The salary cap combined with the pitiful Sky deal simply make the investment in the squad pointless.

Bunch of kids from the local town that can see the chance to go to Australia and play gives us a large, low budget squad with players who can see the prize that the club will let them try for.

While a narrow higher salary squad may well yield better results at the start of the season, fatigue and injury put these teams in problems later in the year.

saints and Leeds seem to be able to sign stars

This year does feel a little ominous and quite frankly depressing, especially the whole Edwards thing. And I agree, it does feel like something strange is going on in terms of finances. But to say they are our two main issues wholly and unfairly undermines what they, particularly Lenagan, have done for our club.

In the last three years, Lenagan has funded circa £2 million to cover our losses, out of his own pocket. Let’s not also forget that last year we won; the super league grand final, the academy grand final (again) and the women’s grand final. I doubt any other club will do that in a rush and it simply illustrates the fine job that Lenagan has done for the club, not just the first team.

Again, I understand where you’re coming from and the first team does look under resourced. But Lenagan is not a problem. Maybe this is Lenagans exit though, steadying the ship financially before putting it on the market. After all, who wants to buy a sports team who despite success are losing between £500,000-£1,000,000 per year.

Sometimes Lenagan’s motives appear questionable and he does have a habit of leaving us fans in the dark. But I don’t for one minute doubt every decision he makes is for - what he believes to be - best for the club. And to have the success we have had under him, he should be trusted to know and do what is best in the long run.

Over the last five years our attendance average has dropped from 16k to around 12k with no sign of this slowing (I'm expecting less than 10k against Huddersfield at the weekend). One thing we do have at Wigan I feel is a high number of 'off the field' staff (not sure how this compares to other SL clubs) and I'm sure a small number of positions are voluntary work rather than salaried, In addition there are a few duplicate/cross overs - such as Lockers (player & coaching), Chris Brookes (Exec Director & Director of Medical)....etc. https://www.wiganwarriors.com/teams/staff-directory Management Board - 4 Rugby Department - 19 Performance Department - 5 Medical Department - 6 Support Staff - 8 Admin - 3 Sales & Marketing - 12 Wigan TV - 1 Projects & Development - 1 Business Club & London Office - 1 Finance - 4 Community Foundation - 15 Education - 8 Lotto - 2 Training Ground Staff - 3 DW Stadium Staff - 3 That's 95 staff members (knocking half a dozen or so duplicates takes it to 90 staff). Maybe the DW staff are paid/partially paid by the stadium? Maybe a significant number are voluntary/funded by outside sources away from the club? But when you add this to the first team squad (spending up to the cap) and the fact that our crowds are way down on 4-5 years ago then that's quite significant.

Over the last five years our attendance average has dropped from 16k to around 12k with no sign of this slowing (I'm expecting less than 10k against Huddersfield at the weekend). One thing we do have at Wigan I feel is a high number of 'off the field' staff (not sure how this compares to other SL clubs) and I'm sure a small number of positions are voluntary work rather than salaried, In addition there are a few duplicate/cross overs - such as Lockers (player & coaching), Chris Brookes (Exec Director & Director of Medical)....etc. https://www.wiganwarriors.com/teams/staff-directory Management Board - 4 Rugby Department - 19 Performance Department - 5 Medical Department - 6 Support Staff - 8 Admin - 3 Sales & Marketing - 12 Wigan TV - 1 Projects & Development - 1 Business Club & London Office - 1 Finance - 4 Community Foundation - 15 Education - 8 Lotto - 2 Training Ground Staff - 3 DW Stadium Staff - 3 That's 95 staff members (knocking half a dozen or so duplicates takes it to 90 staff). Maybe the DW staff are paid/partially paid by the stadium? Maybe a significant number are voluntary/funded by outside sources away from the club? But when you add this to the first team squad (spending up to the cap) and the fact that our crowds are way down on 4-5 years ago then that's quite significant.

I didn't get to the game yesterday or listen to it on radio due to work commitments however, I wasn't surprised at all in the loss and had a few quid on London at +18 and a straight win at 11/2 but the financial gain didn't really offset the sheer disappointment of a loss and another weak performance.

Your opening paragraph sums up my feelings exactly however, I haven't got a clue if such an individual exists who would buy the club off IL.

We haven't really replaced Joel T, Sam T, Bateman and Sutton and this is where the saving on salaries must have been achieved combine this with aging players in SOL,TL & Clubb & then it is recipe for a major slump in standards and the new guys coming in really are not significantly improving the squad. Bullock could be a prospect but in his first season ideally you want him as cover not in the starting 17.
IL might save £0.5m on payroll costs but attendances will keep going down and unless some big names are brought in then crowds under 10k are just around the corner.

I fully expected a transitional season but hoped Lam may plaster over some of the cracks with new ideas and vitality but so far he looks way off the mark and his interview after the game that I caught was very very poor and his criticism of Escare even if justified, wasn't what I would expect of a senior coach.

Not sure even if IL was willing to open his chequebook who we could sign that would actually improve the squad so I think that this is could be a long and disappointing season and if we lose to Huddersfield which I think is a strong possibility then we will be really in the brown smelly stuff

When IL took over the club 11 years ago we were as low as I can remember since we were relegated 40 yeRs ago.

We avoided relegation in 2006 and our chairman took the club by the scruff of the neck and dragged us back up to where we all felt we should be. We became serious contenders for every trophy, every year and won plenty of silverware along the way.
He’s invested heavily in the infrastructure of the club, providing a solid base to build on. We now have Central Park as well as Orrell and he’s invested in Robin Park. The man deserves a hell of a lot of credit for his personal contribution to the club.
He brought in Madge when nobody had ever heard of him and it proved a master stroke and the appointment that really made a difference. He saw enough in Shaun Wane to trust him with the head coaches job when plenty didn’t think he’d be good enough. His record for winning trophies is outstanding.
We have constantly produced home grown players through a much envied academy system which he continues to invest in.
It’s fair to say I’ve come to trust him implicitly to run our club very well and always with the club’s best interest at heart.
Am I concerned about our current situation? Absolutely. We do seem to lose more of our top players than most other clubs but we usually come good when it happens.
Hardaker is a suitable replacement for Tomkins and is improving every week. Bullock came in for Sutton and has been an improvement so far. Bateman was a massive loss but Greenwood has been excellent since day one.

Our club is under a new coach in exceptional circumstances and he’s asked for patience from fans. I’m prepared to be patient and I truly believe we’ll click and soon. I also believe that when we do click, we’ll be a fabulous rugby team to watch.

Not a good start to the season but not hitting the panic button just yet.

Fully agree. Won’t go down well on here though...

Superb post

Hopefully that defence clicks soon as it's shipping in a lot of points

IL isn't the problem.
The problem is with a change of coach and style of coaching we are not the defensive outfit we were.
It's the defence that needs sorting, quickly too.
Most other clubs first team coach has two assistants, we don't have. Perhaps we need to look at that?

Coaches cost money, conditioners cost money.