Seems to me

a) The timing here, straight after Wales win the Grand Slam, is surely not coincidental. This adds £££s to SE's value. And really, given the choice of England RU coach, Wasps coach, or Wigan coach, what order of desirability would most folk put them in? If, as now appears clear, on contract has been signed, then SE hasn't really done anything that much wrong.

b) That said, IL and Rads have been foolish at best, or deceitful at worst, by making out to fans that we had Edwards when we didn't.

c) The fans deserve a better, and much more detailed explanation of what the hell is going on than that two-sentence load of anodyne rubbish they've come out with.

Pretty obvious because Edwards has run straight to the press and declared it?

So you don't think Lenagan, Lam or Radlinski have been in contact with Edwards for months?

Of course they've been in contact.

The fact he's negotiating a deal with Wasps and refuses to answer the phone to Wigan after dropping this bombshell in a media interview tells you everything you need to know about his intentions and motives.

We've been played like a fiddle.

No, the impression i get from Edwards comments is that he has no idea what is going on.

100%

Sorry to make a lazy Brexit pun but there’s no deal on the table. He is, as of the end of the RU World Cup unemployed. I’ve no doubt he’s earned some good money in RU but for a man with ambitions such as SE’s he wants to be employed coaching.

Don’t get me wrong I’d be desperately disappointed and equally as annoyed if he never came to Wigan after all this but I would support him in the fact that he’s been led up the garden path just as much as you or I thinking he’d be the Head Coach come 2020.

A short non statement statement is not what we need from the club. We need accuracy, brevity and clarification on this. This whole saga sums up the clubs actions over recent history and it seems to me that the chickens have finally come home to roost. It does make me wonder whether there was a lot more to Shaun Wane’s shock departure than we were told.

His intentions and motives to legally secure employment for next year?

Look, its quite simple. Had Wigan got him to sign a contract when he was paraded as having signed a 3 year contract then we wouldnt be here now. You can spin it in favour of Saint Lenegan as much as you like but the bottom line is that Edwards is looking out for himself as anybody would do in his situation of impending unemployment. The club made a complete b*lls up whether intentionally or not.

I think that view is shared amongst us all

How hard would it have been for him to ask ... without doing it via the newspapers? He was at the club a couple of weeks ago, watching the WCC.

I ended up agreeing with you that the Edwards deal suddenly looked unlikely, but I think you risk looking naive if you keep shouting about it all being down to IL and SE carrying no can at all - especially when he told the Times today that he was waiting to see if he was getting the England job. That's not the kind of thing that suddenly comes out of the blue. How would he secure the England job by saying 'I wanted Wigan but they don't want me, so I'm coming to you instead?'

Don't assume Edwards is whiter than white. I suspect he was lured elsewhere quite some time ago.

The known facts fit both hypotheses. P-J *might* be right, and SE *might* be refusing to answer the phone etc. That's certainly the spin the club's two sentences look to put on it.

And if that is the case, then as noted upthread, surely the relationship is irrevocably soured.

Either way, the club come out of it looking like fools, or knaves, or both.

The more I think about it, the more I think it's Edwards going back on his word. IL to me seems to be of the opinion that everything was agreed, the contract would be signed after his current duties expired later in the year.

The fact he hasn't signed does give Edwards room to wiggle out of his agreement and make the club out to be idiots, for agreeing to show faith in a handshake.

He asked last year and was refused and told they would sort it out later. I would do exactly the same as Edwards in his situation. I would not beg. Edwards is a very proud man, and i could never imagine him bending down on one knee to anybody. The very first time Edwards went public and floated the idea he may not come to Wigan, Lenegan should of been on the phone to him, straightened it out and then got the contract to him ASAP. Edwards has given Wigan plenty of time (9 months) and has now decided hes waited long enough and i dont blame him. The fact he admitted that he hasnt signed a contract with Wasps in case he gets the England job just goes to show the honesty of the man.

Words mean nothing in business and thats what a RL club is when you get to the bare bones of it - a business. Only a legally binding contract has any substance to it in business. Lenegan should know this being a business man himself and he should of been clear to the fans when he paraded Edwards that it was just an agreement not that a 3 year contract had been signed.

Legally binding contracts don't count for much in Rugby League. We've all seen that repeatedly.

I'm not saying the club are without responsibility - if anything I think they may have been too trusting. But I don't think you can afford to assume that Edwards is being 100% truthful and/or that Wigan are 100% lying. If he gets the England job, that will not have been because the Wigan job went belly-up. It will almost certainly be the cause of why the Wigan job went belly-up.

I share everyone's frustration and anger the natural desire to hammer someone with blame, I just feel there's two sides to this story.

"Wigan Warriors are aware of quotes from Shaun Edwards regarding his future contractual arrangements. “Following the conclusion of the Six Nations and Shaun’s comments, we have been seeking dialogue with Shaun directly since Sunday to clarify to Wigan his intentions" In other words... he isn't picking up the phone. https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/wi ... is-future/

"Wigan Warriors are aware of quotes from Shaun Edwards regarding his future contractual arrangements. “Following the conclusion of the Six Nations and Shaun’s comments, we have been seeking dialogue with Shaun directly since Sunday to clarify to Wigan his intentions" In other words... he isn't picking up the phone. https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/wi ... is-future/

Let’s be honest there will clearly be blame on both sides, there always is in situations like this.

The club however by not producing a legally binding contract have failed themselves and the fans massively. We look like loosing our next coach before he has even turned up for free. No compensation. In this current climate that is criminal.

I will wait till all the facts come out in the wash however I have stated on numerous times in the past Rads does not have the CV required of a top class administrator for a club like Wigan and I personally have no confidence in him in his current role. IF he is responsible for this mess it is time for him to go.

We should just fire everybody until we run out of people to blame

Bloody hell Mathers

I blame "one trick Mick".

Contracts aren't meaningless. If Edwards had signed one Wigan would have to agree to release him from it. As to the club being too trusting are you suggesting just leaving this all to be done at a later date is a sensible way to do business? Since when has it been competent management to "sign" anyone, coach or player who is in demand and NOT get them to sign on the dotted line thus giving other interested parties every opportunity to nip in and temp them away? If Edwards takes the England job it's because he's been offered it when it became apparent to the England RFU he was not contracted to Wigan and thus he has no obligations to Wigan due to the clubs incompetence.

If this is what happens I am sure we will get the usual patronising BS spin from IL but what you can't get away from is he announced Edwards as coach with a three year deal in place when no such deal had been agreed. That in itself is astonishing.

Let's be honest though - If they're trying to get hold of him on the weekend after Wales won the 6 Nations, he's probably out on the p!ss with the lads.



Don't get me wrong - I'm as pee'd off with this as anybody - Especially with Shaun giving a "Come and get me" plea to the world of RU, using the press, but I just have to assume blame on both sides.

If Lenegan and/or Radlinski didn't get a signed contract, then they are behaving like amateurs.

If Edwards signed something, then he's acting like a knob and trying to backtrack on a deal as soon as he realised that he's now worth MUCH more than we will have offered him.

Either way, Wigan RLFC look completely inept and look to be trying to hire a complete mercenary as our next coach.

Nobody is going to come out of this with any credibility IMO, regardless of who is actually at fault.

My view on this for what it’s worth is that I think the club are guilty of naivety and Edwards is guilty of changing his mind and screwing you over.

That sums up my views both precisely and succinctly.

Remind me again of why he was known as Gizmo.