Bramble not worried over January raids

Defender Titus Bramble is confident that the likes of Emile Heskey, Antonio Valencia and Wilson Palacios will stay at Wigan in January.

Latics boss Steve Bruce is set for an anxious month when the window opens on New Year's Day with several of his star players being linked with a host of Premier League clubs. However Bramble firmly believes that the progress being made at the JJB Stadium will be enough to ensure most targeted players will opt to further their career at Wigan.

"There's a lot of talk and speculation about our best players moving on in January, but I don't think that will happen," Bramble told Wigan Today.

"We've got an ambitious chairman who wants to move Wigan forward. We are a buying club, not a selling club.

"We don't need to sell our best players and I'm sure we can hold on to them."

He added: "The manager, Steve Bruce, is building a great squad here, and this team is getting better all the time.

"All the boys have great faith in what the gaffer is trying to achieve.

"He has turned the club around in the past year and worked wonders for the lads, and the way he has stamped his own identity on the club.

"Our attacking play against Blackburn was high class and now it is up to us to keep this momentum moving forward and not to take the foot off the pedal between now and the end of May.

"We've nothing to fear if we keep this progress going."