Quote: sergeant pepper "I'm not saying I agree with everything WK is saying, but I think people are missing some of the points he's trying to make. We undoubtedly had success under IL - that's a fact & one shown by the stats. It was a decent period trophy wise.
The point was however that we should have had way more & I agree with that. You look at that 2010 team and there was a core to it that, if IL had kept it together for a decade, could have been absolutely dominant. Instead we've come out even with two other sides. I don't think that's massively controversial to say.
If I had one criticism of IL, he never seemed (imo) to want to be dominant. He was happy picking up and sharing the trophies. Of course he wanted to win everything, but not winning everything didn't seem to cut him as deep as it should.
I want to see us become absolutely ruthless under Danson. Simply the best on and off the field. I want the 80's and 90's Wigan back. I want opposition fans to already know, in Jan, that both trophies will have cherry and white tassels on them by the end of the season.
Realistic? Probably not, but it has been done before.'"
I don't have a problem with this, but I am concerned - and this is a strange thing for a Wigan fan to admit - that other clubs are simply not strong enough to make this the competition it needs to be.
Don't get me wrong. I want to win everything, but I don't think that will happen. I'm not one of these who cheerfully forecasts that we'll go all season without losing. I remember Bradford doing that and then losing the next three games. But because we want the game to be a great spectacle, I find it frustrating that outside of Wigan, Saints, Catalan and, maybe this year, Warrington - the other clubs still seem to be plodding along.
Leigh and Hull KR are going the right way, but I suspect that 8 times out of 10 they would lose crucial fixtures against the clubs named above. I don't know where Leeds are, but they very clearly haven't yet replaced their golden generation and I don't rate their coach at all. Hull always flatter to deceive, and Cas no longer seem able to compete in the top half of the table.
It would be great to win everything this year, but back in the mid 90s, winning most matches by 40 points was what brought our crowds down from 15,000 a week to about 7,000.