Maybe there is a cultural difference between the clubs which makes it easier to hold on to players at Saints? Probably my (impossible to set aside) bias, but rightly or wrongly I see the most recent incarnation of Saints as a club/side that place character and likelihood of contributing to ethic/culture as right at the top of the agenda (players and coaches). Maybe that creates an environment where players want to be and stay?

Amongst other considerations, Wigan haven't always appeared like that to me recently. As I say, I might be miles off.

He picked players that weren't fit. Do you think he listened to his support staff (analysts, physios, coaches etc) when making those selections?

I may be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5, but seeing as he demanded a signing (Sammut) and then didn't pick him I'm pretty confident in my maths skills.

Yeah the idea that Sammut was Lam's choice seems odd, given that, whatever you think about him, the fact is that he wasn't given much of a shot at Wigan.

There are two mentions of injuries, are there others you are referring to? What they do not definitely say is that Lam acted against advice, it could simply be a viewpoint in hindsight.

French
[iWhat that did do it meant that he came into the season completely underprepared to be brutally honest. He needed a good five or six weeks of more pre-season training and him to get his body right to play. So that’s a reflection of something that I believe we could have done better. I think he was probably selected a little bit early, four or five more weeks, and we might have been in a different position. [/i

Burgess
They only mentioned him turning up overweight, working him too hard in pre-season.

As I said above, may be me getting 5 from 2+2 but if a player isn't fit and we know he isn't fit then someone somewhere within the coaching setup will have said something.

Seeing that compared to a normal season, the squad was light in numbers with some players on long term injuries and one or more suspended, there may have been times when the odd player or so was carrying a knock and not fully fit.

I seem to recalled that on one occasion, the club could only announce a pre match squad of only nineteen players instead of the normal twenty one.

The fact that twenty five games were completed is a credit to the club and the coaching team headed by Lam even if the results were not good enough.