Oh, i thought jtb was referring to his head 'was' full of cocaine. It may still be, i believe its hard to kick the habit, and everyone on here is assuming that Hock is in rehabilitation.

The reason it will get discussed is because the club promised a statement and has not made one.

Hock will get discussed on and off over the next 18 months because he was a high profile player, what happened with him was a significant event and because we are in the dark about his future with the club.

If the club made its position clear, that he had a chance (though no guarantee) of coming back depending on various factors or he was finished with Wigan then I think there would very little discussion on it but as it stands we are none the wiser as to the clubs position so IMO threads like this will crop up every now and again.

Dave

If we are still paying Hock throughout the duration of his suspension it will be because we can get something out of it as a club, obviously.

A couple of things are true:

Firstly he has proven to be one of the best British back row forwards around.

Secondally he has proven that he cannot discipline himself enough to turn awa from his evils.

If we were to keep him on the pay roll I suspect it would be to supervise his rehabilitation. That said Wigan may get a quality player out of it, possibly even on a reduced contract at the end of his ban.

Nothing has been said about it because nothing needs to be said.

i know for a fact that a statement had been prepared and was being checked "legally" before it was distributed. This was some two months ago but it has never been released, and I have no idea why.

Maybe MM wants to speak to Hock himself face to face to tell him what is expected, which I suppose is reasonable.

But as someone else has stated it will be quite low on the list of priorities at this time.

Exactly.

And yes, there is alot of positives coming out of the club at the moment, but this is something that should have been boxed off.

"Hypothectically", what if the club knew that he still had a problem. If you were the club would you issue a statement saying he will come back once he had served his ban or would you give him more time or would you sack him?

If he is still taking the stuff, the club have no option but to sack him imo.

Why?

You can't just 'box off' someone's drug dependency?

The situation with Hock is far from simple. We don't know how much he 'needs' the stuff. We don't know what steps are being taken to 'cure' him. But we can be certain that there's no magic bullet for this kind of thing. Wigan are not really in a position to make a final statement on the matter, unless it's something like "he will never play for Wigan again", which we know is not the case, or something open-ended like "we're sorry that this is happened to Gareth, and will review the situation in the future, after we've seen how he's coping", which is more or less what they've already said.

They're certainly not in a position to say whether or not they will definitely be rehiring him once his time is served. How could they be?

There is also, as others have pointed out, the Michael Maquire factor. He has only just come on board as head-coach, and may well want to review the situation - but it won't be a priority for him as he has an entire squad to assess, and Hock can't be part of that for two seasons.

It seems to me that if Wigan did make a mistake here, it was saying there'd be a statement. What they should have said is "there will be a statement in due course" - then no-one would have anything to complain about. But if I'm honest, I've known them make bigger mistakes than that.

I dont know if this point has been raised but what is happening with hocks sallery as this wouldnt have been planned into the 2010 sallery cap surley we must have around 100k to spend on a player.

Sam Tomkins was given a new four year deal which will have taken some of that money.

I believe a few of the reserves/ academy players contracts have also been upgraded.

What im saying this wasnt planned but upgrading contracts would have happend with t smith leaving and trent would have left at the end of this year.

We all know exactly what needs to be done for Hock to have the chance of playing again. He must stay clean for the duration of his ban and submit to regular testing to prove this.

We also know the one thing Wigan would be allowed to do in relation to Hock is assist him with a drugs rehabilitation program.

The club needed to take a decision about Hock before MM arrived because it has been months since Hock was banned and hence any involvement by the club in his rehabilitation needed to start back then because that is when his rehab needed to start.

No one is suggesting they offer Hock a guaranteed position in the side in 2011.

The bottom line is as I said before there is and will be speculation about Hock's future with the club (if he has any) because the club has not made a statement when it said it would.

If they are assisting in his rehab they could say so without implying or saying he had a place in the side in 2011. Helping Hock in this way would be seen as a supportive act and generate positive publicity so I don't see why no such statement could be made.

Given there have been no such positive statements I think he has most likely been sacked. Pure speculation on my part but that is what you get when the club does not issue promised statements.

Dave

100% correct.

Trent had already left and we have signed Gleeson. The money from Hocks wage may have been what has enabled the club to upgrade contracts of junior players. Had Hock not been removed from the wage bill perhaps the club would not have been able to upgrade these contracts?

All these comings and goings have happened over a period of time and as money has become available it has been spent IMO. So there is no pot of money available because of Hocks departure.

Dave

It's still not a big deal. More important things are going on. And I doubt anyone save one or two on here are waiting with baited breath for any such statement. I'm sure the club will make one when they can.

But remember, a lot of this depends on Gareth Hock's own behaviour, which is as unpredictable as the weather. Much as you may want to know what's happening, the club may not be in a position to tell you because things are not panning out the way they hoped for - yet.

The club can tell us what itis doing or what its position is. Whether Hock complies or would comply is/was never a given.

Don't forget if Hock has already fallen off the wagon (hypothetically - no reason to think he has) he has failed to meet the criteria for returning to the game in 2011 so Wigan could not be waiting to see if things improve if they have taken a turn for the worse. It would already be too late for that.

All these reasons why Wigan won't comment such as waiting for MM or what Hock may be up to don't stand up to scrutiny.

Dave

Gimme a break. What scrutiny? You don't have the first clue what's going on. How can you scrutinise any of it?

Listen to some of the rumours. The club are having a very difficult time with this one. They have higher priorities than keeping you fully up to date on everday developments, especially those that concern personal issues like drugs, rehab, etc.

I think one thing is clear this "the fans don't deserve/need to know" dismissive approach that IL takes will certainly never please everyone.

Re Hock - If he is still on the powder, he needs to be sacked and the club cut him loose, the only motivation he needed to get off it was being caught, if he still hasnt stopped he doesn't care/will never learn. The club are wasting their time on him.

However, if he is successfully battling it and on track to return, no harm in the club letting people know, surely?

Well you don't know what is going on either but it doesn't stop you posting your speculation as to what may have happened to defend the club not making a statement does it?

I said the [iarguments[/i as to why the club has not issued a statement don't stand up to scrutiny. And they don't for the very reason you give - you don't have the first clue what is going on.



The club promised a statement and failed to make one. All this speculation things may have changed so the club is now in a difficult position is a compete red herring.

Why?

[uBecause it is simply unrealistic to think the club did not decide what its position was months ago once Hock's ban was confirmed. [/u

Once it had made its mind up what that position was, it should have made the promised statement.

If things subsequently changed then so what? You can't go on saying nothing about anything in case things change!

This all blew up about 6 months ago but the rules about drug abuse have not changed meaning if he has fallen off the wagon he is finished and saying nothing won't change that or if he is doing well in a rehab program supported by the club (or not) then great, so why not say so?

There is already enough speculation in this thread as to why there is no statement to show lack of information from the club breads rumour and suspicion.

Dave

This is the usual hot air about nothing. None of us know anything, so there it ends.

But I honestly don't know why you follow Wigan at times. You seem determined to find either incompetence or underhand activity - not only in every announcement the club makes, but in every announcement they don't make.

Why don't you just accept that things go on - sometimes quite delicate things, and that situations change? I thought you'd have learned your lesson by now, the way you got progressively hotter under the collar re. the coaching situation, only to then have to accept that the club had been playing a fairly clever game all along.

I appreciate that what this boils down to is you being desparate to know every single thing that's happening as soon as it happens. But you never will. So why not just accept that there are some things the club may feel are better kept under wraps for the present time (regardless of comments they may have made a few months ago, possibly before the full extent of the problem was revealed).

It's not going to make any difference to Wigan now, anyway, and you trying to make it into some kind of crisis won't change that - because it's only a crisis on this thread, not even on the wider message board.

Spot on... let the matter rest with club.. its delicate and fraught with legal implications... Its up to Gareth to prove position and get back on the wagon.... The club moves on and we can only hope that gareth can sort out this problem and get back on board when his ban is served and HE has sorted himself out with the help i'm sure he is getting...

Do you lot also want to know what IL had for breakfast or what colour his undies are?

Jeez, wigan are going through a purple patch at the moment and look like a club on the up, yet some of your supporters still arent happy.

Congratulations.

Your very first sensible post about Wigan.