Cheapest ticket £18 south stand, programs are what £3? Pints £3.20, Pies £10k.....and you want to increase the CAP? Sadly this time round, Wigan don't have a ground to sell

So we'll sell all our best players instead !

Nice soundbite, but it doesn't really mean anything.

We only have Charnley left that would really attract big money because we've sold or lost all the rest!!

Maybe Hansen to Salford? Im sure the Doctor might give us a decent transfer fee for him. Maybe an offer that we cant refuse? Who knows he may even try and buy our new marquee signing out of his contract as well if Mr Lenegan asks nicely?

IMO it's a bit narrow minded to think Sam went for cash alone.
He is one of the most talented players in SL, and like anyone with talent (no matter what their chosen profession) they will try and test/challenge themselves against the best. Unfortunately the Southern Hemisphere is the best place to play rugby.
While RL may be strapped for cash, so is everybody else. IMO getting rid of the salary cap will concentrate all of the best players into 4/5 teams, everybody else will be there to make up the numbers. Look at Scottish football it's a joke as a competition.
We need to get a better profile and more cash into the game. Thats down to the RFL and business men in the sport.
I'm a recent convert from union and RL is a far better game to watch, the crowds are more interesting, its a fun night with away games being reachable after work on a Friday and its great value for money.
Don't underestimate what a good product RL is and don't overestimate the impact of Sam leaving. We might get some other moves added to our attacking plan next year.

Never a truer word spoken in jest? I actually agree with this move HH can be bettered with a realistic replacement as he isnt a top 5 player. Maybe you have some other radical ideas?

What you mean bring in another marquee player to replace him

Only if he has two dodgy knees and at the end of his career!

Andy Farrell has scored more than that. Should we get him to dust off his boots as well?

For one Bowen doesnt kick conversions, secondly this is the NRL, its nothing like playing Warrington, Oldham and Paris SG every week of the mid 90s. But you wouldn't know how good the NRL competition is because you dont watch it.

I am sad to see Tomkins go as he is very good to watch and players of his talent are rare in this country. As a replacement, Bowen is still very good.

Good luck against Leeds on Friday night.

And chairmen who are seemingly content to do nothing about it.

IL's approach looks to be to end up a big fish in a small pond. He doesn't see losing Sam as bad for SL or Wigan (apparently according to an article in the Observer). Why not? Well in a nutshell he seems to think all the top players will eventually be in the NRL or playing RU so we can survive by replacing them from the production line.

This will be good enough despite any good ones we do produce being picked off by the NRL because when all the decent players currently left in the league have retired we will be best placed to remain at the top of what will be a mediocre competition due to our production line and re-signing veteran ex-Wigan, ex-NRL players after a retirement package.

Gone is the ambition to bring the best players to Wigan or so it seems.

Now you can say that is a pragmatic approach to the problems the game faces or a defeatist approach. I think its a defeatist approach and instead of IL voting against increases in the cap or asking why would he want to pay players more I'd rather see him say things like we can't do that now but are working to increase income to the sport so we can. He's not though and in fact seems dead set against it. Everything is rosy because he thinks we can be top of a pile of mediocrity. A semi-professional future for the game beckons in my opinion.

If Hansen went to Salford at the end of next season we wouldn't get anything as he's out of contract. He may well go. That would hardly be a disaster as we are not short of back rowers.

As far as I'm concerned Ian Lenagan has done the best deal he can for Wigan RL. The new reality is that 75% of players would go to Union or the NRL if they had a chance. So the players Union tells us.

IL is ring fencing Wigan's finances by signing our best players on long term contracts, not to stop them going as he has always known he can't but to ensure he has a legal right to compensation. He has exacted that to an astoundingly successful degree.
It is suggested that Wigan RL will get £700k for Sam, £100k for Mossop and £250k for Hock. That's over £1m for players , apart from Hock, who wanted to play in the NRL. OK so that will probably arrive over the years of the player's contract. That's still far bettter than Saints got for Graham and Eastmond and what we got for Ashton, which of course was sod all!

Some have asked as to where's the money going, well perhaps to pay off some of the club's debts. Can't find my copy of the 2011 accounts but in 2010 we had £ms of debts. 2012 Accounts aren't available yet, not to me anyway.

As to Lenegan pocketing the money himself, well as yet he hasn't paid himself anything as Chairman and Owner of the club. If he paid himself £100k then it would be less than half Nigel Wood is getting and there's no comparison as to the ability and business acumen of the two men. He has also invested heavily in facilities like Central Park, Orrell training Ground, South Wales and is improving the scouting system.

A lot of mention has been written on here as to how IL has handled the Sam business and what he has or has not said.
What is significant to me is that when he first bought the club and had a fans forum at the Deanery he said he aquired the club to win trophies.
Either at that meeting or a later one he also said that having a profitable club was an important part of securing Wigan RL's future. Well, he's acheived both those targets. Maybe his next is to have a debt free club.

I do think that all the critisism of Ian Lenagan is unfair.
He has brought a winning culture to the club, trophies every year right now.
The club is making a profit and heading towards being debt free if not there already. That lot is sporting utopia!

Sam is a fabulous player and the best we've seen for a very long time. We've also seen some other very good players leave.
All this is part and parcel. As for my attitude, it's brought about by my experiences of watching Wigan RL.
When I started following the club mid/late fifties Eric Ashton was the captain. He was the captain of Wigan, Lancashire, Great Britain and a World Cup winning captain. When Eric rertired around 1969/70 I thought the Wigan Rugby League world was about to end. Also with Billy going about the same time.
After that, well, players come and players go, Sam came through the academy and is going. Nothing though, but nothing compares to losing Eric and Billy within a year or so, absolutely nothing!

Lenagan is around my age, if not my age and will have seen the same games, players, finals, trophies as me. Maybe he and I have the same attitude, players come and players go, so do Club Chairmen.
As we all say and believe, no one person is bigger than the Wigan RL. No one!
Ian Lenegan is securing the future of Wigan RL more than any of us thought possible and far better than most of his predessors.
Well Done Mr Lenegan and Thanks.

A great post

The more we talk the game down , the more it will slide

If the rah rahs can talk up a e sport, then surely we should be talking up our truly wonderful sport

Come on folks, give it a go