I'm really biased towards Ian Lenagan. I think he's the best thing to happen to Wigan for a very long time. His predecessors Whelan & Robinson were dreadful for many and various reasons. IL is getting things right.

He's virtually had to build the club from bottom up with not very much money. We didn't even make the £4m minimum franchise level.
He has to start a retail set up now we have the merchandising.
The marketing, already good, is getting better with Mick H on board.
IL's own personal bias towards local produced players and him taking on additional training and fitness staff is what we have all wanted for years.
The accelerate squad is a great innovation and will be worth it's weight when those players develop fully.
As far as recruitment goes he brought in a fair number of players bearing in mind none of the high earners have been off contract in the 17 months he's owned the club. He can't spend money we haven't got.
With all that he's had to do it would have been impossible not to have made mistakes. He should have brought in at least one prop but he never saw it that way from the start.
At his first F Forum IL said "Why do we need props we have eight".
I looked at a fellow fan that I know and we just said almost together, "were ducked, well and truly ducked if he's not bring in any props" or something similar.
That, IMO a mistake, doesn't detract from the great job IL has done since buying the club. I think overall he's getting it right and will bring us back to winning trophies. Also in the not too distant future.
Easy to pin point mistakes but not easy to achieve all that IL has!

Signing Roberts was a big mistake IMO and the terms he has signed for us on are dreadful (4 years)

Just not a necessary signing when we had plenty of players who could cover the position and potential brilliance in the reserves (Ainscough) waiting to come in.

Roberts does seem a bad signing and to a lesser extent Riddell. When Tommy & Ainscough seem able to play those positions perfectly well, but, we cant do anything about that now, which means wherever possible we have to be ruthless and facilitate the release/transfer of players where possible to develop the squad.

One of my major issues with the team at the moment is that they just don't look to have the fitness or power to compete for the full 80 mins against top sides - do you think we have the right people/systems in place now and is it just a matter of time before we see a rise in standards of conditioning?

Again, im not sure how much of this is IL's fault. He isnt a proffessional in this area, so im assuming (and you know what they say about assupmtions), that his wasnt the final decision as to who they employed in this role, i would guess that forshaw had the final say in this as he is the top man at the club with regards to this.

However i do agree that we a lacking in conditioning, and is a point i raised last year at about the same time. We just dont seem to hit the ground running with regards to our conditioning, or our overall performance as a team.

Out of all the teams who are in the league from last year, we are the only ones i have seen aside from bradford (who have injury problems) who are worse than last year!

I would agree to that. I voted for the pack weaknes simply because it's a fact that a) it's weak and b) IL could have done something about it. However I wouldn't like this thread to become a 'criticism thread' as I feel he has done an excellent job so far, pretty much with one hand tied behind his back on most issues. Most of the criticisms have mitigating factors attached so to take them in isolation is probably not the correct way to view them. If the poll were 'are you overall happy with IL's performance to date and confident he is taking the club in the right direction' then I would have say, so far yes.

I voted for extending Nobles contract by 12 months.

So much that is wrong with the current Wigan side comes back to some bad decisions made by Noble who clearly doesnt not know how to build a side.

Mistakes that Nobles made last season have been followed by more errors this season ranging from poor signings to poor tactical decisions.

All of this has been suppoted by IL and you do wonder what Nobles has to do to get the sack, perhaps we just dont want to pay him off.

I think you're viewing this with a touch of hindsight, especially in regard to Riddell.

Riddell would have been signed before the season ended, how many were calling for Leuluai to be moved to hooker at that time? I do realise some thought he may have had the qualities to play there (as I've said before I'm not sure he'll be that good), but until NZ moved him there during the WC ,don't forget he started that tournament as SH, the idea wasn't the shoe in it appears to be now.

The signing of Roberts doesn't surprise me (bar the length of his contract) either really, he's better than Phelps and Pryce, and what if Ainscough had sunk rather than swam, which was possible? The resigning of Mathers was the deal that surprised me.

Your not a million miles off!

Tommy was played as 2nd 9 for last 3rd of last season and Riddell ad been signed already by then, Plus Tommy has mainly been going into 9 25 mins or so into the game, would he have the saem impact from the start?

I don't understand were all this criticism of Roberts comes from, yes he did look a little off the pace 1st 4/5 games but his last 4/5 he's looked sharp (Ok he's not coming in off the Wing to Acting HB and doing a Vainakolo but how many can!) and IMO I think in Gleeson/Roberts we will have a Great Centre/Wing Partnership for the next 3 1/2 years!

The AMthers thing was a strange one I agree but IMO it's the Smith one that has puzzled me!
I can't see a 6/7 in Tommy & Timmy (Not enough Pace or size) and told IL the same, I'm sure with the Mathers/Smith Money and the extra quota spot that would have left us we could ahve looked anywhere for a 6 and got him!

I know were a prop short as well (A Good Prop BTW as we have enough, we just don't have the right one!) but to be IMHO only 2/3 players short of being a VERY Good team after only 18 months in charge I don't think is too bad.

I'm not in favour of owners/management trying to be friends with fans, keeping them upto date with every development at the club, they should be confident in their own leadership and be judged on that performance.

Again that depends on who was available, though I do agree with you on the partnership not looking good, there aren't a great deal of quality 6's around. In that respect I think that we are lucky at Saints to have a decent SO currently (I know that may spark some debate, but Pryce has been consistently the most effective SO in SL for the last 3 years, Barrett only stepped up to the plate for you in the play offs IMO), with the possiblility of Wheeler also stepping up into the first team.



Now, now, don't start getting [itoo[/i excitable

And they always will be judged on their performance, nothing will change that.

Excuses eventually run out.

But there are plenty of people who are.

For what it's worth, IL also gets slagged off in some quarters for not keeping the fans informed enough.

How anyone can ever get the vote of approval at Wigan is beyond me.

I like roberts, don't really understand why he's been criticised after his last 3/4 games. Yes, he was off the pace the first few, but he hadn't had a preseason due to injury, and was coming straight into the team [with bailey as his centre].


How many tries have been scored down that side with gleeson there? how many chances has roberts not put away? He has also had a couple of broken field runs where he has made 50m and given us territory and momentum.

Even though i will get laughed at, I would put him in ahead of Richards at the minute, and i love richards [in a totally manly way of course], even if you include the goal kicking at the minute.

I think imo and also by listening to fans around me its plain to see. were playing behind a beaten pack every week.therefore always putting to much pressure on the rest of the team to keep pulling us out of the s**t. the prioritys got to be two new no nonsense props.unfortunatly that aint guna happen this year.so we've just gotta put up with it till. roll on 2010.