most fans knew at the end of last season that we desperately needed a top class prop, and a stand off to replace barrett. we ended up with a scrum half playing stand off who was signed on the cheap from australia because of his well documented problems,then signed his drinking partner to keep him company, mickey higham got slated on here but at least he tried 100% every week,we then signed a winger that we didn't really need if we were to give ainscough a chance.so we start the season without the prop we needed and 2 scrum halves. it is begining to look like lenegans trademark is to do things on the cheap.

A prop may become available - Sam Thaiday.
See Fox News site.

No doubts what-so-ever if he became available we should pull out all the stops to sign him.

Link posted on Signings thread.

Won't get a Work Permit.

and he is openly after a bigger wage packet. Wigan could not afford $300k a season.

$300k is a lot and it will depend on the state of £sterling.
We could afford it next season. I would like him here but he may be too young to consider the UK.
As far as I remember he didn't get charged with any offence. Didn't it end up with no charges brought? A conviction appears to be the criteria now.

People expressing hope that we will sign Sam Thaiday are doing no more than setting themselves up for a big disappointment. Again.

Let's get real, folks. Thaiday is not coming to the UK. There are all kinds of reasons for this, not least the fact that he's a 23-year-old Kangaroo and Origin player, who would chuck his entire career away if he took our money.

It's a pipedream, and all we're doing pursuing it is giving ourselves one more reason to get angry with the club even though in this instance they couldn't possibly be blamed.

exactly! We'd end up like Chelsea, sacking a coach after a few bad results and not been given enough time to turn things around. Its two games into the season and sacking him would just get us in to a bigger hole. There is no-one that better that could realistically replace him

I would like Noble to stay. My fear is he will walk away at the end of his contract. Hope not, but he may!

I cannot agree with you here, FT.

I'd love him to do well and prove to the world that he's actually a great coach, but time is surely running out for him.

We're not a bad team. Individually, we've got plenty of good players. But we don't play well as a team - for all the reasons so eloquently outlined on this board already - and we don't seem to have any motivation. There is also the persistant problem regarding the youngsters. There's no point the chairman improving all their pay-packets if the head coach is still not going to pick them. They'll go somewhere else in due course.

I hear what you say about us needing another big prop, but if we bought one and hung onto Noble, none of the above problems would go away.

I too would like us to keep Noble - but only if he can turn this situation around very, very quickly. We started this season full of hope, as usual. But nothing has changed. We seem to be stuck in a time-warp with him at present, and are desperately in need of new, revolutionary thinking.

Possibly the most sensible post regarding Noble I've read on here in a while. Pretty much sum's up my view on Noble too.

Preferably I'd want him to stay but this obviously depends on results/team performances.

Cruncher et al.

I'm in the pro Noble camp, but understand and agree with some of the posts and charges against him.

So how long do we give him?

Personally, I would give him to mid season and see how things are.
I still wouldn't sack him then. I don't see the point as I can't see anyone available to take the job.

If we are underperforming mid season then I would tell him that his contract would not be renewed for 2010. I suspect he would already know anyway.

It's difficult to make informed comments on the Noble situ at Wigan, because throughout his tenure there've been stories that he's unsettled and looking elsewhere. There've also been reports that he doesn't like the chairman and has had rows with him.

Are these true? If so, maybe it won't come as a wrench for either party if his contract is not renewed. But telling someone they won't have a job in four month's time is bound to cause some kind of fall-out, and who knows what form that could take.

If we're at rock-bottom by mid-season (and it's far too early to assume that yet), it won't matter. The management won't have any choice and Noble won't have an argument.

The problem for IL will be if we're there or thereabouts again, with a reasonable chance of making the top tier but not looking particularly impressive on the field.

How do we respond to that?

Sacking the coach under those circumstances could mess things up big time. Given that most fans' frustrations at present seem to be ed around our lack of improvement rather than our lack of trophies, I don't think they would regard it as too high a price to pay. But it might be too high for IL if no other coaching options are available - and they may not be if he leaves it until the mid-season stage.

It's a very difficult balancing act that needs to be struck here, and all I can say is that I'm glad it's not my choice.