I suppose you're right. Then there's Trump, Brexit and global warming. Don't get me going on ball tampering ... oh and flamin' Christmas. I may not be leaping up and down with excitement but I can understand why Kevin Brown was signed. It's to do with being short of half-back options at the start of the season.

So do you think that blowing rumoured £100k on a stop gap is sensible, not for me, would rather have thrown £100k at Wakey for Miller and even that would have had me underwhelmed

Quoting yourself?...
You must be fed up,
W/O has a 22" he could put your way allegedly. If it wasn't breaking forum code.
Or since we're talking mediocrity lately, you can always hold out for the wooden nose.

This has left weird way behind...

Really????

Failure - LLS winners and runners up in the other 2 comps.

Try sod all for most of the 90s and 00s.

Pack has been strengthened.
Backs the same as last year but with Toby K more experienced.
Gidley and Dec were a good pair when they played.

We will miss Sandow. Until injured he was virtually unplayable. Can't understand those who say he only played a couple of good games for us.

Losing Currie and Ratch is a blow also.

Others have strengthened well so I doubt we'll do as well as last season but I can still see us being in a shout for silverware in 2017.

Trouble is the club had half an inkling this may happen as "they were not surprised", this implies they considered it would. So was there mitigation and planning for this eventuality? Did we seek reassurances before the "first day back" date that he would appear? Or was the "not surprised" really a throwaway comment and they were indeed surprised and left scrabbling around in the left luggage for a Louis Vuitton only to find an ASDA bag for life.

I don't think the money is a problem at all. I think we have plenty and the £100K, of course, won't count on Salary Cap. I'd have preferred Miller ... as he'd be a longer term option but Wakefield would obviously not let go. We might get him one day. He's good and a real running half back.

I just don't get why anyone has to be signed. I get that we need a bit of cover at the start of the season so why not just bring someone in on loan? Ryan Brierley on loan would have got me more excited than Kevin Brown signed up on a full contract.

The question "The half back solution" should never be answered by the suggestion of Kevin Brown at £100k plus wages. An absolutely appallingly bad business decision if it goes ahead.

Did we not sign the most promising new half back from Leeds?

Cor there's a scoop. I never realised Ryan Brierley was available on loan and then you could send him back when not required. We missed out on that one. What else don't we know?

Brad Dwyer too, no?

If you're so confident then how about this.

If George Williams signs for Wire before 1st Jan 2018 I'll donate £50 to your nominated charity.
If George Williams doesn't sign for Wire before 1st Jan 2018 you donate £50 to Joining Jack.

I'll post this on the Wigan board as well so that you don't miss it.

'"

£50 ... The last of the big spenders. I didn't know things were that bad up north.
If I was a betting man I would have made it £500.

I'm not a betting man (I'm a poor pensioner

) , but I thought this was worth it for charity, particularly Joining Jack.

Ha ha. Good job nobody challenged you £50 to explain why Chris Bridge should have been sent off. Could also challenged you about saying Warrington would go bust on the back of image rights tax ruling or Warrington not being in a position to compete for at least five years because our team was so old with Morley, Monaghan etc.

At the end of the day Rubber Duck posts on here plenty of rumours he hears and to be fair he has a strike rate a lot better than a broken clock. Whether the Brown signing not happening and Williams signing ahead of November 2017 pre-season was his finest moment is very debatable.

You can be pretty sure that Warrington's interest in Williams will have forced the strained finances at the Dave Whelan Stadium to stretch that little bit more than they wanted to.

That's my post of the year by some margin.

Williams leaving Wigan may or may not happen. It certainly won't happen before the end of this coming season.

However, what is certain and undeniable is that Wigan can only have one marquee player and that, at present is NOT Williams. So it IS likely that he will be off somewhere else for 2018 - whether this is Warrington or Leeds or whoever is irrelevant.

And it is this likelihood that makes Wigan fans nervous and defensive. And we would be just the same if it was Currie or similar.

So maybe we can give all the betting talk a rest now.

That's right. It's a failure as we failed to achieve the objective which was to win it. Quite simple really. I saw on one of the Warrington facebook posts that some chap thought this was a "brilliant" season. I think Leeds' 2015 could be described as that, not Wires' 2016.

However, I have not forgotten the past where we would have only dreamt of Wire competing at the level they are currently. We have become a member of the big 4.

Didn't realise our history only went back 20 years!



If we are only focussing on the SJM days then every year has been an outright failure by your definition.....
That's OTT in my view.

We need to win the GF - that's clear, but I think every top side probably has the same or very similar goal.
This year our side was arguably the strongest in the league given the injuries. (Maybe Hull could claim that).
We blew the GF but getting to 2 finals and winning the LLS is not - for me - outright failure.

It's not a failure but to hit only one of the objectives and probably 3Rd choice one at that it's hardly a successful season either.

I'd say it's a season where we arguably underachieved given the side we had. And a team who ground out wins under the adversity of injured players going into most games with 3/4 first team players missing won the grand final!! Not sure if people knew bout the Wigan injuries!!

I hope brown can be that somthing that we lack in tight games where we need an edge in the last 10m area. Not sure I see where the contract length puts the Williams signing for 2018 now tho and where this puts Patton for 2018/9

I think Wigan's method of grinding out wins last season was just that ,a way of winning while pulling the wool over the eyes of opposing teams. They soon found an effective plan B for the play offs & final ,when it was needed.

As for the Wire & silverware ,it is very nice to win a trophy or two, but if the team can entertain me for 30+ games a season i am more than happy.

I think that anyone who comes on here and says last season was a failure is just trying to be argumentative, anyone with any brain cells knows that in a 12 team comp to finish top after 27 games and reach 2 finals is a dam good season. I understand everyone including me wants see wire win the GF, but they are 1 off games and you can not criticise recruitment or coaching ability or player development from 1 match. If Currie stretches over, if Atkins gathers the ball round his ankles, we win the Treble. To be 2 incidents away means we were very close and by far the best team in the league.

You are Tony Smith, and I claim my £5
You cannot criticise recruitment from 1 match. We're not. The season has done that for us. Likewise coaching ability.

We've proved we don't have the gumption or nous, to close big games out, when it matters. This has been evident for 4 years.

We'll NEVER have a better opportunity to win the GF, and we blew it. Take off your P&B tinted glasses, and get up from your Tony Smith duvet, and realise WE LOVED UP, and he's responsible.

Never mind, we go again in February. Same old Wire.

It wasn't a failure, however I consider it extremely disappointing.
I expected far more.