Such a condescending attitude, i don't bow to anybody..... Do you really believe there are stacks of Dr's out there willing to throw money at rugby League.... Its not money coming into RL that would be the problem, its the clubs who will sit and moan and do nothing, they have been the cause of the current situation. You are directing your ire at the wrong people.

IF IL sells Wigan at a profit, good luck to him. He can only do that if Wigan are successful, which I am sure we all want to see (or there is some mug who is starry eyed)

Put the season tickets up and see what happens, the moaners on here will have a field day.

I don't have a problem with IL selling players at a profit, providing that money is invested wisely back into the club, that's business.

The better players in the U16 side are NOT from the Wigan area, so how do we fund the scouting/recruitment of these juniors. Do we honestly believe we wave the we are Wigan flag in their faces?

Ryan Hampshire is the outstanding talent in the U19's, from Wakefield, Rob Lever is from St. Helens. Bradley Mais is from Wales etc etc. This is where the money was and should be invested.

I really cant believe the attitude of some who want things to stay as they are. Players are now getting paid far less in real terms than 10 years ago and the way that some people are talking they would be quite happy for the salary cap to stay at its current level forever with young players being paid peanuts and being treated as cannon fodder. Others are talking like average players like Tuson dont deserve more in pay because it wont make them a better player and that only star players or 1 marquee player deserves a raise. Does the same apply to them in their jobs? Have they had pay cuts for 10 years in a row? I would actually welcome players going out on strike to get the salary cap lifted or abolished. If we wait until the bottom clubs catch up then the salary cap will never be increased because we have had 10 years and if anything they are now further away.

People talk about attracting sponsors and corporates but a race to the bottom certainly wont do that. The big sponsors and companies want top be associated with a quality product, paying players peanuts, having no stars and having teams made up of kids certainly wont do this. If Koukash wants to plough millions into Rugby League then good on him, the game certainly needs the money and I am sure a few clubs would welcome the transfer fees that may come their way. If Moran wishes to do the same by some sort of sponsorship deal then fair play to him. Who knows this may encourage over benefactors too to come into the game. The game has to raise across the board in just about everything that it does and it certainly isnt going to do this with the salary cap in place as it is now.

In Super League today to cut costs we dont have a proper reserve competition and squads are way too small because of the salary cap meaning that after a few injuries kids are played, many of which are no where near ready, which constantly means a huge reduction in playing standards and intensity. This is only going to get worse with experienced players going to the NRL and being replaced by even more youngsters who in general wont be as good and may not even be ready. Some people are living in a fantasy world where we are just competing with fellow Super League clubs when we are not at all, we are competing with RU and the NRL.

Really? Jesus Christ the average Wigan fan must be seriously skint then.

Going off Wigan's 2011 accounts the club owed its parent company (Lenegan Holdings or something like that) about £1.5m ie the amount of Lenegan's wealth he has put into the club under that one heading let alone the money he paid to Whelan and in paying off Whelan's loans to the club. Now Lenegan is no Abramovich and that represents a serious amount of his total wealth.


I'm sure many know I'm no big fan of Lenegan and certain decisions he actively supported but quite honestly some of the rubbish you are spouting on here is unbelievable. You don't have a clue how lucky you are to have Lenegan in charge of your club.


ps stop can people please stop including Moran in the "old boys club"

pps can we see how much Koukash spends before buying into his self-publicity.

I think that is pretty astute. Wigan can exist at the top end of the SL despite losses to the NRL and despite the fact wages have dropped in real terms for years and we just can't compete with for the best players. Some will be happy with this if we win a CC or GF ignoring being the best in a poor competition is not indicative of a healthy sport.

As I have said IL has done a lot right here. Building up the Orrell facility and plenty of other things such as having the vision to give Madge the coaching job. However when it comes to wider issues of the sport in general he is falling short IMO and does not seem progressive. I don't expect him to fund an increased saalry cap out of his own pocket but I do expect him to work to find funds to increase it, not asking what why would he want to pay more money. The answer to that is obvious.

Nobody's asking for it to stay the same. What we all want is more investment from the RFL. The game cannot sustain 14 teams.
They screwed up with the Stobart deal, we have no major sponsor.

Fylde_Warrior complains about doffing the cap but then wants to Dr K to have a free hand to spend as much as he wants. Salford fans will be on bended knee.

Just out of interest, what is Lenegan's total wealth?

Based on the quotes in the article IL falls into the first category.

Absolutely correct. I'm not sure if it's hilarious, worrying or sad.

Probably a combination of all 3.

Some people simply cannot understand that RL has been spoon fed an artificial competitive advantage for the vast majority of it's entire life. Those days are now gone.

As a recent RL convert, I think the salary cap is working for RL as a whole but it does have some problems.
Without the cap, the best players would be concentrated into 2 maybe 4 clubs and it would be like the Scottish Premier League (pointless as a competition lets turn up for the playoffs).
Clubs would be living on the edge of financial ruin to compete and we would see more going bust. That can't be good for the game. IMO this would lead to greater player drain, as they would have to leave to achieve their rugby ambitions.
While I Dont like the comments IL made financially it makes sense. IMO IL is doing a good job for wigan within the current limits and constraints.
RL is a great product which IMO is being mismanaged by RFL, to increase the salary cap we need to get more money into the game as a whole not individual clubs.

The pro / anti IL debate is a distraction. Few people with maybe one exception are 100% anti-IL. Posts going off on a tangent accusing people of disagreeing with IL on the issue being discussed for all sorts of odd reasons just don't deal with the issue at all.

Correct me if I am wrong but I seem to recall you have been a big supporter of the salary cap in the past? If so does that mean you agree with IL's comments? I'd be far more interested to hear your views on that than a have a lecture on how lucky we are to have him.

Not sure but from memory he sold his business interest and netted around £20m for his share of the business (although I have no idea whether the original management buy-out he lead was debt funded and there was outstanding debt to pay off or how much, if any, capital gains tax he'd pay on this). I'd imagine you're probably looking at somewhere around the £25m'ish area but pure guesswork at the end of the day (although slightly educated guesswork).