Quote Hoofer="Hoofer"Cruncher, Don't totally disagree, but the solution will medium or long term, not short term.
We had some damn successful coaches from elsewhere back in the 70's slump who could do nothing at Wigan because of the shambles the club was in.
Vince Karalius told me it wasn't until he'd ben hired that they told him he didn't pick the team!'"
Yeah, but to be fair, that isn't happening now.
I don't know exactly what goes on behind the scenes at Wigan, but several aspects of the club which previously were a disaster are now running pretty well. Marketing, communications etc, being good examples.
Okay, that's not the only important thing. But I don't think you can really blame the chairman for dreadful team performances without some hard facts to back it up. I've never seen any evidence that there is interference in team matters from the top floor. Quite the contrary. One of the coaching staff said to me recently: "Nobby runs everything." Recruitment is apparently a joint-effort. Noble is never left out of it, which is something that happened more than once during the Lindsay / Robinson / Monie era (the signing of Andrew Farrar being a classic example).
One of the problems in the Vince Karalius days was that the club wouldn't spend any money. When John Bevan was in dispute with Warrington and they put him on the transfer list at £20,000 - an absolute steal, even in the mid-70s - Wigan decided it was too expensive. These days, while we might not be prepared to pay £250,000 + for players, we still spend right up to the salary cap. We don't skimp, and have got a sizeable squad as a result (most of whom, on paper at least, are better than average).
For me, one of the most worrying incidents in recent times was the bollocking that IL gave the players after the Huddersfield game last year. He got slagged off for it in some quarters, even though it apparently galvanised the team into reaching the GF semi, but my main concern was why was the head-coach not doing that? Are IL's bollockings more effective than Nobby's? Is he more committed to Wigan than Nobby?
That's the impression I get sometimes. An impression reinforced by Nobby's regular bleatings to the press, which seem to signify that his personal wrangle with the chairman is more important to him than the club's public profile.
But even if you don't like IL and can produce factual evidence as to why he's bad for Wigan, wanting him out is likely to be a futile exercise. He owns us. And even if he decides to sell, I can't see buyers queuing up during a recession. Big Dave would probably step back in, and God help us then.
