Negotiations are still ongoing with Wigan Ath

I have had a profile on this site for a while and this is the first time I've posted anything for years. I completely agree with the above sentiment in full as it pretty much sums up my position at the moment. A season ticket holder for 25 years and this is the first time I've contemplated not renewing. I feel that I'm just falling out of love with Wigan and am also disillusioned with what has and hasn't happened over the last few years. The way loyal fans are being treated over the forum issue is poor at best but that isn't the single reason though it has brought things to a head for me.

There was absolutely no point to that forum. None. Letting around 120 people from a fan base in the thousands, and interested parties in the tens of thousands, know a few 'secrets' was pointless and a slap in the face for those deemed not important enough to know what was said. Who the hell thought that was a good idea and what did they hope it would achieve?

It doesn't even matter what was said or if it was truth or lies. It's a complete irrelevance.

The club is a shambles. They can't even get something as simple as this right. Look at the bad feeling they've caused with what, handled correctly, should have been a positive, bridge building exercise.

As a season ticket holder for over 30 years I've never felt more distanced from the club.

Same

spot on, i feel exactly the same

Strange times at the moment. People will have got out of the habit of going, due to covid, the match day experience hasn't been great when we've been allowed back in this season, and the reluctance to let anyone know what happened at the forum, bar the 120 who attended is without a doubt leaving a lot of fans feeling disillusioned with the club.

There's always been that insistence from some fans that we need to know every single bit of information, when we actually don't, but a little bit of info regarding the fans forum would certainly go a long way to appeasing the masses. Even if it's just a short statement saying when it will be released. It's certainly not fair that only a select percentage of fans have been allowed to be "in the know" and then they've been asked not to share too much.

With regards the Edwards saga... Wigan Leeds Andy has stood by his statement pretty much from the start and he's by no means a rumour monger. I'm inclined to believe what he's insinuating but I have no real desire to question him regarding the details. He's never come across as an "I know something you don't know" type. I'm more than happy to consign the Edwards issue to the history books now. It was nearly 3 years ago.

The Burgess statement seems baffling. His hip issue seemed to be common knowledge yet KR seems to be saying we caused it? He then states that Burgess turned up well overweight.

The information I think is more important is the stadium situation, our current financial situation, our squad situation and coach situation.

The more this goes on the worse it seems. At first I thought, well, they aren't live-streaming it, but it's going go to be covered in a detailed interview with Phil Wilkinson the the next day. And then that didn't happen. I can see no mention of the event on the club website news page.

What is the point of even telling 120 people if you're going to keep the other 90% of fans in the dark, or relying on dodgy accounts on social media? Or, indeed, relying on Jukes to go over and above the call of duty on here (and get insults for thanks). It's almost like it's encouraging divisiveness.

Agreed. My attitude is, I know you can't tell us everything. But just this: whatever you do tell us, make sure it's the truth.

We also seem to produce a lot more forwards than backs, especially centres.

Over the years we have produced:

Fullbacks - Hanley (Still unproven).
Wingers - Burgess, Manfredi, Marshall, Davies (All proven but none for a while)
Centres - Gildart, Halsall (Unproven)
Halves - Williams, Hampshire, Smith (Unproven)

More that we pushed him to the limit than actually causing it.

When Burgess was available for selection in 2019 he was picked, so he was hardly a crock.

The statement / story told by the club could be linked to the insurance payout also so they may have to tread carefully for legal reasons.

Or the club signed a crock and we can blame IL and KR for it

But we did sign a crock. Signing a player who is unable to train to full fitness and giving them marquee money is just crazy. Again I'll ask; who at the club thought that was a good idea?

That said, if they can't admit their mistake for insurance or similar reasons then that is understandable. The signing however is not.

Well he must have been able to train to full fitness at Souths because they kept picking him.

You’ve really summed it up.
I can see the rational for not broadcasting it at the time but 2 days on and it’s as if it didn’t happen. Favvas a meeting of MI5!

2 days on and all they’ve caused is a huge rift between the fan base. Whether those who didn’t make it on the night are right or wrong to be up in arms, the clubs method has caused arguments and from my view a pretty big split in the fan base.

Even bringing up the likes of the Edwards rubbish has caused much of the 20 odd pages of drivel on here. It’s all fuelled by Tuesday night.

Not good. What a shambles.