According to rugby league live talks are ongoing about him being back here in 2022.

As I said last week, if we’re going to continue exactly as we are with the current staff, the current recruitment strategy etc instead of ripping it all up and starting again then I’d be absolutely made up to have him back here.

Yeah let's do it. He's successful, ruthless and he'll be like a coiled viper having spent three years without day to day coaching. I'm sure he'll have learnt a lot in those three years away as well.

Why would he return. He resigned because they lost Sam by not giving him the deal he wanted.

Hope he does come back personally. Will shake this shower of up!

We never got confirmation on why he left but saying that was the case, things change and his stance may have softened. I guess any talks would have to go well. Ultimately he’s probably desperate to get back in to club management and knowing his passion for the club, he’s probably as frustrated watching us lose proper games as we all are.

The talk is that he comes in as a joint role between being a general manager and coaching. To me that means he gets more say in who comes and goes and that is possibly the deal breaker.

I want him back as head coach.

People criticise the style of play but the style of play under Lam?

I don’t see his motivation to return but hope he does.

I can see a motivation burning away from the fact he’s been very limited in what he’s been able to do with England since he took over. He’s had the Ashes cancelled, training camps cancelled and he’s even had another get together cancelled in the past week due to Covid. He strikes me as a coach who wins to win trophies now and not build a club from bottom up and you’re probably looking at him then having a handful of clubs here that he’d go to. Saints wouldn’t touch him for obvious reasons, Wire don’t need him now, Hull and Catalans don’t need him and Leeds will stick with Agar.

I was a big "Wane out" guy, simply because I wanted to see more from us in the weekly rounds. I doubt he's going to change his philosophy, but you know what - he's probably the right guy to go after.

There's been a massive upheaval at the club since he left. We've lost guys like Tomkins, Flower, GW and SOL. We're losing Hastings and possibly Tommy, French and Clubb (from a older head POV) and that's a hell of a lot of experience. Having a proven head coach can't be a bad thing. Especially if, as rumoured, he'll have more say off the field.

Outside of that, there's no one else really available. You look back 12/18 months and the NRL was full of assistants ready to step up. Guys like O'Brian, Fitzgibbon, Demetriou and Peyton would have improved us, but they are all taken.

It is what it is, uninspiring but better than Lam.

Wouldn’t be head coach according to Wigan today. That’s disappointing

Just read the details. Wane in a part time director of rugby role doesn't appeal anywhere near as much. Would be a tough spot for any head coach as well.

I’d much rather the club went in a completely new direction. Someone like Maguire or Holbrook who can come in with fresh ideas, supported by a change in recruitment plans. Whoever comes in needs support to bring in some experienced, robust forwards as a start. We over rely on the young lads who are all good players but shouldn’t have to carry the fight without experience and support around them. I’d love to see John Morris come in. He was doing a good job with Cronulla and I was shocked he was sacked.

Does this suggest someone with little experience will get the head coach gig?

Assuming Wane is the director of rugby.

The way it’s going, it’ll be Matty Peet!

Problem with this is we’ll be seeing Peet and Lockers as 1&2 next year. With the amount of experience we’re losing on the field to go with two coaches who’ve never had a head coach role would be suicidal imo

Will be Tommy too I reckon.

See how it plays out I suppose. At least it looks like Lams days are up at the end of the season. Maybe he can shock us with a Grand Final win before he leaves but I’d be very surprised if it were the case. It’s a demanding club and a demanding group of supporters but it hasn’t worked out overall.

I’m half and half.

If you listen to his podcasts from when he was assistant to Mags he said he can’t be anything but #1. He has to make the decisions. From what I’ve read he won’t be Head Coach, therefore won’t make decisions. It worries me in that has his mindset changed with regards to that? And is it the right role for him?

The other half of me says absolutely go for it. Get him back. He might actually show Lam how to coach a team. I have far more confidence that with Wane on board we’ll be back to signing players we need and that are of the right quality and that he’ll have them fired up ready to win.

This doesnt half put a spanner in the works with regards to GW. He may not have fancied Wigan under Lam but a reunion with Wane? That [imight [/isway him.

Even the world’s greatest bricklayer can’t build you a wall if you don’t give him the bricks to do it with. I think Lam or any other coach would really struggle to win a GF with this group of players. You could bring in Trent Robinson but without a real recruitment drive, I still think we’d struggle with the players we have.

I’m torn on that tbh. I think a top coach figures out a way of getting a back line including French, Hardaker and Hastings playing some fantastic rugby at the very least. You do need a front row to lay a platform but even when they were doing that in the last third of last season, the rugby has always been a grind. A coach has to improve players and he just hasn’t been able to do it.

He’s not had a squad that could dominate the league but he’s had enough to have won something. Had Wane had the exact same set of players this past two and a half years, he’d have won something IMO.

So no team with poor players have ever won anything, or even punched above their weight?

Absolutely they have but they’ve not won Superleague.

Really?

Hastings
Gildart
French
Smith
Hardaker
Marshall
Powell
Bateman
Farrell
Isa

In no particular order named off the top of my head. All top drawer, top quality players who walk into any SL team and I dare say most NRL teams. Are you seriously with a straight face telling me the team we have isn’t good enough? Because if you are I need to find a wall to put my head in.

I think I’m this is a bit unfair to be honest. Powell has improved massively under Lam as has Marshall and even Bullock. Then we’ve had the emergence of Smithies, Havard, Partington etc who are all much better now than when Lam took over. He’s only had 1 x marquee player the last 2 seasons too with the Burgess issues.

I’ve been behind Lam all the way but I’m now ready for a change. I’ve given him more of a chance to prove himself than most. We’ve had glimpses of real class and flare but not had enough of it by a long way. That said, I still put a lot of that down to the standard of players recruited and an ineffective pack.

My comments relate to next season so absolutely I am. However, we came within a whisker of winning the GF last season so not far away. Gildart and French haven’t played this season. Smith still has much to improve on but I have big hopes for the lad. Bateman hasn’t got anywhere near any decent form yet and I hope he turns it around and quick. Hastings and Gildart (possibly French won’t be here next season so need quality replacements. We have the players in the squad now but without reinforcements we’ll struggle next season against strengthened Saints and Warrington sides no matter who the coach is.

Powell improved but even if has gone backwards now. Marshall had improved so that’s one. The young kids have come in and done a good job but it’s hardly like that’s a new thing at Wigan and none have made giant strides forward just yet. Joe Bullock looks no different to the lad that came in. A better season last year than his first but even Lam doesn’t seem to rate his game. He’s not even got the best out of top talents like Hastings and Bateman.

I buy in to the fact the recruitment should’ve been better and he didn’t have much luck with Burgess but I can’t help but to go back to my question about how we’d have gone under Wane these past two and a half years. We’d have still brought kids through, we’d have still been clunky at times but ultimately there is no way on this earth we’d have lost pretty much every big game we’ve played in during that period, including absolute pastings against Salford, a poor Leeds side and Hull. We were played off the park in all three and it’s those I focus on. We had bad defeats like that 48-0 last time out under Wane and we had bad spells in the weekly rounds but in the main, you knew exactly what side would turn up in big games.