7 things you probably didn’t know about new Wigan boss Owen Coyle

Wigan Athletic have today confirmed that Owen Coyle has been appointed manager after Roberto Martinez took up the managerial post at Everton.

1. Owen Coyle was a striker and played for 14 different clubs during his career, including the club that recently sacked him, Bolton Wanderers.

2. During his playing career, Coyle scored 249 goals in 668 games.

3. Coyle started his playing career at Dumbarton, a club ten miles away from where he born in Paisley, alongside his brothers Joe and Tommy. who both enjoyed lengthy careers playing in Scotland.

4. Airdrieonians paid £170,000 for Coyle in 1990 and he scored a hattrick on his debut. In his three years at this club he scored more goals than he did for anyone else (50).

5. In the 1992–1993 season, Coyle played for Airdrieonians in the European Cup Winners’ Cup (Scottish Cup winners Rangers, had won the Scottish Premier Division title and qualified for the European Cup).

6. Having been bought by Bolton for £250k two years earlier, in 1995 Coyle scored a 75th minute goal against Reading in the playoff final which gave Bolton a lifeline to peg the scoreline back to 2–1. With 90 minutes on the clock, the score was 2–2 and Bolton won 4–3 in extra time to end their 15-year exile from the top flight.

7. In October 1995, Dundee United paid £400,000 for Coyle, where he was once again part of a promotion-winning side, scoring the winning goal in extra time in the second leg of the playoff against Partick Thistle.