Bowen is an excelent goal kicker. He would be kicking for NQ if JT wasn't their kicker. He is also very accurate with his drop goals.

Back up will still be Smith/Charnley

Although, apparently now we have all this money we can sign who we want, so lets get Cam Smith.

I'm sorry but i don't fully agree with some point here cadoo

1 There is no i in team yes Sam is a quality player one of if not the best in a Wigan shirt but it's his team mates what give him space when our forwards get a hiding and he's got no room it shows

2 Why go chucking coin about at big name players? Yes Watkins or someone along the lines would be good to have but not needed someone like Craig Hall or Kris Welham would do a good job for us and not demand big coin

It's been shown by Leeds and us that youth is the way forward yes you need to bring them through with experienced players but we have them lets not go back to spending on players who don't give a ****, these young lads have grown up watching us and want to put that shirt on some would play for £0 thats what wins you trophies

No you are wrong.

You need a balance.


There is no doubt that no-one would like a return to the "Moranesqe" days of just playing for the £££.

However, do you think Hanley would have "played for £0"??

The worry is that we are swinging too much the other way.

I agree.

Wigan have always had the policy of 'only the best will do' in terms of recruitment. And that is why Wigan have always had the highest attendances in UK Rugby League. Even surpassing the attendances at big city clubs like Leeds, Bradford or the Hull clubs.

And what was it that attracted those crowds for over 100 years ?

Not Wigans bank balance.

It was the star players.

Wigan always offered great entertainment. And that is what we are, a form of entertainment that nowadays has to compete with other forms of entertainment.

Mr Lenegan and others ought to remember that we are not all just 'walking £20 notes' . Unfortunately many businessmen having viewed their 'business plans' for far too long and far too often, assume we are.

I think both of you have hit the nail on the head. Particularly Cadoo's comment about the money being spent on the backroom stuff.

I don't think that any big names are realistic at present but there are players that people are not talking about now who will be talked about once the World Cup kicks off and the trick is to identify which of those players can fit into our squad.

Don't rule out Wigan to pick up a bargain during the WC.

It's pretty obvious really Dave.

Wigans population is tiny compared with the big city clubs.

But for longer than 100 years, Wigan has led the attendances for crowds for RL. (For RU as well for that matter at club level.)

And why is this ?

My Dad and his Dad before him have all supported Wigan having been born there. My Grandad was born in 1881 and my Dad was 90 this week.

They and I, were brought up on Wigan being the '[icreme de la creme[/i' of Rugby League, so it pains us to see what is going on today.

Does Wigan have to sell our best players to survive ? Or are we being asset stripped ?

We have decent attendances again this season plus a Wembley Cup Final win 'under our belt' so why the sales ?

Even Salford are buying, but we are behind them in the stakes this time.

Problem with going out and spending money is there's no one to buy that is any good.

Look at Salford, the big spenders, who are doing what Warrington did 8 or 9 years ago just after Simon Moran had taken over. At that time we were signing Gleeson and Johns, look at Salford's signings - some decent players but nobody that's going to make you think they are game changers that will challenge the top 4.

The danger with having money and having pressure to spend it is just spending big doesn't guarantee the player does well. Liverpool got £50m for Torres and they made sure they weren't criticised for sitting on the cash by spending £35m straight away on Andy Carroll.....

Good points mate. I think your correct in many ways but there or one or two players out there, that we could get for reasonable money that would definitely strengthen the team.

It is only a couple tbh but guys like Clark and Kirmond wouldn't cost the earth and your meant to be in for them. If the rumours about BJB to Wire are correct he's another that would have improved us but it looks like we're only willing to move for players that nobody else bids on (Taylor aside) for fear that the price will creep up.

Wire make decent players available by cherry picking them.

Great idea.

There are lots of ways clubs could boost revenue, they have become far too reliant on TV money (and the Sky deal isn't a great one!) and have had their ambitions stifled by the stupidly counterproductive SC. They need to think more creatively. A club like Wigan, with probably 10s of thousands of fans (including casual fans) should be able to earn a lot more than £6m in revenue a year. If we assume there are say 30,000 people interested in the club to one degree or another then if we could get an extra £100 a year out of each fan on average then the club's turnover would rise by 50% to £9m. A 1000 local businesses putting in an additional £1000 each would get us another million, taking us to £10m. All this should be achievable for a brand like Wigan.

As we all know, we don't own the ground, so the club should be looking very hard at developing other business lines and revenue sources in Wigan and surrounding areas (though a Leigh branch of a Wigan leagues club may be a step too far, it would probably get firebombed... ).

I just don't buy the SC apologists line that there is nothing clubs can do and we have to accept that the SL clubs are more or less broke and there's nothing we can do about it. With just a bit of business sense clubs could massively boost their revenue.

It would actually be possible with some hard work to put the game in a position where our top clubs can at least put up a better fight against RU and the NRL. Would Sam really have risked a move to the NRL if we were stong enough financially to pay him say 400k p.a. ? Maybe he still would have moved for the challenge, but it would have been a much harder decision for him.

You make it sound easy! Don't you think Wigan, and every other club, are already trying that? Whatever one's opinion of IL, there's no denying his business acumen.

Isn't that what IL is trying with the likes of Wigan t.v. and Central Park?

If any on here have any good ideas on revenue generation then I'm sure IL and the Wigan board would be more than glad to hear from you.

Wigans merchandise sales have increased by something like a factor of 3 since IL took over, and our marketing is the best in Super League.

Wigan and or or two other clubs have greatly improved their marketing etc but being realistic that is only really appealing to those already interested in the main. I wonder how many new fans have been recruited in the last few years? There is a limit to how much return one club can effectively generate via those methods - especially outside their catchment areas. Although Wigan are trying to generate more via the S Wales plans which in the longer term may help 9although that is so far away as to be a non-starter in raising crowds in Wigan)

I wonder though if clubs could adopt a more pro-active approach at expansion by link ups with amateur clubs nearer to the RL heartlands - the experiences of Wrexham/Crusaders surely showed there was some interest in the North Wales/Chester areas (which do not have large/high profile RU clubs) - perhaps the likes of Wigan / Warrington etc should be trying to create link-ups in these areas?

Sadly I think a lack of vision in the game as a whole will always act as a very effective brake on any club (see Salford).

Not good enough. What happens off the pitch is irrelevant. Why are we trying to promote the club when all we're doing is selling our best players one by one?

We'll be lucky to finish above Salford next season with the sub standard players we are signing.