The turn of the New Year has finally seen James McCarthy, Wigan’s £1.2m summer transfer from Hamilton Academicals, given his chance to shine in the Premiership. Having bought the young Scot last July, Roberto Martinez has shown a reluctance to introduce the 19yr old straight into action, instead allowing him time to integrate into the Latics’ first team squad…

Now, however, the midfielder is up for the challenge of Premiership action, according to his manager. Martinez has recently lavished praise upon McCarthy, saying:

“We all know James is going to be a big star in world football. He has been working very hard and lately you could see he was ready in training to enjoy his football and ready to win games for Wigan.”

Having previously only sampled 17 Premiership minutes, McCarthy, last season’s Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year, has now started three consecutive league games for Wigan, missing only the final five minutes of the away defeat at Blackburn in total. Significantly, over these three games, he has picked up the same amount of FPL points -sixteen- as Charles N’Zogbia, with Martinez ringing the changes at the DW Stadium.

The next seven gameweeks not only see Wigan play at home six times, the club also participate in two Double GameWeeks, with their fixtures being (sun, STK & BOL, TOT, bir, LIV, bol & AVL, BUR).

Despite the team’s league inconsistencies, the likes of Hugo Rodallega, with 102 FPL pts, and N’Zogbia, with 93 FPL pts, continue to prosper in FPL, proving there is definite investment potential in Wigan players. If McCarthy, at just £4.2m, continues to match his fellow midfielder N’Zogbia in FPL points hauls, he, too, must be one for consideration in the upcoming gameweeks.