Whelan, who bought Latics in 1995, said earlier this week he was considering letting his 21-year-old grandson David take over the reins at the DW Stadium. Martinez is confident any decision Whelan makes will be in Wigan's best interests. Speaking ahead of Saturday's Premier League trip to Sunderland, Martinez said: "What I can guarantee you is that Wigan Athletic is in his heart and whatever he will decide or do, it will be for the good of the football club. "I've got no doubts or any worries that we can rely on our chairman. Whatever he decides will be the best for our future." The Latics are currently bottom of the Premier League and Whelan admitted that - although he does not think it will happen - there is a real possibility that Wigan will go down this season, adding that he will not be worried if they do. The chairman also made reference to the "resilience" of the club, and Martinez certainly does not view the comments as defeatist. Asked if he was concerned about Whelan's talk of relegation, the Spaniard said: "No. I think what he is trying to say is that financially, we have made a lot of arrangements over the last few seasons and now we are efficient as a football club, and could survive anywhere. "I think it's a real compliment to be able to say that - as a football club we could survive in any division, and probably we couldn't say that three years ago, where we were relying on the chairman's funding to be able to play our football. "If you know the chairman, he is a winner, he doesn't accept defeat easily and he knows that we are starting to get ready to achieve our aims this season. "We are going to give everything to stay in this league and he is the first one who believes that." Wigan brought their eight-game losing streak in the league to an end with last weekend's controversial 3-3 home draw against Blackburn, a match the Latics were disappointed not to have won, not least because Rovers' second goal came from what appeared to be an illegitimate corner. Martinez felt his team's performance was worthy of all three points - and an encouraging indicator of the squad's strength in depth, given that he had made five changes to his starting XI. "I think on Saturday we really showed the strength of the squad in terms of numbers, options and the level of certain players," he said. "We really hit a very good moment and that is why we are so excited about the future - I feel the competition for places is as strong as it has ever been in the three seasons I have been at Wigan." The most notable name dropped to the bench for the Blackburn game was star striker Hugo Rodallega, although Martinez revealed the Colombia international had been ill in the build-up to the match and praised the contribution he made after coming on as a substitute. "Hugo had a little bit of a virus on Monday and Tuesday and he couldn't train with the team," Martinez said. "I just thought he could give us something on Saturday, but that it would be unfair to ask him to play for 90 minutes. "When he came on he looked sharp, had two very good opportunities and provided the perfect knock-down for Albert Crusat's goal. "We shouldn't put individuals under too much pressure to get the results."
