[quote="Stu M":130ccu7m]One of the reasons I come on here is to get different opinions, its balanced and nice to see. You make some good points but our frustrations are more wide ranging. Giving 3 year deals to Walmsley (old and can't stay fit) Lomax (gone as a player now) and then extending Hurrell after a serious injury and bigger than ever is beyond negligence. Percival is another who can't stay fit and we are going into a season with no announcements of Lees and Knowles yet when we all know Knowles is off. They wont want to tell us as its his testimonial year. To have 18 players OOC at the end of the season is staggeringly incompetent. This from the same club that used to make ruthless decisions, letting Coote go because Welsby was coming through etc. We've lost that connection with the fans that Holbrook brought in, the community stuff has gone. We have a media department that tells us very little and when it does, articles are littered with typos and errors. Its amateurish at best. On and off the field we've massively regressed (Liverpool women agreement apart) Don't get me wrong it always looks worse when our biggest rivals can't do anything wrong but there's a lot wrong with us at the moment.[/quote:130ccu7m] At the moment it looks like our longer term planning is much more focused than yours but it doesn’t guarantee that it will deliver success. I think that you will get off to flyer this season and if you do the current negativity will decrease pretty rapidly. From the outside looking in it looks like you have put a significant amount of faith in your youngsters which with Stephen’s, Whitby and Robertson you could have 3 very special players. For the coming season you need a relatively injury free season to obtain some silverware and I wouldn’t underestimate the value of Briers in transforming your style of play and ability to win crucial games. Don’t get me wrong I’d much sooner be in our position than yours but if a week is a long time in politics and 2 or 3 wins on the bounce can totally transform the vibes throughout the club. For all of the above I’m still enjoying the “fallout” that the signings have delivered but I’m also aware that success in sport is cyclical but hopefully our cycle has several seasons to go before we get overtaken. Interesting times.

[quote="Phuzzy":3rjckgei] You mention the other side of the negotiations. Was this conducting them by message as rumoured on Redvee or something more?[/quote:3rjckgei] Not in relation to how the negotiations were conducted, more in a reason for him leaving. Ordinarily I wouldn't give it much credence as it could be sour grapes but its come from two separate people who are well connected at Saints so its made me think. Regardless of that there's no point trying to make out we haven't had our pants pulled down. We have. It's not a Connolly or Platt situation but if he goes on to have a great career then we will have egg on our face.

[quote="Itchy Arsenal":n58l5mmh]At the moment it looks like our longer term planning is much more focused than yours but it doesn’t guarantee that it will deliver success. I think that you will get off to flyer this season and if you do the current negativity will decrease pretty rapidly. From the outside looking in it looks like you have put a significant amount of faith in your youngsters which with Stephen’s, Whitby and Robertson you could have 3 very special players. For the coming season you need a relatively injury free season to obtain some silverware and I wouldn’t underestimate the value of Briers in transforming your style of play and ability to win crucial games. Don’t get me wrong I’d much sooner be in our position than yours but if a week is a long time in politics and 2 or 3 wins on the bounce can totally transform the vibes throughout the club. For all of the above I’m still enjoying the “fallout” that the signings have delivered but I’m also aware that success in sport is cyclical but hopefully our cycle has several seasons to go before we get overtaken. Interesting times.[/quote:n58l5mmh] You'll probably sign Robertson now... In all seriousness those 3 are very good players and I believe Stephens has signed a new 4 year deal. Robertson has been training at centre pre-season and again this has been offered up as a reason for Vaughan's disillusionment in that he is not starting. I think this Salford game in R1 is huge. Lose that and the atmosphere will very quickly become toxic. Depending on what team Salford are able to field will make a huge difference. If the takeover isn't complete then they can't play most of the players is my understanding. With a full strength team they are more than capable of beating us and Wellens plans of only having one pre-season friendly and resting half of the team will come back big time to bite him.

[quote="Itchy Arsenal":1lva10cn]I was told very early on re Danson’s ownership that he was committed to making our academy the best set up in the country and that he funded a lot of the cost associated with this from the outset with his links to the club. It’s interesting that in recent years more and more of the scholarship lads are from outside of the town. In the near future it wouldn’t surprise me if we start to pick up a few RU lads as well.[/quote:1lva10cn] It's a great time to be a Wigan fan, that's for sure. I see the odd comment on social media and on various forums about how we're doing things that wouldn't have happened under Lenagan but that's unfair IMO. He didn't have the wealth of Danson and should be thanked for selling the club on to a guy who seems to not only care about it but has the finance to help make it successful. He did many important things for Wigan Lenagan but that is probably the biggest of the lot.

[quote="NickyKiss":19bbk8wb]It's a great time to be a Wigan fan, that's for sure. I see the odd comment on social media and on various forums about how we're doing things that wouldn't have happened under Lenagan but that's unfair IMO. He didn't have the wealth of Danson and should be thanked for selling the club on to a guy who seems to not only care about it but has the finance to help make it successful. He did many important things for Wigan Lenagan but that is probably the biggest of the lot.[/quote:19bbk8wb] Without IL I dread to think where we would be today. When he purchased us I was pretty amazed because the club was in a terrible state with very limited income streams. He turned the club around, made some auspicious coaching appointments and mentored KR into becoming an excellent CEO. Danson was the cherry on top.

[quote="Stu M":3q2hrf9t]You'll probably sign Robertson now... In all seriousness those 3 are very good players and I believe Stephens has signed a new 4 year deal. Robertson has been training at centre pre-season and again this has been offered up as a reason for Vaughan's disillusionment in that he is not starting. I think this Salford game in R1 is huge. Lose that and the atmosphere will very quickly become toxic. Depending on what team Salford are able to field will make a huge difference. If the takeover isn't complete then they can't play most of the players is my understanding. With a full strength team they are more than capable of beating us and Wellens plans of only having one pre-season friendly and resting half of the team will come back big time to bite him.[/quote:3q2hrf9t] Irrespective of what team Salford have out I think that you will give them a proper beating. Your first 3 games are heaven sent in terms of getting off to a good start. I’m pretty confident that you will be top of the table after 3 rounds. I don’t think that you will finish top come the end of the season but you will finish in the top 4 unless you have some real bad luck on the injuries front.