Phone call from Chief Exec!

[DaveO]

So what you're basically saying is that you believe the very first excuse that Dave Whelan has come out with?

What I am saying is what I wrote above. I believe the problem stems from the fact Wigan RL only gave notice less of less than a week.

Whether this short notice is being used as an excuse by DW or whether it really is a problem I have no idea (and neither do you) but it makes no difference and we basically gave him the ammunition.

I have yet to see an official statement from the club on this putting its side of the story as to why the stadium is unavailable. The only thing they have said officially is the stadium is not available, not why.

That's your choice of course - though it totally baffles me given the man's track-record of putting Latics' interests ahead of Wigan's during the last few years.

I saw the TV documentary on DW and am under no illusions as to how he runs things but you are being very selective in ignoring things like transfer fees paid for players like Fielden directly from DW. He has put a lot of money into the club over the years. However his track-record of putting latics first or his investment in Wigan RL is not the issue.

But what about Good Friday next year? How much advance warning did he need for that? You seem to be leading the charge to believe Whelan at present, but thus far I've yet to see an adequate response from you regarding this.

I f it's only about advance notice - what about next Good Friday? Why is that game also going to have to be moved?

What about good Friday? Has it been confirmed we can not play on good Friday? I know he has said Latics have a fixture on the Saturday but unless I have missed it he has not said that means we can't play Friday.

For Heaven's sake, he's doing exactly the same thing to us again, and yet Wigan fans like you still think he's being reasonable.

You are jumping form one conclusion to the next about what I think. I have been discussing this weekends problem not Good Friday. I have said it is not unreasonable to think it is not possible to move a Premier league fixture given less then a weeks notice and it may not be possible to organise staff in less than a week. Nothing to do with any issue with Good Friday if there is one.

Until our club comes out with an official statement as to why the stadium is unavailable which disagrees with what DW says we have only one of the main players giving reasons.

If IL comes out officially and either contradicts DW or makes some statement about why the ground was unavailable anything you or I say as to DW telling lies is pure speculation.

What we do seem to know is:

There is no 24 or 48 hour rule banning us from the pitch.
DW has claimed the reason we can't have the stadium is staff availability to get the stadium ready for Saturday.
He would have moved the soccer game had he been given enough notice.

If our chairman disagrees, fine but Neither you not I know if he does and I find the silence from our club unacceptable. And no phone calls from Mick Hogan don't count.

Dave

[DaveO]

Well the latest from the WEP

http://www.wigantoday.net/warriors/Whel ... iclepage=2

"The ground has staged back-to-back matches in the past but following stinging criticism last season – and after a major summer re-turfing project – Whelan is cautious not to jeopardise the surface.

But he insisted the real reason for this play-off switch was because he hadn't been given enough notice."

Dave

[cpwigan]

Basically we slipped up. We gave a Shark the opportunity to rip us apart and he took it like the nasty vindictive swine that we all know he is. It must never happen again.

[Cruncher]

So what you're basically saying is that you believe the very first excuse that Dave Whelan has come out with?

What I am saying is what I wrote above. I believe the problem stems from the fact Wigan RL only gave notice less of less than a week.

Whether this short notice is being used as an excuse by DW or whether it really is a problem I have no idea (and neither do you) but it makes no difference and we basically gave him the ammunition.

I have yet to see an official statement from the club on this putting its side of the story as to why the stadium is unavailable. The only thing they have said officially is the stadium is not available, not why.

That's your choice of course - though it totally baffles me given the man's track-record of putting Latics' interests ahead of Wigan's during the last few years.

I saw the TV documentary on DW and am under no illusions as to how he runs things but you are being very selective in ignoring things like transfer fees paid for players like Fielden directly from DW. He has put a lot of money into the club over the years. However his track-record of putting latics first or his investment in Wigan RL is not the issue.

But what about Good Friday next year? How much advance warning did he need for that? You seem to be leading the charge to believe Whelan at present, but thus far I've yet to see an adequate response from you regarding this.

I f it's only about advance notice - what about next Good Friday? Why is that game also going to have to be moved?

What about good Friday? Has it been confirmed we can not play on good Friday? I know he has said Latics have a fixture on the Saturday but unless I have missed it he has not said that means we can't play Friday.

For Heaven's sake, he's doing exactly the same thing to us again, and yet Wigan fans like you still think he's being reasonable.

You are jumping form one conclusion to the next about what I think. I have been discussing this weekends problem not Good Friday. I have said it is not unreasonable to think it is not possible to move a Premier league fixture given less then a weeks notice and it may not be possible to organise staff in less than a week. Nothing to do with any issue with Good Friday if there is one.

Until our club comes out with an official statement as to why the stadium is unavailable which disagrees with what DW says we have only one of the main players giving reasons.

If IL comes out officially and either contradicts DW or makes some statement about why the ground was unavailable anything you or I say as to DW telling lies is pure speculation.

What we do seem to know is:

There is no 24 or 48 hour rule banning us from the pitch.
DW has claimed the reason we can't have the stadium is staff availability to get the stadium ready for Saturday.
He would have moved the soccer game had he been given enough notice.

If our chairman disagrees, fine but Neither you not I know if he does and I find the silence from our club unacceptable. And no phone calls from Mick Hogan don't count.

Dave

To be fair, our chairman is in a very difficult position.

As Whelan got his excuses in early, the onus is now on Wigan to either go public and refute these claims (which they seem to have done in private - sorry but you can't just dismiss statements made by the CEO so easily); or hold their hands up and say it's all their own fault.

To do the former would be to call Whelan a liar in public and presumably ruin their working relationship with him; the obvious thing therefore would be to do the latter, but suppose Whelan is lying? - are they supposed to take the rap for someone else's fault, especially when the outcome of it is as grave as this? That would be sheer folly.

You always seem to assume that silence implies guilt. In this case it may just mean that they're stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.

I doubt we'll ever know the truth about exactly what happened last week. But what I find difficult to understand is why you - a Wigan RL fan - seem to be assuming that Whelan, who has a terrible track record in many ways, is a more honest man than Lenagan. The purchasing of players like Fielden etc has nothing to do with it. That was pocket money for Whelan. In any case, he owned the club then and it was in his interests for it to prosper. But when it comes to Latics v Wigan - which is a big issue in this town whether we like it not not - he's completely one eyed.

We've had to give up the right to play our friendles at our home ground. We've had to change mid-season fixtures because the Latics have cut the pitch to shreds. And now - it's all over the message boards that Whelan has expressed doubts about whether Wigan v Saints can be hosted at the JJB next Good Friday. You can't just disregard this as irrelevant - it's exactly the same issue, Whelan giving Latics preferential treatment over a 24-hour 'fixture clash'. As to whether it's true or not, okay he hasn't told me this will happen personally. But everyone's talking about it and I've seen no published denials from him - what does the silence signifiy in that instance?

It isn't just speculation, Dave. Whelan may be a Wigan fan, but he clearly isn't a big enough fan to go an extra yard for us at the most important part of our season.

If you choose not to believe that what this is really about is him wanting to show the FA that he's gettng tough with the rugby, then I think you're being very naive.

[cpwigan]

As Cruncher says you are in a very difficult situation where you have two tennants and one tennant is actually the owner.

I honestly believe that IL/JL on their own was/is not sufficient to deal with the mess that DW/ML created and that Mick Hogan and maybe extra people of that calibre are needed.

Hopefully lessons have been learned because Whelan has in his lifetime sent small businesses to the wall by his underhand antics.

[Big Steve]

I can't believe people are arguing in favour of Whelan in all this.

Whelan (his stadium company) has the final say in whether we can play on the pitch. Nothing at all to do with rules/arranding staff, notice period, etc.

He doesn't want us to play so close to saturday because he got so much stick last year from the rest of the Premier League and the media about the state of the pitch - gary Linaker, Mark Lawrenson, every sunday paper sports writer, all blamed RL for the mudbath.

All his comments are purely a smokescreen, thats why they are so contradictory.
Is anyone stupid enough to think that a man of Whelans position 9with the contracts and contacts already in place, etc) cannot arrange for groundstaff to be in place to get teh pitch ready and caterers in place to sort out extra food etc with 1 weeks notice?

IL cannot go to press and say Dave Whelan is a liar - he has to work with him and the stadium company for the term of the lease and probably beyond. There are certain things that you cannot say in public however much you would like to say them.

[highland convert]

Weather permitting it could have been possible. Game finishes 10pm Sky must clear out their kit. posts and lines must be changed. grass cut and rolled. damage repaired, stadim cleared, dressingrooms cleaned cameras set up, match ready for kick off. in 16 hours not 24 as stated. May be practicle earlier in the season with more daylight but to ask in autumnduring poor weather is stretching the bounds of what is reasonable.

Please note I am siding with Dave on this one.
Fans needed someone to vent on and DW is in the frame.Again.

Do you believe one man made that decission. It would have been discussed round the table with all parties and found impracticable.
Jim

[Cruncher]

Weather permitting it could have been possible. Game finishes 10pm Sky must clear out their kit. posts and lines must be changed. grass cut and rolled. damage repaired, stadim cleared, dressingrooms cleaned cameras set up, match ready for kick off. in 16 hours not 24 as stated. May be practicle earlier in the season with more daylight but to ask in autumnduring poor weather is stretching the bounds of what is reasonable.

Yet they've managed it before - at least twice during the Premiership era.

This issue is not about how much work needs to be done, but about having sufficient time to organise the staff. A week's notice is ample time to mobilise extra staff (I've heard from someone at the club that they actually had longer than a week, because the issue was raised before the St Helens game).

You say it's stretching the bounds of what's reasonable. Yet we're talking about our biggest and most important home-fixture for several years. It's hardly unreasonable of us to ask to be allowed to play it at home.

I think you've got your wires crossed about who's being reasonable and who's being unreasonable here.

Do you believe one man made that decission. It would have been discussed round the table with all parties and found impracticable.

And do you believe that David Whelan ever has round-table conferences and listens to everyone else's opinions? Especially where Latics are concerned? This is a guy who snaps his fingers and things happen.

Again, I'm totally baffled that some Wigan fans are trying to see this from Whelan's blatant blue-and-white perspective.

[gw]

RE: highland convert,

When hull football club and hull FC played on the same day, they had to do all the things you list above in about 2 hours and it easily.

So in theory they could start at dinner time saturday and still get it done!!

If they wanted to that is, they cleary don't!!

[cpwigan]

Cruncher I do not think anybody isseeing it favourably re Whelan. What people are saying is Whelan would rob his own mother if need be. The caveat to that is that IL needed to have everything water tight. He gave Whelan the opportunity to do what he did. I do not think Whelan will ever shaft us again.

A proper chief executive (Hogan) will make a huge difference.