Wigan beating Bristol City to the signing of this 23-year-old PL ace would be a clever move in January

Why Wigan Athletic must beat Bristol City to sign Isaac Hayden in January

According to a report from Bristol Post, Bristol City are interested in Newcastle United midfielder Isaac Hayden.

Isaac Hayden informed the Magpies hierarchy that he wanted to leave the club for personal reasons and had put in a transfer request in the summer as well. But Newcastle United didn’t accept it and the 23-year-old had to stay put at Tyneside.

The midfielder has barely featured for Newcastle following his sending off at Cardiff, and has made just three appearances all season. He came off the bench to help the Magpies to a win over Bournemouth last weekend.

However, Isaac Hayden’s future at Newcastle remains ambiguous and Wigan Athletic must join Bristol City in the race for his signature in January.

Wigan Athletic gained automatic promotion to the Championship by winning the League One last season under the tutelage of Paul Cook. However, the Latics have had a topsy-turvy start to the Championship season and currently lie 16^th in the table.

After a decent start, Wigan have tasted four straight defeats in the league, with the last one coming at the hands of Middlesbrough before the international break. Clearly, the team has endured a mini-crisis and Paul Cook’s tactics do not seem to work at the moment.

Staying in the Championship should be Wigan’s first and foremost task but they could aim for a top-10 finish with a couple of additions in January. In the last few games, Wigan’s midfield have lacked the robustness to stop the opposition’s attacks.

Sam Morsy, Lee Evans and Darron Gibson have all done well in the middle of the park but there is precious little cover barring Shaun MacDonald. Hence, adding a new central midfielder to the squad in January should be prioritised by Cook and the Wigan manager would do well to beat Bristol City to the signing of Isaac Hayden.

In Hayden, Wigan would get a combative central midfielder who would add experience and steel to Cook’s side. The former Arsenal man played an instrumental role in Newcastle’s promotion campaign a couple of seasons ago, so his experience would be absolutely vital for Wigan.

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A tenacious, hard-tackling and industrious midfielder, Hayden would provide Wigan with the much-needed cover in the heart of midfield.

At the age of 23, he has his best years ahead of him and Wigan can enjoy his services if they manage to land him in January.