 Sunderland manager Steve Bruce – Kirkland's former manager at Wigan from November 2007 to June 2009 – was linked with a move for Kirkland in January 2010, but said that "talk of me bidding £5m for Chris Kirkland is garbage, but he is a very good goalkeeper, and I'm a big, big admirer of him".Speaking in March 2010, manager Roberto Martínez said that "if you look at the standard of his performances – week in, week out – it is up there with the best in England".At the start of the 2010–11 season, Wigan were heavily defeated in their first two matches against Blackpool and Chelsea, and he was replaced in the starting line-up by Ali Al-Habsi.