Why are we not able to retain players?

[Kaii]

I know I am the happiest of clappers, but the only aspect of this that annoys me is the amount of uncertainty that surrounds our club seemingly compared other clubs whose business seems much less dramatic.

Every club has this rubbish going on rugby and football, blame the internet

Far from it, anything connected to this great club was scrutinised on every shop floor of factories, in local pubs / WMC before internet

Yes blame the internet, you don't get the keyboard warriors talking crap when it's face to face. People on the net set themselves up as experts using their greatest tool google. A simple question of "did you go the match" has them running for cover or they wait until Wigan tv show the first set of 2 minute highlights to lay judgement on how we played. Don't ever remember having long chats about the clubs budget before the net arrived

[Dobby]

Well we are going backwards in a declining competition. Thus far in the WCC and CC we have come up empty leaving only the SL GF to aim for.

Agreed, if people think we can seriously keep contending when we lose 3 or 4 senior players every season then they are dreaming.

Some people think they can be replaced by youngsters but we will never have enough youngsters coming through each year to do this. Even some of the youngsters that are playing now are ideally 2 or 3 years off and others probably never will be. If they are coming into a team that is getting poorer and poorer every season they are going to struggle much more than they are now, no matter how good they are. This has been seen many times in the past in all sports and at Wigan in the not too distant past.

That brings us to recruitment and we will certainly not keep up if our entire recruitment is based on signing people solely on them being cheap such as James, Sarginson, Gelling, Clubb etc. Again these kind of players can do a job as backup but when you are getting more and more of them as starting players it is no wonder the team is getting worse.

[Kaii]

That brings us to recruitment and we will certainly not keep up if our entire recruitment is based on signing people solely on them being cheap such as James, Sarginson, Gelling, Clubb etc. Again these kind of players can do a job as backup but when you are getting more and more of them as starting players it is no wonder the team is getting worse.

Where you saying the same when we beat stains, Leeds & wire?

[DaveO]

That brings us to recruitment and we will certainly not keep up if our entire recruitment is based on signing people solely on them being cheap such as James, Sarginson, Gelling, Clubb etc. Again these kind of players can do a job as backup but when you are getting more and more of them as starting players it is no wonder the team is getting worse.

Where you saying the same when we beat stains, Leeds & wire?

They were great wins but none of them counted for as much as today.

[curryman]

We seem to have a big issue retaining players once they get to their mid 20's and seem reluctant to pay players what they worth. I personally think its a mixture of money and the way players are treated. People can rave about Burgess, Hampshire et al but the way things stand they will all be away by their mid 20s too, if not before.

There seems to be a philosophy that everyone is replaceable, and that may be true to an extent. However it is not true, in my opinion, when you are losing 3,4 or 5 players out of your starting 17 every season. I really think we are getting to that tipping point where we are losing far too many players and are getting to the stage where there are very few senior players left who know the culture of the club and who can help the younger players.

I totally agree, I have been saying the same thing myself for the last two years.

I realise clubs are in an economic struggle with the way gates are falling, but other teams seem to be able to retain their best players, where we fail.

Look at Leeds, the core of their team has been together for the best part of a decade. Look at us, every year the talk is of who is the next to leave. The last two years have seen a massive exodus of experience and talent that hasn't been properly replaced. This year would have been Charnley heading for the exit if he had not been injured and who knows who else? Talk is of Taylor leaving, Hampshire, Powell, we are reaching the point where our future stars seem to be looking to leave before they have even established themselves in the game.

Of these, the one I would most sympathise with wanting out right now is Hampshire. He is excellent every time he plays, but then Wane drops him again straight away - eg top notch at Salford, doesn't feature at Huddersfield and then spends 65 minutes of the Cas game warming up on the touchline whilst we are crying out for his pace and flair in the heat of the battle.

It feels like something is wrong within the club and the impact of allowing our experienced star players to leave without being properly replaced was clear to see yesterday and will come back to haunt us again before this season is over.

[cpwigan]

The worrying potential end result IMO is a feast and famine yo yo effect season after season; great success one season followed by no success the season after.