I wouldn’t take any of these above Lam.

The club has treated the loyal support with disdain for about 6 years now - the result being that the crowds have dropped by around 4,000 per game.

The bloke is supposedly a shrewd businessman. No shrewd businessman who wants to stay in business repeatedly p!sses off his customers to the extent that they don't buy his product.

Correct on all accounts

Utter rubbish. He’s the man that brought us from relegation candidates to serial finalists, grand final winners, world champions and challenge cup winners. Your comment - loyal supporters who have dropped by 4000 doesn’t seem very loyal does it?
Our chairman has pumped millions of his own money into the club year after year. He must see comments like this and wonder why the hell he bothers!

IL has made some major errors of late so he isn't immune from criticism. I'm not anti IL but the moment the team, the back room staff, just the general demeanour of the club is in free fall.
I can't see a win in the near future and genuinely believe that we are in a relegation battle that we are more than capable of calling flat on our face. After the debacle of Barcelona which bright spark at the club thought the time was right for IL to state that Lam is favourite for the coaching job?

I said "last 6 years".

2012: 16045
2013: 14544
2014: 14102
2015: 13362
2016: 13499
2017: 13668
2018: 11708

Suggests that over 4,000 have voted with their feet.

For a club that pays minimal cost for a stadium, has sold Tompkins x2 & Bateman to NRL clubs & RU, has been involved in most of the Grand Finals, two challenge cup finals, a few WCC's etc, its pretty shocking that they operate at a loss.

The losses have not come from falling attendances but more from off field investments. I’d say the falling attendances are hugely significant but more to do the dull style of rugby that got us the trophies. IL said as much himself when he said his brief to Waney was to win and that attractive rugby was less important. Fans have said they want more attractive rugby and the chairman has acted on it but fans are now not prepared to wait for the transition.
He can’t win!

To be fair the comment was made during the meet and greet the day before the game.

The players I believe do not rate Lam. I got that 3rd hand so to speak over the weekend but trust the source. I want Lam to succeed but honestly don't think he has the ability to deliver. We are a total shambles at the moment on and off the pitch. I cannot recall one piece of good news this season.
Hastings wanted another week to consider our offer. We should have told him to forget it and move on the next target. Just another example for me of non existent leadership.
The performance on Saturday was like watching a horror story. Totally and utterly useless. Lam for me just doesn't cut the mustard.

If you were in Hastings' shoes, would you come to Wigan?

In terms of squad quality, I see many similarities between us an Man Utd in Fergie's last season. He left just as the squad he had developed was about to start falling apart due to age etc. They replaced top drawer players with average joes and the odd big name who never fitted in.

The squad needs a wholesale clear-out, but there needs to be an acknowledgement from the owner that we will not be competing for trophies for a couple of years and then price his offering accordingly. Fans want value for money, be that wins and trophies, or entertaining games. At the moment, we are getting neither.

What has Lam done to make him still eligible for the job?

I see:

-15 games in, 4 points off the bottom and 4 points off sixth
-9 games lost already
-A lacklustre attack which seems to have no structure or idea what to do
-Weak defence which sees us on a -9 points difference with a high amounts of soft tries scored against us this season
-Poor disengaged attitude from the players
-Loss of aggression and competitive edge which Madge installed and Wane built upon


It baffles me how he can even be considered.

With due respect to both London and Leeds it’s a good job they’re doing their best to try and get relegated as all i see a team bereft of ideas plodding round the park doing very little..if this is the best Lam can come up with then it’s time to go,half a season was the litmus test he’s here now and he simply hasn’t got to grasp with the task in hand.

So what if he’s had injuries every team bar saints have had personnel out at times it’s prt and parcel of the game,yes he lost Bateman a vital cog in the machine but he should have sorted that by now,most fans would give him more time if there was any clue to what progression there has been so far but very few can see it,baffling attack and weak defence it’s a recipe for disaster

I reckon Ganson was on £20k and Hamlin £70k, that’s £90k plus anything else we had left over.

You think that only Flanagan would come mid season? If we wanted Demetriou or Morgan they’d be released straight away, if it were any of the others then a transfer fee would need to be paid.

Off field investments? Like the Wollongong and Millwall jaunts? So it’s right he gets stuck then would you agree?

It’s great he puts his own money in, but so does every other owner of every sporting team worldwide with few exceptions.

The trip to Australia made money for the club, just not as much as was hoped. All the club costs (including Hull FC) were met by the Wollongong / Sydney Tourism Board. The Millwall trip resulted in new corporate sponsorship so again, brought money in and was not funded out of his own pocket. He’s also set up the Wigan Warriors Business Club.
The off field investments were in the total upgrade of training facilities, the Central Park Academy and now the investment at Robin Park. He clearly focused on building the infrastructure of the club. You can’t build a house on sand, it needs a solid foundation.

So if your reckoning is correct as both players were paid for about half their contract that would give us 45k to spend this year.

So then you’d still get a £90k player then? I’m sure someone could enlighten me.

I’m not turning this into a ‘Everything Lenagan has ever done has been brilliant or rubbish’ thread and everyone chooses sides.

Ian Lenagan said Lam is the front runner for the job, anyone who believes Lam has done enough to be in the running for the job must be deluded because he has failed spectacularly regardless of injuries and squad quality.

The statement of Lenagan not taking games on the road again because he received negative feedback is tough titties Ian, we are Wigan and should play out home games at home. We have the Magic Weekend for new territory to be explored, though it’s nice to scope out new venues in sunny places and it looks good to play in those venues, the fact of the matter is we aren’t a franchise. No wonder crowd figures are in free fall.

Quote ="post"So then you’d still get a £90k player then? I’m sure someone could enlighten me.'" All there for you in black and white. https://www.rugby-league.com/flipbooks/ ... html#p=273

Quote ="post"So then you’d still get a £90k player then? I’m sure someone could enlighten me.'" All there for you in black and white. https://www.rugby-league.com/flipbooks/ ... html#p=273

You can’t just say “regardless of injuries and squad quality”. Pep Guardiola wouldn’t win the premier league with Wigan Athletic when he’s only been able to name the same side on two occasions. That goes for Holbrook, Price etc. Injuries and squad quality are hugely decisive factors in how a team performs...

I’d give him a two/three year deal, make significant changes to the squad and judge him next year. If we’re still not competing, fair enough. But this year was always about transition.

Pep Guardiola wouldn’t win the Prem with Wigan but he’d have them playing good football and looking organised within a month regardless of the squad, let’s not forget these are full time professional players who already know how to play rugby league and many are internationals. Anyone would think we were Doncaster with what dross people are willing to accept.

You can only hide behind transition for so long, the honeymoon period is over and we look like a team which is badly coached like Saints were under Cunningham. Cunningham may have a wealth of knowledge, he may ha e talked the talk and so on but ultimately the team failed massively on the pitch and it was down to him.

In Cunningham's defence, Saints were robbed in 3 out of the 4 semi finals he took them to.

The money before the trip being mentioned was utter nonsense,it simply wasn’t going to happen unless the Aussies came out in their many thousands which really was a foolish thing to hope for.

The trip I’ve no doubt made a very small profit but at what cost?hea has clearly alienated a large portion of the fan base who have just said over the years up yours and found other things to spend their hard earned cash and leisure time on,you keep treating people poorly they simply won’t come back,it’s clear that yet again the season tickets sales have slumped again.

This was lenegans folly and he has to take it on the chin,it was inexcusable and I suspect there will be yet again less season tickets sold this off season.

He will in due course sell Orrell I’d assume to offset the cost of robin park and once that goes the club won’t have any bricks and mortar assets I hope he knows what he’s doing there.

Injuries obviously play a part, but I still think the team should be more organised and structured (especially in defence) than it currently is.

I just don't see anything that makes me think Lam is the right guy for this job.

Imo we should be going all out to bring Flanagan over, as his speciality is all about turning a rag tag bunch into a well oiled machine. FWIW i do think the majority of the players we've got all have a couple levels of improvement in them.