Maybe but even so the club is solely to blame. They lied saying he had signed a 3 year deal when he clearly had not. I believe Edwards has been making noises in the media for the past month or two to try and get the club to provide a contract for him to sign which has not happened. Even Lenegan himself came out and admitted that Edwards may not come last month when asked to comment. Edwards now seems at the point where he has said, sod it, im going to look elsewhere and nobody can blame him.

Without having read the whole of this thread, I should draw everyone's attention to a comment attributed to Shaun Edwards in today's Times, which goes something along the lines of him waiting on Wasps' offer in case he gets offered the England job.

That surely answers quite a few questions.

If the England job was suddenly dangled like a carrot, it's no wonder he turned his back on any agreement he might have reached with Wigan (and he must have reached one - he wasn't forced to participate in that press conference at gunpoint).

Maybe Wigan were not at fault for not tying him to a written contract - assuming they didn't - but really, what good have written contracts done in recent years? If a player or coach want out, that's all that seems to matter.

Bad or not, it would most likely (and quite rightly) cause people to wonder what planet you're on.

You'd seriously wish the club chairman - who has so far delivered a ton of silverware to Wigan - humiliated on the say-so of a guy who left the sport years ago and who quite clearly, whatever he says, has ambitions that go way beyond a return to RL?

Seriously?

It's the clubs fault. They clearly failed to follow the most obvious of steps.

-Open communication
-Agree terms
-Produce contract which reflects terms
-Adjust contract if needed
-All parties sign the contract making all the t's and c's official
-Work out a time to announce the move
-Announce the appointment to the public.

If a contract was agreed and signed we wouldn't be in the middle of this sh%t storm.

I can't agree with that, you've sacrificed this year in order to wait for the guy that you really want, the golden goose that's gonna bring all your true believers back (in their 91/92 Norweb shirts) and you don't get pen on paper?

If he didn't want the job surely he wouldn't have entertained the conversations, and agreed to be wheeled out in front of the press, he's never going to be short of job offers in rah rah, (top ones not withstanding) so it's not like he came and chatted in order to get leverage.

your management team has dropped a bollock, you wouldn't announce that you've signed a player without pen on paper would you? that would be embarressing, same as this.

Bang on.

]
How is it deluded?

One phone call to our CEO or Owner gets this sorted. He's making out like we've announced him as a coach then told him to go away for 12 months with no contact or contract. Sod off.

He clearly thinks he can get a better job elsewhere and is pitching for offers via the media. He comes out of this very, very badly.

Maybe it will wake them up but doubt it. IL isn't the second coming but never thought he would put the club in this situation to make us look so foolish.
This escapade is just fuelling the flames for lack of foresight in recruiting, winding down the marketing department and displays on the field that have very poor in the extreme since the WCC.

Edwards must have some skin in this as well though as surely chasing up his contract is what most people would do if they really wanted the position.

I was expecting a poor/average season but wasn't expecting this type of schoolboy error by the administrators of the club. Even if Edwards had given his word why on earth wouldn't you conclude the deal as soon as possible?

A poor season compounded by awful decisions by the management.

Do you believe that there's been no contact with Edwards over the last few months?

Agree with everything you've posted. Wasn't Edwards at the WCC game?

“Seriously” - I wish this whole sorry episode had never come about to begin with. And it never had to.

The club chairman got off very lightly with the Bateman BS he span last year. The fans have progressively been taken for granted of late, the fact that we have won a ton of silverware has got jack sh** to do with the integrity of the club.

I’d suggest some humiliation may waken them up to the genuine displeasure a lot of fans are feeling at the moment.

Anyway, we’ll see how they respond.

Tommy Young was one of the Welsh RU players who told the lads at PAS that SE wouldn't be at Wigan next year back in early Feb...he also plays for London Wasps so the Times story doesn't surprise me and probably has a lot of substance to it.

Maybe the Gentlemans agreement wasnt about Edwards coaching Wigan but something else?

Think about it.......

Good grief.

Could it be that Edwards doesn't sign a contract because of the legalities/compensation involved if Lam was a roaring success?

If Lam had cleaned up this year (obviously he can no longer do the quadruple or the treble for that matter) and with hindsight it looks silly to suggest we'd ever have been capable of that now but going off this assumption before a ball was kicked would tying Edwards to a deal and then us potentially sticking with Lam as Head Coach going forward result in a big pay-off for Edwards for essentially nothing? If he put pen to paper this surely would be the case?

It doesn't seem so ridiculous to suggest this as not too long after the deal was announced Edwards said he'd happily stand aside in the best interests of the club if Lam was successful and Lenagan himself said it'd be a nice dilemma for Wigan to have. In this scenario there'd be significant calls from a good percentage of fans to retain Lam.

The plan was clearly for Edwards to come in for 3 years after Lam passes the baton from Wane to Edwards but because of the uniqueness of the arrangement it seems as if they have left it open-ended as if it could always be subject to change. Again, I imagine this would be to save £££ on any potential pay-out to Edwards had we kept Lam?

For all we know Lenagan could've had a set date in his own mind of when the contract was going to be put on the table after the handshake agreement and he was happy that Edwards would stick to this verbally agreed commitment until the contract was put forward.

It seems naive to let this rumble on for 9 months without signing him to a contract however and now it seems as if either Edwards is trying to force the club's hand to get this boxed off or he has simply got cold feet/changed his mind whilst waiting.