You can’t just say “regardless of injuries and squad quality”. Pep Guardiola wouldn’t win the premier league with Wigan Athletic when he’s only been able to name the same side on two occasions. That goes for Holbrook, Price etc. Injuries and squad quality are hugely decisive factors in how a team performs...

I’d give him a two/three year deal, make significant changes to the squad and judge him next year. If we’re still not competing, fair enough. But this year was always about transition.

Pep Guardiola wouldn’t win the Prem with Wigan but he’d have them playing good football and looking organised within a month regardless of the squad, let’s not forget these are full time professional players who already know how to play rugby league and many are internationals. Anyone would think we were Doncaster with what dross people are willing to accept.

You can only hide behind transition for so long, the honeymoon period is over and we look like a team which is badly coached like Saints were under Cunningham. Cunningham may have a wealth of knowledge, he may ha e talked the talk and so on but ultimately the team failed massively on the pitch and it was down to him.

In Cunningham's defence, Saints were robbed in 3 out of the 4 semi finals he took them to.

The money before the trip being mentioned was utter nonsense,it simply wasn’t going to happen unless the Aussies came out in their many thousands which really was a foolish thing to hope for.

The trip I’ve no doubt made a very small profit but at what cost?hea has clearly alienated a large portion of the fan base who have just said over the years up yours and found other things to spend their hard earned cash and leisure time on,you keep treating people poorly they simply won’t come back,it’s clear that yet again the season tickets sales have slumped again.

This was lenegans folly and he has to take it on the chin,it was inexcusable and I suspect there will be yet again less season tickets sold this off season.

He will in due course sell Orrell I’d assume to offset the cost of robin park and once that goes the club won’t have any bricks and mortar assets I hope he knows what he’s doing there.

Injuries obviously play a part, but I still think the team should be more organised and structured (especially in defence) than it currently is.

I just don't see anything that makes me think Lam is the right guy for this job.

Imo we should be going all out to bring Flanagan over, as his speciality is all about turning a rag tag bunch into a well oiled machine. FWIW i do think the majority of the players we've got all have a couple levels of improvement in them.

We need someone on a 3-4 year deal who will actually see out the full 3-4 year deal to complete the job and not work miracles in season 1 or 2 and leave.

I’m sure he knows exactly what he’s doing. Let’s face it, he’s a multi millionaire businessman who has vast experience of running sports clubs. I’m a lowly, hardworking man who enjoys watching sport so I’m quite sure he knows more about running the club than I do, or most other ‘expert’ fans on here for that matter.

They couldn't stand leneghan when he turned the club around from a shambles to a Trophy winning team in 2 years and then led them to 8/9 Trophies in the next 8 seasons

Why would they let him off the hook now (When clearly things have gone wrong and yes he has to shoulder some of the blame).

But said it over and over, if you keep looking for fault you'll find it even if it's not there
This has been coming for about 4/5 years and the people who targeted Wane/Radlinski/Leneghan to different degrees and constantly tried to rip the club apart (And to be fair told us that all 3 of them were Rubbish/Corrupt/Pocketing Money and many other slanderous things) got their wish and now they're right.

They now want Mythical people to take over (AKA known as Multi millionaires who must be banging Leneghans door down to take over a club where it's own fans spend an unhealthy amount of their time trying to find something wrong even if it's not there) who if they do take over will have to pump large amounts in (Like Leneghan has done) only to be told by untold Business & Sporting experts that they're doing it wrong

Some people must enjoy watching a team play poorly and languish towards the bottom of the table whilst probably singing the ‘Everything is Awesome’ song whilst they hand over their money week after week.

I think Lenagan (and Radlinski's for that matter) biggest issue is that they have become complacent with the one thing that an owner should never do and that's the fan base.

Look at the early days of his ownership and the communication and engagement with the fans is at least 3 or 4 levels above what it is now. We had fans forums and similar events where the direction and vision of the club were being outlined, fast forward to now and that has all gone. Granted people may have asked daft questions, or may/may not have agreed with what was being said - but at least there was a level of honesty and transparency given to fans.


Whether you agree or not with the merits of moving games to Millwall and Australia, those decisions alienated sections of the fan base, especially since the rationale for moving the games doesn't appear on the surface to have materialised in any way that they expected. It may well have done, but then again the subsequent benefits have never really ever been outlined so I can understand why supporters are still cheesed off about it given their outlay on season tickets.


Leading onto season tickets, what a joke it is when I can buy my World Club Challenge tickets cheaper on Wowcher than I can using my season ticket holder discount or in season discounts make the in year saving on a season ticket less and less worthwhile.

Key to any Rugby League club given the perilous state of finances should be ensuring the existing supporter base is encouraged to return week after week as its far harder to attract them back than it is to retain.


Finally, and its one that is only fair to recognise that during Lenegan's tenure that the success has been great (and with a bit of luck could have been even greater) but to rely on past successes is also a sign of complacency as only well we know that its not to be taken for granted.

Regardless of past successes, look at the current policy of letting our "stars" move on to Australia whilst in contract and the subsequent bargain basement recruitment and its like history repeating itself, and we seem to be falling into the same trap as we did in the late 90's and mid 000's and as others have done more recently. History is great, but that's all it is … History, a sporting clubs needs to be moving forward all the time or else it all ends and the fans ebb away, eg. Saints signing players like Jack Owens, Matty Dawson - guess what they stopped winning trophies crowds went down, Leeds replacements like Mullalley, Jordan Thompson, Myler, Donaldson - guess what the trophies have dried up crowds have gone down, Wigan signing Sammut, Hankinson etc ......…

Whilst Lenegan has done great since he has been here, I do feel that he and the powers that be do need to get a grip on certain elements of the club that seem to have floundered in the past couple of years, and in this I include marketing & communications, getting the best backroom staff and not just people with a Wigan accent and ensuring that a contract means a contract and not a transfer fee opportunity.

Couldn’t agree more. Other teams could only dream of the success Lenagan has brought us over the last 10 years, the only team who can rival it being Leeds.

He’s pumped great deals of his own money into the club. Tried a number of initiatives (some successful, some less so) to promote the team/wider game. We’ve won the academy grand final is it 9 years out of 10 and the first ever woman’s super league.

People have called for his head throughout the periods of success. And now seem pleased that now there’s an excuse to bash him, they feel justified. The same people often mentioning that they won’t go to the game because we aren’t winning, or in previous years, winning but not playing well enough.

Spot on especially with regards the quality of player signings. I know some fans have blind faith and would back Peter Sutcliffe to the hilt if he had a Wigan shirt on. You can’t expect people not to criticise the club, what are we? East Germany? North Korea? Jesus wept.

Or the ones who are most the negative, most vociferous moaners, who DON'T hand over their money every week but continue with their negativity from the comfort of their bar-stools or armchairs. Somewhere in the middle is probably right.

Yet you criticise other posters who have a different opinion to you and call them happy clappers?
Is your world North Korea or East Germany then?

Seems like your only allowed an opinion if it matches the negative Pitchfork brigades view of things.



I don't "Enjoy" watching it, and anyone who saw me for 3/4 hours after the game on the coach or in Calella will testify how "Down" I was.
However, you dust yourself down and move on, try to be constructive and think Long Term
I'm not a Lam fan, but sacking him without having a Plan of what to do next is not the answer.
He's been dealt a few band hands, but he also had 6months or so to plan for this and some of our play is truly awful
As I searched in the early hours of Sunday morning for the right words the only 2 I could think of over and over again are Amateurish and "Soft".
Soft in particular bugs me - Soft culture, soft underbelly, Soft approach to everything we do etc. etc.

So what's happened?
I don't know and won't pretend I know All the answers, but working Harder & getting behind each other has to be the start.

One coach who gets raised as an example over & over again is Maguire and people who are inside the dressing room tell me that the perception that he was a master coach whilst Wane is a Bully etc. say it couldn't be more the opposite.
But to take a speech from Maguire that was his Pre-Match Wire CC game in 2011

"Run F***ing Harder than them, Tackle F***ing Harder than them"
And when asked how many years at coaching school did it take to learn that gave the answer "It's a pretty simple game".

It's like we've forgotten this bit and concentrated on the coaching manual and focussed on all the Nicey Nicey bits.

Anyway