Come on Dave

First it was bad when people thought it was IL/KR only signed the players so lets have a go at them
Now because they say there are others in the process its they're deflecting blame so we'll have a go at them.

I'm sure IL would love to go and sign lattrell Mitchell, we haven't got the money and he wouldn't come etc etc

I've said it before, I will blame IL/KR for asking Lam to be there for 1 Yr, then subsequently extending it when the Edwards fiasco hit.
I do blame IL/KR for announcing Edwards without having his name on a contract and all details agreed, especially when they get stick normally for dotting i's and crossing t's and not announcing stuff earlier on most other things.

But the current trend of blaming rhem for everything is poor form.

We have failed do get the best out of virtually every player and every junior over the last 3 years with a lot actually regressing.
I blame Lam for that, but I blame IL/Rads for appointing/sticking with him too long.

We cant change the owners as easy, we need a strong coach and coaching set up that will oversee thigs and get us back on track (Look at the transformation at Saints since Holbrook came in, even with same owners that were getting flak for the previous 6/7 years whilst Wigan were doing so well).

The added complications of covid/less income/other rfl&sl issues make it a poor time to be struggling, but the overwhelming thingbi took away from the evening was that a lot of people are working very hard to get us through it and come out the other end "Relatively" unscathed and in a better position than most.

Details finally here.

[urlhttps://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2021/09/03/fans-forum-the-first-hour/[/url

I’ve read both articles and it may sound like I’m backtracking here but I’m relieved and encouraged. I’m glad at their brutal honesty at the situation of the club, the future and everything else (I’m not getting into the Edwards saga of which I know little about).

It should have either been live streamed or made available on Wigan TV but it is what it is. Most of my frustration was borne from a poor season topped with the - at the time - closed shop ‘fans forum’.

The future is bright for Wigan. I believe that 100%. We have the squad and set up for it to be so. We aren’t going back to 2005/06. We’ve made signings where needed, looking at signing more and appointing a new Head Coach, which by the looks of what IFL said isn’t Shaun Wane. What we all need to do now is get through 2021 and look forward to 2022. The potential for this team is clear to see.

Glad this has been made public now. Maybe a lesson for the club to at least put out a holding message next time letting people know it was coming. Got to say I'm disappointed with Hardaker. I'd like to think if an employer took a chance on me after doing all the things he has done, that I would need a much better reason that that to try to get an early contract release. Not quite on the same scale but it reminds me of what Hock did. We got some good performances out of both but there's no appreciation there for the club going out on a limb.

I was worried when they said only £73k left under the budget before KR corrected that we had money for a halfback on top of that! George Williams - it's funny how no one ever wants to 'try a new challenge' for the same money or less.

Pretty sure both left of their own accord. The club didn't want rid of either as far as I'm aware. Davies was the third best winger at the time and left to somewhere he would be a starter. Sarginson more about making a new start after a bereavement as I understand it.

I’m hoping when they talk about player welfare but maybe being too nice in the past is a nod towards telling Hardaker to get his head down. If he wants to live in Yorkshire that’s his choice but his job is at Wigan and he has a contract. He’s a very good player and the club can’t just roll over. At his best he’s one of the best players in the league, so if Cas, Wakey or whoever want him, we should be getting either a healthy amount of cash or we should be getting a player of a similar standing in return. There’s not many Zak Hardakers at Cas or Wakey but guys like Trueman, Evalds or Tom Johnston should be in any conversation or they should be told where to go.

Sounds like 2 years of hell.
You cannot complain now. That is a mirror on the situation of the club at the minute.

Time to get behind them.
And whoever the feck is ringing the ticket office and giving the staff their wants to hang their heads in shame!!

That really bugs me I have to say. People too thick or self-entitled to realise who or what is really at fault. They need to get over themselves.

Very glad the details are out. Enjoyed reading both articles.

There are always some who, whenever there is a vague sense of dissatisfaction with the club, take it as an invite to go open season on everyone involved with Wigan RL.

Are they real Wigan fans? Most probably think they are.

Apparently, Lam and the two female administration members of the club staff who have been with the club for many years were subjected to all kinds of disgusting abuse, which included foul mouth language.

What kind of supporter is the club and the game attracting these days?

I would like to thank Ian and Kris for releasing he blog. They’ve either listened to the frustrations of many or intended to do it anyway, if the latter it would have saved a whole lot of angst if they’d stayed it would be released in due course.

I like the bit about free streaming hoping to build it into something to generate money

Those forum minutes are embarrassing, no wonder they didn’t want anyone there.

I’d be very worried if I were a Wigan fan, seems a very amateurish setup indeed with people well out of their depth.

Thanks for your concern

In what way?

Whilst I'm currently not liking the way IL and KR are running the club, I don't think I'd ever say they were out of their depth. They've had plenty of success at the club and whilst, you being in the mist of a rosy period at your club, might be clouding your judgment slightly, we all now success is a cycle. They are no more out of their depth than McManus was 6 years ago.

If it's from a Marketing POV then I 100% agree.

The good news however is the club know this and are looking to bring in a Marketing Director in. I'll admit I have concerns tho. IL doesn't seem to get Marketing/PR & if the new person can't sway him, or change his approach then it's a non-starter. I work in Marketing and I've seen plenty of boards and owners who just don't get it. The best firms, imo, are the ones where the Marketing Director has a real voice on the board. We had that with Simon Collinson and I do think he had the pull and power to coax IL into being more open.

Yeah, sure.

We were grand finalists last year (again!), we're fourth this year despite all the chaos and injuries.

It's the end of the world for Wigan RL.

Awe bless!

Personally i wouldn't be bothered if we told latics to stick their ground and took us to the Sports village.

I would love a packed stadium every week with a bit of atmosphere.

A half empty Dw isnt great anyway.

What do people think and if we cant build our own and end up away from the DW ( Theoretical scenario) where would you prefer, Leigh ( still in Wigan Borough) or Bolton?

either, both better than the DW

I'd be bothered can't walk to the ground then via my local pubs

I would be very bothered. Leigh isn’t our town. Wigan is. Moving in with Leigh would be the height of embarrassment IMO and would do nothing to help crowds, in fact I think it would harm them. For the same (and more) reasons Bolton is an absolute no.

Let’s face facts here; our rent is going up, like it or lump it (it makes no odds to me). That’s still cheaper than building and funding our own ground. If IFL would have bought the DW and the worst happens and Latics got liquidated we’d be lumbered with the DW and inevitably we’d have headed down the path to liquidation too.

There is issues with the DW but the positives outweigh the negatives and in my book both us and Latics being there has mutual benefits for both, benefits neither club could live without IMO.

When IFL retires and say Danson took over, a new stadium might be on the cards. But ultimately that depends on the economic climate, the financial strength of the club and the financial strength of the sport. If one of those 3 aren’t good, we aren’t doing it and at the moment none of them are good. It’s a long road back to being good.

I love a packed stadium as much as you Tricky, I doubt you’d find anyone to disagree there but I’d take financial security at the DW over a packed stadium any day. Do I want us to have our own ground? Absolutely. Is it the be all and end all? Absolutely not.

Spot on

Despite all the issues stemming from the pandemic we learned the club still spends to the cap limit so how come when we do that we have ended up with such an unbalanced squad? Who is responsible for this?

Having read the minutes of the forum and in particular the bit about contracts for young players I am now convinced they have got it wrong as far as squad management goes. According to what Radlinski said they face a choice about paying the market rate for the young players when contracts come up for renewal or letting them go. He then said they have chosen to pay the market rate for players who they expect to mature in three or four years time. He also said he expected KPP's manager to come asking for a three or four times pay increase. (How stupid a thing to say is that? He's just invited him to do just that). We have several young players who the club decided to keep and pay the market rate of which I'd say Harvard and possibly Smithies are worth the punt. When KPP is up for renewal him as well but Byrne and Partington aren't worth paying the market rate for the next three or four years hoping they will be top players IMO. We need better, more experienced players than them [inow.[/i We'd have been better off letting them go and spending the money an experienced front row player.

The forum minutes tell us next year having recruited a half back we will be paying up to the cap limit (or within spitting distance of it) yet look at the squad we will end up with for £2.1m. We will have ONE specialist centre and that will be Thornley for goodness sake. Looking at the squad we will end up with and the wage bill we will have the club is paying too much money to several players. We will have numerous back rowers who all won't be able to get a game. Why is ISA's deal being renewed? He's hardly played in the pack all season because we have had no centres half the time so if he gets another deal which back row forward are we paying to sit out the game if he's back in the pack?

I think the root cause of the unbalanced squad we end up with is the policy of paying the "market rate" for too many young players. A couple of years ago Rads made no secret of the fact he liked the way Leeds did things who have a clear pay structure and salary bands. If I was a betting man I'd say he's implemented this slavishly so when we give four a five young players a contract as he described, they all jump to a particular wage. I obviously can't prove this but it's a plausible explanation looking at the fact the club is spending £2.1m and then looking at the squad and scratching your head as to where has the money gone. So now I have the context of those questions Rads put back to the audience about retaining young players, if I had been there I would have answered, yes you have got it wrong.

Disagree. We've literally had a case study of both approaches. 00s we took your approach of sacrificing youth for big signings and won one challenge cup. 10s we took the current approach of sacrificing big signings for youth and won four Grand Finals and two challenge cups. There have been a few recent signings who haven't worked out but the overall philosophy is spot on IMO.