Lam just doesn't rate Escare at his current salary.
The problem that I have with him is that he doesn't have a natural position. Another Jack of all, trades and master of none.

This is probably a hang over of Wanes edges, middles and pivots that makes me sick to the stomach every time I hear it. Alls it does it completely dumbs down the positions so that it’s 26 players bashing each other all game with no flair, guile or finesse.

It took 100 years to sort out what positions were needed on a field and what those positions did, only for us to narrow it down to just 3 positions. Like you say, that’s our problem, we have too many players playing out of position. I’m not going as far as to distinguish between open side and blind side prop but at least sign props and second rowers rather than just ‘middles’ and we will improve.

Is it not clear Wane was given players to work with rather than saying ‘please can I sign the 7th choice prop from Catalans’ or ‘I’m desperate to bring in that player released by Widnes’ etc? The players are signed by Radlinski and Lenagan and they’ve admitted as much. I doubt Lammy suggested we sign Joe Bullock or Jarrod Sammut and I doubt he’s asked for us to sign Mitch Clark. I’m also sure had Wane been offered George Burgess over Tautai, Liam Watts over Navarette and so on he’d have gladly taken it. Maybe we signed players to a game plan but I’m more inclined to believe we signed them due to the low costs involved. Good quality big forwards cost big money whereas small budget grafters cost far less.

The one thing Wanes detractors promised when he left was this upturn in the quality of the rugby on show. It’s probably been the least entertaining season I can remember as a Wigan supporter so far.

Wonder if we are letting Sarge leave and Signing Gelling

It’s been like this from day 1 under Lenagan I made an example about 10 years ago on this site about Lenagans type of player signing after we went cheap on Karl Pryce, Richard Mathers, Cameron Phelps etc.

You may be able to find a couple of bargains to supplement our squad and get lucky with the likes of George Carmont but more often than not you get what you pay for. If you go fill the squad with Championship players then we will end up in the Championship, we are in transition and I expect an overhaul of the squad, next year we will probably be poor again as the squad needs to gel I can bet but we need to rebuild and start again, but not by dipping in the bargain basement, we are Wigan four foot snake, not Wakefield. We should be flexing our muscles a bit in the transfer market, we need a prop now.

You say Rads and Lenagan sign the players but who identifies them? Who identifies which position we need? I can’t see that being true, this isn’t football. But I can see them reigning the coach in on budget.

I guess it’s a collective decision based on scouting reports and lists of players provided by agents and general contacts. I’m sure the coach has some sort of say (well Wane maybe but probably not Lam so far) but the point we’ll both agree on is that it looks as though most of the time the choices come from a list that’s more Aldi than Waitrose. It’s all well and good signing project players to bring in to a strong squad but when you start replacing top players with them then you’re on a slippery slope.

You actually think Wane would have not been in exactly the same position with the injuries and loss of players like Sutton, Sam T and Bateman and the likes of Bitcon gone from the backroom staff? Really? He always had better quality players to work with than our current squad and the RL was still dour. The quality of the side has been eroded steadily ever since he took over and it now worse than ever. No one who pointed out the obvious dour rugby on offer from Wane was advocating change so we could carry on down the same road. They expected a better and more qualified coach than Lam to be the man in charge and regardless of whether people were pro or anti Wane I doubt there is one fan happy with the squad given to Lam.

Rightly or wrongly I assume that Wane resigned due to loss of ST, MM and JB with no promise of replacing them with similar quality players with the tipping point being when the club wouldn't let him sign Liam watts

The coaching staff identify the positions that need strengthening and along with the scouts look at players identified. Alex Walmsley was a point in case, the recommendation was not to sign him because of his poor lateral movement defensively.

I’m 100% confident we’d be in a better league position yes. We’ve had far worse teams out in Wanes time (we’ve had 10+ injuries plenty of times) then Lammy has been able to put out and we’ve still battled to wins and been higher in the table.

It’s not to bag Lam, he’s new to the job and won’t have that relationship with the players yet that Wane had. It was a natural process for Wane taking over and he had pre built relationships and trust of many players from his time with the academy. They would run through brick walls for him.

It would’ve been worth another couple of wins minimum IMO.

So who decided to sign Tautai, Clubb, Navarette etc



Who told you that? I’d say they were talking garbage. I think that’s the problem, we are signing average jack of all trade type players because they’re average at everything and good at nothing but aren’t ruled out for that reason (they aren’t ‘bad’ at anything) and through a process of elimination we sign them, but in reality they’re not good enough. So we will sign halfbacks who can tackle above average for a halfback but can’t kick for toffee and a prop who can pass but can’t break the line.

Someone who knows a hell of a lot about RL and Wigan than you ever will. I could have mentioned that Hardaker was identified when he was at Fev along with Bateman at Bradford as targets.

Surely that's not a criteria - they signed Tautai!

And Saints signed Vea, Josh Perry etc
Wire signed Tasi etc, not every signing is a good one

Any movement would be a start with Tautai!

I could have identified those two when they were at those two clubs. That’s like saying Umyla Hanley will play for England now before he’s played a first team game, doesn’t take a genius.

That's very interesting, I know of a couple of very good judges of players who don't think he will, infact one mentioned that Josh Thewlis of Warrington was ahead of him for the England academy tour fullback spot.

Instead of other people’s opinion what about your own?

I’ve seen a couple of performances of young Hanleys this year and he certainly hasn’t got me thinking ‘wow’. He looks a good enough player but you don’t look at him and think he’s some sort of freak.

One young player who’s made me think that in the bits I’ve seen is Harry Rushton. He looks a beast of a forward for the age of him.

Him and Ethan Havard, all three will be first teamers in 5 years.

Yeah Havard looks a real talent as well. The reserves will really help guys like those in the next couple of seasons. I feel for a lot of lads over the past three or four years who’ve been in that 19-21 age bracket because they’ve had nowhere to go and it’s hurt them. We’ve not got as many lads through the system in that time and it’s no coincidence.

Bateman was as wigan on the scholarship

who was the lad who played 1 against Bradford? He looked better than Hanley

Callum Green played full back against Bradford.

he looked excellent