We basically did. Its pretty obvious that the club have not been in consultation with him regarding any preparation for next year.

Then why did the club announce a 3 year contract had been signed?

I mean I know nowt about hiring someone but if it where me who was hiring and firing I’d print this list off and pin it to my wall in my office,

It looks like poor wording on the club's part now that's for sure.

Oooh, you are well-named Mr Cat.

Seems to me

a) The timing here, straight after Wales win the Grand Slam, is surely not coincidental. This adds £££s to SE's value. And really, given the choice of England RU coach, Wasps coach, or Wigan coach, what order of desirability would most folk put them in? If, as now appears clear, on contract has been signed, then SE hasn't really done anything that much wrong.

b) That said, IL and Rads have been foolish at best, or deceitful at worst, by making out to fans that we had Edwards when we didn't.

c) The fans deserve a better, and much more detailed explanation of what the hell is going on than that two-sentence load of anodyne rubbish they've come out with.

Pretty obvious because Edwards has run straight to the press and declared it?

So you don't think Lenagan, Lam or Radlinski have been in contact with Edwards for months?

Of course they've been in contact.

The fact he's negotiating a deal with Wasps and refuses to answer the phone to Wigan after dropping this bombshell in a media interview tells you everything you need to know about his intentions and motives.

We've been played like a fiddle.

No, the impression i get from Edwards comments is that he has no idea what is going on.

100%

Sorry to make a lazy Brexit pun but there’s no deal on the table. He is, as of the end of the RU World Cup unemployed. I’ve no doubt he’s earned some good money in RU but for a man with ambitions such as SE’s he wants to be employed coaching.

Don’t get me wrong I’d be desperately disappointed and equally as annoyed if he never came to Wigan after all this but I would support him in the fact that he’s been led up the garden path just as much as you or I thinking he’d be the Head Coach come 2020.

A short non statement statement is not what we need from the club. We need accuracy, brevity and clarification on this. This whole saga sums up the clubs actions over recent history and it seems to me that the chickens have finally come home to roost. It does make me wonder whether there was a lot more to Shaun Wane’s shock departure than we were told.

His intentions and motives to legally secure employment for next year?

Look, its quite simple. Had Wigan got him to sign a contract when he was paraded as having signed a 3 year contract then we wouldnt be here now. You can spin it in favour of Saint Lenegan as much as you like but the bottom line is that Edwards is looking out for himself as anybody would do in his situation of impending unemployment. The club made a complete b*lls up whether intentionally or not.

I think that view is shared amongst us all

How hard would it have been for him to ask ... without doing it via the newspapers? He was at the club a couple of weeks ago, watching the WCC.

I ended up agreeing with you that the Edwards deal suddenly looked unlikely, but I think you risk looking naive if you keep shouting about it all being down to IL and SE carrying no can at all - especially when he told the Times today that he was waiting to see if he was getting the England job. That's not the kind of thing that suddenly comes out of the blue. How would he secure the England job by saying 'I wanted Wigan but they don't want me, so I'm coming to you instead?'

Don't assume Edwards is whiter than white. I suspect he was lured elsewhere quite some time ago.

The known facts fit both hypotheses. P-J *might* be right, and SE *might* be refusing to answer the phone etc. That's certainly the spin the club's two sentences look to put on it.

And if that is the case, then as noted upthread, surely the relationship is irrevocably soured.

Either way, the club come out of it looking like fools, or knaves, or both.