Being charitable to IL (because of what he has done to turn the club around) I am taking his comments on Sky (I don't know if anyone else saw this - about being proud that our best players are leaving the club to play in other sports/competitions and that we shouldn't be negative) as attempting to put on a brave face and rally the troops in the face of the bitter disappointment of losing one of the best players in the world and the greatest British player since Hanley.

The reality is that this is a huge blow for our club and sport. The only potential good news is that England might get a bit more competitive at international level because of the number of players in the NRL, but the international game is so low profile and so poorly marketed in this country that I doubt this will feed back into the domestic game in a significant way.

It would be good to hear IL acknowledge the wider problems of the game and offer some leadership. Instead he has spoken about the SC as a good thing and his comments on the Tomkins saga give the impression of a man who is focussed purely on what is going on at Wigan and us remaining top dogs in RL. I do hope that is not the case.

The game is in a difficult situation and seems to be going backwards. Most clubs can't even afford to pay players 2/3 of their real term wages when the SC began. We can't even find proper sponsorship deals for our sport and the World Cup has had no real publicity and is likely to be a failure as a major sporting event. The future is looking grim for RL.

I don't want a future where Wigan remain the leading British RL club but in a semi-pro league similar in status and quality to the French domestic league. That is unfortunately where we are heading in the long term, unless there is radical change. Being the best of a bad bunch is not my vision of Wigan's future but I'm worried IL doesn't see the long term direction of travel in the sport - being the best of a bad bunch is all we are likely to be able to achieve if nothing changes.

We need IL to take up the mantle of leadership in the sport. He is the custodian of the greatest club in the game. It is time for Wigan to lead the rest of RL again and drag the sport kicking and screaming into a better future. I know Ian (and people close to him) read these board and hopefully he will hear this and other calls to action.

Very Churchillian I must say

The thing is, it's not his problem. His job is to keep Wigan challenging for honours and profitable. People should be looking to the RFL to sort things out not club chairmen