Personally i don't give a shiny e whether IL 'keeps us in the loop' or not. Its his decision, not mine or yours. I can't see any evidence that the club is being mismanaged so i am happy to keep rolling up and watching some rugby.

We will.
Sponsorship is very hard to come by, and that is a major problem. If you know of any major companies willing to sponsor I suggest you get on the phone to Mick Hogan NOW.

The new shirts WILL be released before Christmas.

Times are hard at the minute and everybody knows that but other clubs don't seem to be having the problems we have each year in finding a sponsor.

We're setting the bar too high imo in terms of what they're asking for the sponsorship. I remember last year Lenagan saying he wouldn't see it on the cheap and was looking for a record deal.

The times just aren't right for us to be demanding that sort of deal.

Being a fan doesn't authorise you to know what's going on all the time. In fact it doesn't authorise you to know anything. Not at Wigan - now or in the past - nor at any other SL club. If you feel it does, you haven't got a handle on the reality of what being a fan means. Being superior or inferior doesn't come into it. You pay money to watch a team who you want to win; in return you are entertained and occasionally get satisfaction from seeing them lift a trophy. Your turnstyle payments entitle you to no more than that - certainly not inside information on how the club is run.



IL could argue that trying to create a financially viable club and put it on a proper business footing is the best thing he can do for the fans. We all saw the result of Mo and Whelan's style, which might have been well meaning but, though it saw us paying out big money for star names, still won us nothing, in fact almost got us relegated, and meant we'd be struggling to balance the books for years to come. We won't necessarily always have a wealthy benefactor running things. A time may come when the club needs to stand on its own two feet. IL may be doing us a huge service in bringing that about, and in the process making Wigan more than just a brand name underpinned by debt.

You keep trotting out this phrase 'the way IL treats the fans', but I've still seen no evidence that he treats them badly. He occasionally posts on this message board to enlighten us re. impending events - I know of no other club chairman who does that. He also holds regular fans forums - you may buy into this paranoid notion that these are nothing more than stage-managed affairs with lots of plants in the audiences asking easy questions, but even if that was true it's still more than you got under the previous regime. If the only evidence you have that he treats the fans badly is that he hasn't informed you who we're going to sign next, then I'm unimpressed with your argument. As I said before, you have no automatic right to any such information - especially if it may put sensitive negotiations at risk etc, and why he would break that rule to THANK you when all you've done is pay a reasonable price each week for something you get personal enjoyment out of, is beyond me.



So because things went wrong in the past, that automatically means they'll go wrong again in the future?

It's possible, but I hardly think he built his business empire by making the same mistake over and over again. I think there's at least as good a chance that these mistakes won't be repeated, so forgive me if I don't rush to subscribe to your doomsday scenario just yet.

As for the DW thing ... sorry if the truth hurts, but there are many rumours that, with his footy experiment now on the wane, DW is trying to get back into the club. If that's true and IL, for any reason, decides to sell up - we're in big trouble. So while I don't think for one minute that you're in Whelan's camp, I find it a mystery that you're so vitriolic about IL with so little reason.



IL has not even done half a job yet, or even a quarter of a job - so you're not really in a position to pass judgement ... unless you're one of these people who wants immediate massive success straight away, which I'm sure you've said in the past that you're not.

The coaching situ is certainly IL's Achilles heel, but as there is still plenty of time for him to sort it, I'm not overly worried. Your confident assertion that because the new man hasn't been announced in September that means he still won't have been announced by December reads as nothing more than blind, pointless panic.

Doesnt that seem logical when you say it like that?

It also seemed logical to come out weeks/months ago and tell the fans if Brian Noble was going to be here next year or not. IL didnt even have to name the new coach other than say Noble will/wont be here next year and the new coach is/isnt lined up already. To me it seems like one big b@lls up!

I've been impressed with IL so far and I don't expect him to tell us things until he decides to.

I don't think it would show much sense to say: "Brian Noble won't be here next year because we're not renewing his contract. Oh ... and we haven't got anyone else lined up."

Now that would be a real b@lls up.

As though they would word it like that

Well how do you word "we've just sacked our coach and haven't got another one lined up" without it making you look a bit of a prat?

Is it classed as sacking if he's out of contract?

Okay.

"We haven't renewed our coach's contract. But we haven't got anyone else lined up."

Given the ability of certain folk on here and in the press to have an absolute field-day even when Wigan do and/or say nothing, I'd imagine a statement like that would signal the apocalypse.

Why would he look like a prat? It would put everyone in the picture. As it stands now he looks like an even bigger prat as the people he is trying to sell the Wigan RL brand to have no idea who the coach is next year or if we even have a coach for next year.

If your scenario is true then all he needed to do is come out and say 'Brian Noble will be leaving at the end of the season and we are in negotiations with candidates for the head coach position, an announcement will be made as soon as possible'.

Infact IMO theres only one reason for him not to come out and tell us that and that reason is that he has b@llsed the situation up.

All you've really done here is prove my previous point. You don't know anything - so the Wigan chairman is a prat.

Good one.

Please explain why i dont know anything?

All that you have done is proven that when your opinion is questioned you will throw your toys out of the pram and come back with a surly reply as above.

I thought the Mecca Bingo sponsorship was for a year with a 1 year option from both sides?

Is this not the case or have one of the two parties said no thanks to next year?


As for this 'IL should be telling us because we have a right to know as we, by going to games, finance the club'; that is laughable.

IL made his fortune himself with no help from hand outs, clearly he is a shrewd business man who knows exactly what he is doing.

There is not a single decent business man out there in any line of work who tells people anything unless he needs to. This coaching situation is clearly beneficial to the club to not be confirmed.

Using deduction, the situation has not been clarified because there is nothing to tell therefore any announcement would create more unrest than silience is (which is upsetting a few).


Noble is porbably going and therefore IL has not said anything to upset the momentum we have going or because the incoming coach is still under contract with another club, therefore something like a non-disclosure agreement has been signed until both clubs are happy with the timing.

Quite frankly IL has to keep quiet even if a few fans seem to think they are entitled to know the finer workings of something when it would be detrimental to the Wigan business and probably a n other (not to mention lowering the good name of Wigan RL).

I mean do you think ICI, Tesco's and all other big concerns doll out information because their staff think they should or when it is correct for the business?

So he says that and gets moaned at because everyone knows he's really saying this:



Ultimatly until IL can annouce something positive on the matter, then it is better to not announce at all, because we would all know what he is really saying, and he would 'look a prat'.

Because you're the one complaining that he's keeping you in the dark.

As a fan I believe we shouldn't be kept in the dark, at the end of the day without fans there would be no club.

IL is the big man , he doesnt have to justify himself to us - he has to trust his own judgement on this issue , ignore the masses n back him/sack him.

I'm 99% sure Noble is off to Celtic Crusaders.
My money is on McGuire to replace him, but he hasn't coached first grade, which you now need to have done.
I think the club will apply for special dispensation ie John Dixon.

What do you mean when you say special dispensation?

Not sure what Celtic's reasoning was, but it worked.

No he would not get moaned at. He would be seen to be in control of the situation rather than it looking like it does now-a b@lls up. I suspect the truth behind it all is that he failed to get his number 1 choice (Kearney) so has been scratching around for a replacement ever since.Hes played Noble at a game all along hoping that in the worst case scenario in that he cannot get a new coach he can just try to talk him into a one year deal and the game would start all over again next year.

There is absolutely no reason why IL could not commit to a yes or no answer weeks ago when asked if Noble would or wouldnt be here next year. If you can give me a reason why that should be kept a secret then please feel free to do so.

So if Noble is off and IL tells us this week, do you not think this will be counter productive to the team for the run in to the finals?

If Noble is not staying the sensible thing to do is keep quiet until the Wigan season runs it's course.

Even if he does tell us (and i hope he doesn't) people will then say 'well now tell me who is replacing him' and chances are that person coming in is under contract. Therefore we will destabilise the team and peope like you will still not be happy because you don't know the replacement.

To sum it all up, surely if he could tell us he would!!!

Disagree completely, announcing anything regarding the coaching position within the last 8 weeks would have been detrimental to the team, UNLESS he was staying, in which case it would have been announced ages ago.

I think that everyone who needs to know will already know, and thats the way it should be. Fairly enough as fans we want to know whats going on, but thats not how clubs are run in reality.

Its different from what St Helens did with Anderson last year, he was a massively successful coach who announced that he was going back to Aus, in which case it would only have been beneficial to the team and club and fans to give him a big send off. With Noble though, a lot of fans would be happy to already see him gone, changing the situation completely.

As long as something re: coach and signings is announced as soon as we are knocked out of the playoffs, absolutely fine by me.