoscored.com shows Hughes to complete over 60 passes a game for the Latics this season, and a pass completion percentage of 82.7% - with his eye for a killer ball through the centre of the park key to starting attacks for Shaun Maloney’s side.

With three goals to his name at the other end of the pitch, he knows how to perform in both boxes and last month’s superb acrobatic volley to secure a 1-0 victory over Wycombe was further proof of his talents in possession.

In total, Hughes has featured 63 times for Wigan since making his debut in the Football League Trophy against Arsenal U21 in January 2022, finding the net four times as well as being shown a solitary red card in a 2-0 defeat to Barnsley earlier in the current campaign.

The Charlie Hughes contract situation

The one snag for Ipswich as they try to pry Hughes away from the DW Stadium is his current contract length.

Wigan are certainly no fools and knew they had a talent on their hands; signing the defender on a deal to keep him at the club until the summer of 2028 in the summer of last year; a hands-off sign if ever there was one.

Transfermarkt valued him at £500,000 as of December 27 2023, which in the current market seems like a snip - ball-playing defenders of Hughes’ quality don’t come along all that often, and the Latics will surely be expecting a seven-figure fee in the summer to lure him away.

With defenders Axel Tuanzebe, Luke Woolfenden, and Cameron Burgess all having contracts that expire in the summer - albeit with options of a further year yet to be triggered - there could well be a gaping hole at the heart of the Ipswich defence to fill, and with a number of players off the wage bill, Hughes would be the perfect man to slot in at the heart of the Tractor Boys’ back line.

It would be a signing with the future in mind but one that could also serve a short-term purpose.