By John May

Hutchings and Jewell have had their success in tilting at windmills

Who is Chris Hutchings?

That was the question on everyone's lips when he was appointed to sit in the Wigan hotseat following Paul Jewell's resignation.

Latics chairman Dave Whelan appointed Hutchings because he says he preferred to work with somebody he knows well, rather than the unknown quantity of a bigger name.

But while Whelan may know Hutchings, to others he is the archetypal football number two, the familiar face in the dugout that you struggle to put a name to as he whispers in the manager's ear; the faithful Sancho Panza riding alongside Don Quixote.

So what do we know about Chris Hutchings?

Well, he is a versatile man who has skills to earn himself a living if he ever falls out of the game

Born in Winchester, Hutchings was on Southampton's book as a youngster, but was shown the door from The Dell.

He was working as a bricklayer and playing part-time, non-league football for Harrow Borough when Chelsea signed him in 1981.

Hutchings made 101 appearances for the Blues, mostly in the second tier, before joining Brighton, where he spent four years playing under Jimmy Melia, Chris Catlin and Alan Mullery.

His playing career took him to Huddersfield and Walsall where after just a season he joined Rotherham.

Chris Hutchings is ready for another crack at management

After hanging his playing boots up he took his first step into coaching by joining the Millers' staff as youth coach.

Another spell out of football followed, during which time Hutchings honed his persuasion skills as a second-hand car salesman before then-Bradford chairman Geoffrey Richmond brought him back in as Chris Kamara's assistant at Valley Parade.

Hutchings was working as Bradford's youth development officer and had obviously made an impression on newly-appointed Bantams' manager Paul Jewell who in 1998 made him his number two.

He got his first taste of management probably sooner than he expected as Jewell resigned to join Sheffield Wednesday after performing his first final-day miracle by keeping Bradford up.

A Bradford squad containing such maverick characters as Benito Carbone and Stan Collymore, thrust upon him by an over-eager chairman, would have tested the handling skills of an experienced manager, let alone a rookie like Hutchings.

Hutchings' spell in charge at Valley Parade lasted 137 days, taking charge of just 12 league games before Richmond, who put him on the managerial pedestal, knocked it out from under him.

Hutchings, Whelan and Jewell, three amigos who kept Wigan afloat

At least he had the satisfaction of taking somebody down with him. Chelsea were Bradford's only victims in Hutchings' games in charge and the defeat spelled the end of boss Gianluca Vialli.

He also had the dubious honour of leading Bradford into Europe on an Intertoto Cup campaign that halted one stop short of the Uefa Cup first round.

When Jewell was appointed Wigan boss in 2001 he summoned his old sidekick and together they plotted the Latics rise from the third tier of English football to the top flight.

As he gets a second crack at Premiership managership he patently has belief in his ability, otherwise he would not have taken the job on.

Some may say he is lucky to get a shot at managing in a league where perhaps more deserving men have been denied the chance. Football is all about being in the right place at the the right time.

He does that confident in the knowledge that his chairman plumped for him at a time when the likes of Chris Coleman, Stuart Pearce and Glenn Roeder were knocking about.

The reliable understudy is ready to emerge from the wings again, to take his place in the spotlight.