"my mate told me something but i'm not going to tell you what he told me or who he is, but he told me"

Aaaaah. That old chestnut.

I still think it's ridiculous that there has been a blackout around the fans forum. I'm getting a bit sick of cryptic posts. Either share what you know or don't say anything at all. There will be plenty of frustrated people who would have liked to have gone and got answers but couldn't because of other commitments, including myself. However, the club stated there would be live updates on Twitter, which did not materialise, and now there are still no updates two days later. I find all the cloak and dagger secrecy VERY weird!! It's all well and good people posting on Twitter that they're happy and it was open and transparent, but it's clearly not is it. What about the hundreds/thousands of fans who are regularly investing time and money into the club, yet still being kept in the dark? I feel personally that season ticket holders are treated with contempt and have been some time, as we are merely seen as 'guaranteed income' and i'm getting sick of it. I've felt disillusioned for some time now and the only reason i've renewed over the past couple of seasons is to keep my season ticket seat, however with it currently being in the 'red zone' and those being the only seats that are unavailable, i'm becoming increasingly less likely to renew next season.

I have to say it's a unique way of communicating with fans - say you're doing a fans forum at short notice, confirm the (unpopular?) coach is leaving a few hour before, limit it to 120 people, say you'll provide updates and then don't, ask the 120 to "keep our little secrets" and two days later have no official confirmation of ANY information that was said and given out.

its caused more questions than answers, kind of counter productive

They don't help themselves sometimes do they.

You didn't really call them out though did you?
Your mate on the night didn't either?

You've just called them liars and then won't tell anyone why whilst insinuatiing that EVERYTHIG they told us with lies, coupled with petty name calling of thise that went.

I've called them out on here.

The person at the forum doesn't know the detailed info I have about the Edwards situation.

I've already said the info they gave out about Edwards is incorrect.

What annoys me is as someone has pointed out, some Twitter users have said it was very “open and transparent”. We’ll that’s very good for them but what about those whose life got in the way? It’s beyond ridiculous that 2 days later there’s still a club silence. What was said probably wasn’t been groundbreaking stuff but that’s beside the point. The whole mantra of “we’ll try to communicate better” is a complete joke.

I dont really care about Edwards, Burgess, Williams. All done now and consigned to history. We cant change what happened.

What i do care about is the sustainability of the club going forward and in particular the relationship with the owners of the DW stadium.

Why is it that 120 supporters get to know bits about this yet the rest of us are not deemed worthy of what the future holds in terms of how much of our hard earned cash is going to go indirectly to the Latics so they can pay £10k a week for dud players?

Over to those "ITK"....

I'll call your mate out on here
I've no idea what he's said, as you won't tell us, but I'm going to call him out as a liar

(Reality is i dont really care, but I'm you know, ill play your little game).

Negotiations are still ongoing with Wigan Ath

I have had a profile on this site for a while and this is the first time I've posted anything for years. I completely agree with the above sentiment in full as it pretty much sums up my position at the moment. A season ticket holder for 25 years and this is the first time I've contemplated not renewing. I feel that I'm just falling out of love with Wigan and am also disillusioned with what has and hasn't happened over the last few years. The way loyal fans are being treated over the forum issue is poor at best but that isn't the single reason though it has brought things to a head for me.

There was absolutely no point to that forum. None. Letting around 120 people from a fan base in the thousands, and interested parties in the tens of thousands, know a few 'secrets' was pointless and a slap in the face for those deemed not important enough to know what was said. Who the hell thought that was a good idea and what did they hope it would achieve?

It doesn't even matter what was said or if it was truth or lies. It's a complete irrelevance.

The club is a shambles. They can't even get something as simple as this right. Look at the bad feeling they've caused with what, handled correctly, should have been a positive, bridge building exercise.

As a season ticket holder for over 30 years I've never felt more distanced from the club.

Same

spot on, i feel exactly the same

Strange times at the moment. People will have got out of the habit of going, due to covid, the match day experience hasn't been great when we've been allowed back in this season, and the reluctance to let anyone know what happened at the forum, bar the 120 who attended is without a doubt leaving a lot of fans feeling disillusioned with the club.

There's always been that insistence from some fans that we need to know every single bit of information, when we actually don't, but a little bit of info regarding the fans forum would certainly go a long way to appeasing the masses. Even if it's just a short statement saying when it will be released. It's certainly not fair that only a select percentage of fans have been allowed to be "in the know" and then they've been asked not to share too much.

With regards the Edwards saga... Wigan Leeds Andy has stood by his statement pretty much from the start and he's by no means a rumour monger. I'm inclined to believe what he's insinuating but I have no real desire to question him regarding the details. He's never come across as an "I know something you don't know" type. I'm more than happy to consign the Edwards issue to the history books now. It was nearly 3 years ago.

The Burgess statement seems baffling. His hip issue seemed to be common knowledge yet KR seems to be saying we caused it? He then states that Burgess turned up well overweight.

The information I think is more important is the stadium situation, our current financial situation, our squad situation and coach situation.

The more this goes on the worse it seems. At first I thought, well, they aren't live-streaming it, but it's going go to be covered in a detailed interview with Phil Wilkinson the the next day. And then that didn't happen. I can see no mention of the event on the club website news page.

What is the point of even telling 120 people if you're going to keep the other 90% of fans in the dark, or relying on dodgy accounts on social media? Or, indeed, relying on Jukes to go over and above the call of duty on here (and get insults for thanks). It's almost like it's encouraging divisiveness.

Agreed. My attitude is, I know you can't tell us everything. But just this: whatever you do tell us, make sure it's the truth.

We also seem to produce a lot more forwards than backs, especially centres.

Over the years we have produced:

Fullbacks - Hanley (Still unproven).
Wingers - Burgess, Manfredi, Marshall, Davies (All proven but none for a while)
Centres - Gildart, Halsall (Unproven)
Halves - Williams, Hampshire, Smith (Unproven)

More that we pushed him to the limit than actually causing it.

When Burgess was available for selection in 2019 he was picked, so he was hardly a crock.

The statement / story told by the club could be linked to the insurance payout also so they may have to tread carefully for legal reasons.

Or the club signed a crock and we can blame IL and KR for it

But we did sign a crock. Signing a player who is unable to train to full fitness and giving them marquee money is just crazy. Again I'll ask; who at the club thought that was a good idea?

That said, if they can't admit their mistake for insurance or similar reasons then that is understandable. The signing however is not.

Well he must have been able to train to full fitness at Souths because they kept picking him.

You’ve really summed it up.
I can see the rational for not broadcasting it at the time but 2 days on and it’s as if it didn’t happen. Favvas a meeting of MI5!

2 days on and all they’ve caused is a huge rift between the fan base. Whether those who didn’t make it on the night are right or wrong to be up in arms, the clubs method has caused arguments and from my view a pretty big split in the fan base.

Even bringing up the likes of the Edwards rubbish has caused much of the 20 odd pages of drivel on here. It’s all fuelled by Tuesday night.

Not good. What a shambles.