Sam Tickle has been in brilliant form for Latics all seasonSam Tickle has been in brilliant form for Latics all season
Sam Tickle has been in brilliant form for Latics all season
Sam Tickle is in no danger of being distracted by transfer talk linking with a big-money move from Wigan Athletic to the Premier League in the near future.
Because the Young England goalkeeper - this week voted League One player of the year at the North West Football Awards - simply isn't concerned with any off-the-field speculation.
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Indeed, if anything materialises, it will probably be his mum who first alerts him to it!
"I never spend a moment thinking about any of that, to be honest," Tickle told Wigan Today. "Literally, I just go out there and try to keep the ball out of my net...that's the only thing in my mind.
"My mum does, to be fair...she's always searching my name on social media, seeing what's being said about me. I've told her 'don't do it, don't do it'...but she's always on there!
"She'll even say stuff like 'someone's been on Twitter saying your kicking was rubbish today!' But the rest of the stuff, I pay no attention to...just the next game and doing my job."
Tickle swept the board at last year's player of the year awards, and is already a frontrunner for this season's gongs.
Manager Shaun Maloney knows it's probably only a question of when, not if, the 22-year-old is prised away by a top club.
However, the Latics chief - who handed Tickle his league debut in the last game of the 2022-23 campaign against Rotherham, before handing him the No.1 shirt last term - is not worried about transfer talk affecting his form.
"Sam's temperament is as good as you'll see," said Maloney. "He'll come in after an incredible game - like against Northampton in midweek - and he'll be exactly the same Sam.
"And on the flip side, when he had his first difficult moment last season at Wycombe, he didn't let it affect him in the slightest.
"Everyone knows what I think about him as a goalkeeper...whenever we need him, he's always there for us, and long may that continue."
Tickle signed a contract extension with Latics over the summer that runs until 2028.
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