What is 1/2m?

I'd imagine 1/2m is £500,000.

God damn it what is wrong with this club and players not honouring contracts?

So it goes on the rats are jumping ship where has the loyalty gone.All down to agents scum

He's seen Bateman's insta vids training on the beach and he wants some of the action. Gildart will be next for sure.

Whilst I think the time is right for him to go, I only believe that because of the mess the club has got itself in to over a sustained period of time, which now means the players call the shots and decide when they’re going to leave. His head isn’t in it and realistically it looks like they’d have been better letting him go last year.

Major major change is needed at the club. As things stand we’re on our way to being a club that scraps between mid table and relegation because you can’t let your best players leave and not replace them. Ask me who Wigan’s overall best players were this time last year and I’d have said Sam Tomkins, Bateman, Williams and O’Loughlin. The chances are that in 2020 we will not have a single one left.

I’m usually a generally positive sole on here but I must admit I’m so frustrated with how things have been done recently. It’s simply not good enough for Wigan rugby league club.

The amount of players Wigan lose year in year out is ridiculous. Players go and are not replaced with the same level of quality.

Do I expect Wigan to go out and get a Top quality half back to replace Williams? Not really, they will likely do it on the cheap. It's not good enough.

Sadly that's exactly how I feel.

Yep, me too. I’m usually very positive about the club but I’m now starting to get very concerned about the way we’re headed. I’ve been a fan of promoting youth and we’ve been successful in doing so. However, those young players need to be surrounded by top quality, proven players. Once Lockers calls it a day, I fear the worst. We need a major injection of quality and we need it soon.
I still believe Edwards will come and this could be the blank canvas he needs to start from scratch. With the money we won’t be spending on Williams, O’Loughlin and Leuluai, added to the anticipated release of Tautai and hopefully a few others (Powell, Clubb) then the new coach, with a decent injection of cash we could have a real shake up and a new look squad from 2020.

I agree but....lets get through 2019 first. I do think that either Leneghan and/or Radlinski need to come out with a statement of intent or something. The mood around the club at the moment is as low as its ever been.

Do you think there'd be any creditability in it if they did?

I once had a good chat with West about recruitment structures, he said it was 3 level approach, promoting youth from within, looking at established SL players and bringing in top quality from overseas. This worked as almost a pyramid. Meaning at the top but the fewest was the NRL stars, perhaps only 1 or 2, the next level was established SL players, maybe double the number, then the rest was youth promotion.

NRL players were top class and brought in often a higher level of play, established SL players who were proven over here and would develop, and youth who were brought through and supported and developed by the players around them.

Personally I still like this structure which proved successful for many years.

Probably not, but continuing with this "bury the head in the sand" approach isn't helping anyone.

The only way you’ll be successful in pretty much only relying on your production line and cheap signings is if you keep your very best players and homegrown stars to succession plan with. At the minute we have Lockers and Leuluai who are probably our two real leaders and when they call it quits then the baton should’ve been passed down to the next in line and so on. The next in line were Sam Tomkins and Micky Mac but they’ve been let go to trim the wage bill. They would then pass it down to the likes of Bateman and any other younger player who stuck their hand up (maybe Williams with more experience) but they too have been let go, so now we’ll end up with a situation were an honest pro like Faz or Flower gets the captaincy even though they’re not really suited to it and the lack of quality in and around them will hurt their chances of success.

With major retirements coming up and us losing our better mid career aged players in Williams and Bateman, it was crucial to keep the leaders next in line, such as Sam Tomkins and McIlorum. The only way was it acceptable to lose them was to enable you to keep Bateman and Williams and we’ve failed to do that also.

Tough to see anything other then some really challenging seasons coming up.

What is going on at Wigan? Looking from the outside, things going from bad to worse.

The club looks in rudderless. I'm not here to troll. There is soo much negativity and uncertainty.

1. Established players like Tomkins x 2, McIllorum, Bateman have left and not really being replaced although Greenwood has been good.
2. Williams now leaving
3. Aging leaders in Leulai and O'Loughlin (not necessarily bad)
4. Unbalanced squad, too many wingers. A poor front row.
5. Some odd un-wigan like signings in Tautai, Isa and Sammut
6. A stop gap coach and a new coach with uncertainty about him actually coming. If he is looking at it now, does he want that role?

I think you need a new 6,7 and 9 plus a couple of front rowers.

Having said all that i expect a strong Wigan performance on Friday, and i wouldnt be surprised if we get turned over. As much as its quite amusing to see yourselves, and Leeds being so poor (so far this season). I'd prefer to have a strong league with strong teams.