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Wigan Athletic chief makes eve-of-season declaration - 'It's the hope that kills you!' 'It's the hope that kills you!' - Gary Caldwell's verdict as Wigan Athletic prepare to open their League One campaign at Cambridge United this weekend. With eight new signings on board - and a few more on the way - Latics are hopeful of a better season than last term, when they only lifted themselves clear of the relegation mire after Caldwell's arrival in February. However, the Scot is keeping his feet firmly on the ground - and his expectations in check - ahead of the big kick-off. "It's always an exciting time of the year, the first game...and it's the hope that kills you, as they say," he said. "Heading into a new season, every single football supporter, everybody involved in the game, has that hope that their team really achieves something. "We want to give our supporters that joy and that excitement, but I think the biggest thing we want to give them is a team with the Wigan Athletic DNA. "A team that works, that competes, that makes them proud...that's what they want, and that's what we aim to give them. "If we can do that, then I'm sure we'll win a lot of football matches for them." It's a far cry from the previous time Caldwell led Latics into a League One campaign - way back in 2015/16. Then, following relegation from the Championship, Caldwell put together a completely new group that - boosted by the biggest budget in the division - went on to win the title. So how are the similarities to to 11 years ago? "I just think it's very different...though I wouldn't say it's any bigger or not as big as what we saw before...it's just different," he said. "I'm fortunate in that I've been at this club before, albeit a totally different time, when we had parachute payments, and we were definitely the big fish in the pond. "You could liken it to maybe Leicester City this time...maybe not that big, but that is the kind of team we were 11 years ago, the landscape was so different. "What we have to learn is that, even though we had the most money and the biggest budget, it was still very difficult to achieve what we did, because football is difficult. "We were at a totally different place then in terms of the history of our football club, and what we have to do now is build an identity that the supporters can connect with and identify with. "We need to create a team and a club that the supporters can see reflecting the values and the identity of the town...it's hard-working, it's gritty, it's determined, it defies the odds like it's always done. "I think we've gone away from that in recent years...we've overspent, we've had a couple of brushes with administration. "This club has to get back to being extremely clever with its money, and working extremely hard to gain any success. "That's what it's traditionally done over the years, going back to the Dave Whelan era, the dropping into League One and bouncing back with promotion. "Hard work has always underpinned any success, and we have to get back to that."