FORMER Oxford United owners Ian Lenagan and Darryl Eales are involved in a consortium which is looking into bidding for troubled Wigan Athletic.

The Latics were put into administration last week, having only been bought last month.

The squad, which includes former United defender Chey Dunkley have been in fine form, but a 12-point deduction would put them bottom of the Sky Bet Championship.

Now the former U's owners - Eales having taken over the club from Lenagan in 2014 - are looking for investors to launch a rescue package club.

Lenagan is from the town and owns the Wigan Warriors rugby league club which groundshare with Athletic at the DW Stadium.

A statement read: "Being born and bred in Wigan, Ian Lenagan and Gary Speakman understand what both clubs mean to the local community.

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"We strongly believe that Wigan Athletic is better being locally-owned.

"As sustainability and ownership of the stadium is equally important to both clubs, we are currently working with our longstanding advisers KPMG and talking to external parties.

"Our intention is to identify other investors quickly and start due diligence on the football club with the intention of making a bid in due course.

"We have made the administrators aware of our interest and hope to explore this with them further over the days ahead.

"Wigan Warriors and Wigan Athletic are both local sporting institutions and it is our belief that this is a unique opportunity here to bring the ownership of these two great clubs together under one roof, each operating independently as before, but under a Wigan Sporting Partnership banner.

"It is envisaged that each club would retain all its training grounds, management and facilities."

Lenagan recently spent a term as EFL chairman, having replaced Greg Clarke in the role in 2016.

Eales retained a small share in United when he sold to Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth in 2018 but his ties with the club were ended earlier this year.

He is the chairman at National League side Solihull Moors.