Hull City reunion at Wigan Athletic as former Derby County and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder recruited

Both have taken the coaching route post-retirement, with Huddlestone only recently having hung up his boots for good. Maloney has been Wigan’s manager since January 2023, while Huddlestone has been in a player-coach role in Manchester United’s under-21 set-up.

Maloney has now added Huddlestone to his coaching team, drafting the 37-year-old in alongside former Belgium scout Shadab Iftikhar. Both have been appointed as first-team coaches.

Huddlestone said: “I am very excited. I played with the manager for a couple of seasons at Hull City, and to get this opportunity, I am very grateful and hopefully, I can bring a lot to the coaching staff.

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“The last two years have been really educational from a coaching standpoint. It’s given me the ambition as coaching is something I want to do long term, and I’m grateful to have this opportunity at the beginning of my coaching journey.

“The first few days I’ve been here, everyone has been keen. The manager has everyone’s full attention and everyone is believing what we are going after this year."

Maloney added: "I am delighted to welcome Tom and Shadab to the football club, who both join us with vastly different experiences. Tom has arrived following two seasons at Manchester United under-21s and we also worked together at Hull as teammates.

"He is an extremely calm, but also very passionate coach and has been involved at the elite level for a long time which will help our younger players. I worked previously with Shadab at Belgium and he also worked with Roberto Martinez at Everton and Wigan and therefore understands the DNA of our club.

"He most recently was head coach of the Pakistan under-20s side and has an incredible work ethic and is extremely passionate about coaching. Both will be great additions to the coaching team."