Let’s Start A Proper Debate

[shaunedwardsfanclub]

Who needs to go to create space on the cap for some quality recruitments?

Escaré - no place at fullback so he is a luxury. It looks to me like Wigan are trying to force him out anyway.

Marshall - we cannot carry four wingers and he is not as good as the other three.

Sammut - I know it is early in his Wigan career but he is 30+ and he is not going to get any better.

Nav - taken several steps back from last season. Not big or powerful enough for me.

Powell - gives 100% week in and week out but has not got the skills or speed for such an important position.

Tommy - a great player and club man but a year past his sell by date.

Isa - not good enough to be a centre or big enough to play in the pack.

TT - I can’t understand why he was given a new contract he did nothing to earn it. A shadow of the player at Wakefield.

Clubb - another who is on the way down. His contribution is limited.

Added to the players, we need to question whether Lam is up to it. The likes of Monie and even Wane would have gone back to basics to put things right.

Rads and IFL - they are responsible for letting top players leave and recruiting inferior players. They need to remove their sentimental heads and make some tough decisions. Like it or not, we are in decline!

[Caboosegg]

Who needs to go to create space on the cap for some quality recruitments?

Escaré - no place at fullback so he is a luxury. It looks to me like Wigan are trying to force him out anyway.

Marshall - we cannot carry four wingers and he is not as good as the other three.

Sammut - I know it is early in his Wigan career but he is 30+ and he is not going to get any better.

Nav - taken several steps back from last season. Not big or powerful enough for me.

Powell - gives 100% week in and week out but has not got the skills or speed for such an important position.

Tommy - a great player and club man but a year past his sell by date.

Isa - not good enough to be a centre or big enough to play in the pack.

TT - I can’t understand why he was given a new contract he did nothing to earn it. A shadow of the player at Wakefield.

Clubb - another who is on the way down. His contribution is limited.

Added to the players, we need to question whether Lam is up to it. The likes of Monie and even Wane would have gone back to basics to put things right.

Rads and IFL - they are responsible for letting top players leave and recruiting inferior players. They need to remove their sentimental heads and make some tough decisions. Like it or not, we are in decline!

Escare - should be our fullback, Hardaker has walked in and done?

Marshall - id say hes better than Davis.at the moment but Burgess wants to go back to the NRL so id keep.

Sammut - i dont know why we bothered. Regardless if who we got we need an organisers not a older slower version of williams

Nav - to early in the season to give up on, the fact thats hes not from the wigan youth gives him more chance of adapting to Lams style than others.

Tommy - brilliant defense but i still camt get my head around why we let MM go saying we had Tommy to cover - MM who can do big minutes for Catalan and looked good vs wire.

Powell - must add something we dont see as hes always in the team. I personally dont see anything but then again im not a coach


Isa - good cover and i think we should keep, hes provides good (not great) utility cover Pack/Centre/second row, worth having in a squad for when injuries hit.

TT - so much potential to be a big hit power prop but wayyyy to many handling errors. Time to move on if we are looking at free flowing style of rugby going forward.

Clubb- i personally dont get the hate, hes solid dependable and when it matters puts in the extra effort. Hes never been a superstar but we didnt buy him as one he also aggressive ( go on youtube at the last few games vs saint and watch how much work ge goes through.

Everything about wigans future with IL and Rads is sentimental, Lam a ex wigan player needing experience being replaced by Edwards who IL has a massive man crush for (watch the announcement press release).

All i can say is i prefered the rugby under Wane (who was nowhere near as bad as posters claimed) than what we are getting now.

[medlocke]

Kieran Foran
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves
George Burgess
Elliott Whitehead
Jake Friend

[Wiganer Ted]

We have won one from four, if we only win one from the next four then the debate won't be about players.
Hudds (h) Wire (a) Salford (a) then Catalans (h). After those four its Cas (a) then Saints (h).
Whatever players you have they have to defend collectively.
Last season we could defend, this season we can't.

[fozzieskem]

Escare isn’t a good a fullback as Hardaker,the club bent over backwards for ZH so he’s always going to get the nod,they need to start playing to his strengths maybe?

As for Escare he is a luxury player a bits and bobs player and master of none it seems to me Lam doesn’t rate him because to play him today was a crass bad descion from him.

A winger needs to be sacrificed sadly as Ted says you can’t carry 4 of them not with the production line Wigan have as well.

Navarette is another one who’s gone backwards,I’ve never been convinced by him I never understood why he got such a long contract.

Samutt I suppose there’s still time but to me he’s ordinary and not the answer at all.

[jaws1]

Is Hardaker the problem does not seem up to it yet.

[Caboosegg]

Escare isn’t a good a fullback as Hardaker,the club bent over backwards for ZH so he’s always going to get the nod,they need to start playing to his strengths maybe?

Going to have to disagree, at Leeds and Castleford yes maybe but so far for us no Escare did better last year than Hardaker has this.

If we had to buy a new FB we should have got one that complimented the team, the entire team shouldnt have to change for 1 player.

[EagleEyePie]

Signing Hardaker seemed like a case of jumping at a 'star player' because he was available and presumably cheaper than Tomkins. The concern was always going to be losing Tomkins who was one of our key playmakers and replacing him with Hardaker who definitely isn't a playmaker from what I've seen while we don't really seem to have a halfback who is a natural playmaker.

It's okay saying play to Hardaker's strengths but to do that we need players capable of playing that way. If our halves aren't playing well I'm not sure how much of an impact Hardaker can have.

Now Escare isn't the greatest fullback, but when he got an extended run at fullback he was one of our top players and proved quite a few doubters wrong. He also seemed to have a bit of creativity about him and his kicking game was also a big positive. He lost his position due to a big name and big money player, who was guaranteed to play, returning rather than through poor performances. He's now been replaced by a big name, big money player, who is pretty much guaranteed to play, even though Escare has rarely had a bad game for us.

I can understand why the club wanted to replace Tomkins with a big name signing but part of me wonders whether we'd have been better off investing that money in signing another prop and/or a back row forward and really bolstering the pack. Will Hardaker be able to make a bigger difference than if we'd signed a quality prop or back row forward? Would we have been better off sticking with a player who we know can play well alongside these players than waiting for someone who has been out of the game for over a year to adapt to a new environment and regain form?

I've always thought that a top quality pack adds more to a side than top quality backs.

[josie andrews]

Spot on

[Wigan_forever1985]

I think there are serious problems in Wigans top management structure that are filtering into problems in the team. Rads i feel is completely out of his depth - if like we are led to believe he is the main driver behind the signings then he should be relieved of duty.

I don't think Wigan are not spending money but their investment choices are largely terrible. The biggest issue is we never seem to be addressing our squad issues its just signing for signing sake. As has been stated there was no need to sign Hardaker really, there is no point having the best full back in the league if you have the worst 9 and one of the worst 6/7 combinations. There's no point signing a left centre (sarge) when you already have one of the top prospect left centres and NO right centre. There's no point signing a over the hill x factor player when you already have again one of the better off the cuff players.

Giving a coach a set 1 year contract is a ridiculous decision, they should never have announced Edwards for the following reasons

1) It created an impossible situation for Lam, how is he meant to get his methods through when players no a brand new set of methods are coming very soon

2) Its wasted the chance of good news for a poor season - they played a card they could of used to sell season tickets too early now if we have a bad season the talk will focus on will edwards actually come, or the buzz in general will be gone, it could of been a great get out of jail free card for IL and Rads

There just seems a complete amateurishness about how Wigan are run, the PR the Marketing the Squad everything seems likes its being done by people who arent up to the job