IMO

[slimshady]

Oh get real people! dont you read any posts on here re Mr Fieldon.Does £250,000 ring a bell?.
The man has not delivered for 2.5 seasons.We have to put up with his half-hearted performances for yet another season. And yes this thread has degenerated into another Fielden rant.

This is nothing more than a rumour and it has never been confirmed. Bailey was supposed to be on the highest contract not Fielden. The truth is contracts are between the club and the player and not based on hearsay in the pub.

[Fozzius]

Im not a regular poster, I do however read every day.Im not an aficionado on RL being a new convert, but what I cant get my head round is why there has to be so much back biting and bitching and anti feeling , not only to other posters but to players, I thought this was a "fan based" site and surely that would mean enjoyment.Dont get me wrong I have learned enough, fast enough, to realise we dont like certain other teams players and even other teams but to bash our own seems to me a little sad or possibly I am missing the point.
Think I'll stick to reading....

Most message boards are like that; it's really no different from having a debate with someone in the pub or wherever...there are always going to be a few who take offence at people having different opinions to their own.

The people who "bash" our own players do so because they want our club to be successful again, and realise that we need to improve in certain positions. If all our players were above criticism, that would presumably imply that they had no need to improve, which clearly isn't the case.

I quite agree, and sympathise with your comment that it's degenerated into yet another Fielden thread - but taking it more generally, people who give their opinion that one player is better than another aren't necessarily "bashing" the other player, although it's often seen that way by those who think we have the perfect team already.

For example, half way through the season, was it genuinely bashing Tim Smith to say that he was limited in attack and poor in defence, and that Sam Tomkins was the better option? I think that's been more than proven correct. Karl Pryce is another who gets a fair amount of bashing, yet can anyone genuinely say he's been up to standard in any of the games he's played?


AS in any form of employment, praise or criticism is earned by performance, and the vast majority of posters on here are quick to praise players they've previously criticised, if their performance warrants it (or vice-versa, of course). Not just players, either: Nobby was practically hero-worshipped in his first half-season here, but as performances and results steadily worsened, so the bashing began; not that anyone had anything against him, just that the feeling was that the club would do better with someone else in charge. Conversely, Ian Lenagan came in for a lot of criticism early on, for a variety of reasons, but his recent actions seem to have met with pretty much unanimous approval.

Absolutely spot on !!:D

[old hooker]

I think you are spot on. Am also a "reader" and not a "poster" however have been a Wigan Rugby League fan for 17 years and enjoy reading the sensible posts (CP Wigan being a leading light......)

Wiganers are passionate and in the main knowledgable about their Rugby League, however there is also more than a minority that are extremely fickle and would prefer to be critical about players than complimentary. For example, Martin Offiah (the player, not the agent...) got a bit of a hard time recently on here because his defence was a bit ropy! Given the amount of times he won matches for Wigan with his brilliance, the incredible tries he scored and entertainment he provided, you would have thought he would be exempt from such critisism, sadly not.

Stuart Fielden takes some almighty stick, not just on here but at Wigan in general. Stuart would admit himself that he has not hit the heights at Wigan that he did for Bradford, however this is not due to lack of effort - watch the lad play and his problems are clear; he is in such pain at times that he winces when he gets up to play the ball; he plays injured week after week for the Wigan cause, often with pain killing injections. Yes, his reward for doing so is imbalanced compared to others, however this is not his doing and he does not deserve to be lamented by others who would not have the bravery to play the game at the level Stuart has. He is a good person who is always to put his hand up for charity (remember the Lee Radford boxing match? You will see him in a "risque" calender for the Steve Prescott Foundation soon also".)How many of his critics give their time up for charity? Similarly, are they the best in their field at work? Do they turn up and give maximum effort day after day for their company. I suspect not.

Here is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt that says it all for me:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

I will leave it at that.........

So we will go out and sign some really nice guys who do lots for charity but cant play rugby,then all is ok.