Titus Bramble is realistic enough to accept that Wigan's key players will always be targeted by other clubs.

Bramble told the Daily Star: "Because we're doing so well in the league, everyone's coming to watch Wigan now and starting to realise how good our players really are."

"They want to see the players who are making us tick.

"Palacios and Heskey were two good players and they've been snapped up by Tottenham and Aston Villa.

"No disrespect to Wigan, but we're not a massive club like Aston Villa or Tottenham," said the defender.

"We can push up the league and maybe get into Europe, which is fair enough.

"But some players want play in front of 50,000, others want to play in Europe.

"It's a hard situation. We're on the up but it's hard to keep hold of players because they want to play for the so-called bigger teams."