The plot thickens. The editor of League Express (Martyn Sadler) has just tweeted in response to the official statement: https://twitter.com/MartynSadler/status ... 65762?s=19 Quote On the subject of the ownership of the Wigan club, I stand by my sources. Ian Lenagan has been a great club owner, but he is now 75 years old and he is planning for the future of the club, which is why he brought Mike Danson in to his company last year. Let's see what unfolds. Sometimes the details of a story can be denied, while the broad truth of it is correct. Ian planning for the future prosperity of the club, inevitably with a new owner at some point, is entirely logical and Mike Danson would, I'm sure, be a great successor to Ian. '"

The plot thickens. The editor of League Express (Martyn Sadler) has just tweeted in response to the official statement: https://twitter.com/MartynSadler/status ... 65762?s=19 Quote On the subject of the ownership of the Wigan club, I stand by my sources. Ian Lenagan has been a great club owner, but he is now 75 years old and he is planning for the future of the club, which is why he brought Mike Danson in to his company last year. Let's see what unfolds. Sometimes the details of a story can be denied, while the broad truth of it is correct. Ian planning for the future prosperity of the club, inevitably with a new owner at some point, is entirely logical and Mike Danson would, I'm sure, be a great successor to Ian. '"

He’s not lying down Sadler. He posted on the Total RL forum that you can’t sell what’s already been sold and says the wording of the club press release has been cleverly put together.

Very strange.

Quote ="MattyB"The plot thickens. The editor of League Express (Martyn Sadler) has just tweeted in response to the official statement: https://twitter.com/MartynSadler/status ... 65762?s=19 '" That quote smacks of if you wait long enough Ian Lenegan will sell the club and I'll be proved right. Maybe the succession plans are in place and the club will change hands over the next couple of years. but that's not what was implied by the League Express story. I for one am glad Ian Lenegan is staying on, he's done a really good job so far, long may it continue

Quote ="MattyB"The plot thickens. The editor of League Express (Martyn Sadler) has just tweeted in response to the official statement: https://twitter.com/MartynSadler/status ... 65762?s=19 '" That quote smacks of if you wait long enough Ian Lenegan will sell the club and I'll be proved right. Maybe the succession plans are in place and the club will change hands over the next couple of years. but that's not what was implied by the League Express story. I for one am glad Ian Lenegan is staying on, he's done a really good job so far, long may it continue

Agreed, obviously IL isn't going to live forever but that's not how the article came over.

Absolutely.

Let's not beat around the bush here - Sadler has been personally called out and shown up as a 2nd rate journo. Instead of posting unsubstantiated rumours, why's he not reached out to IL for comment? Now he's "sticking by his sources" which means he's too proud to admit that he's dropped a clanger and will keep digging.

It's laughable really. If we take this stance we can all be gutter journalists too. In fact I'd like to take this opportunity to drop the bombshell that at some point in the future, all the current Wigan squad will one day leave the club.

All for the NRL probably knowing Lenegan.

I don’t know if it’s good news or not to be honest.

Not because I want IFL out or anything like that (the opposite is true) but because it now places the club in uncertainty and the rumours of IFL selling up aren’t going to go away. Whether Sadler has acted on a zero truth, half truth, full truth or something in between - it’s come from somewhere. There’s probably been at least a discussion surrounding it.

I’m glad IFL is staying, I really am but this conversation isn’t going to go away. As has already been pointed out, he’s no spring chicken, plans for the future for him personally will be a foot. For me this statement doesn’t add stability, if anything it creates more confusion. Just my opinion of course.

I’d probably look at it feeling a bit more confident about the future. We have a guy involved who is absolutely minted and owns 25% of us. To have a man with that wealth interested in the club is so positive and it hopefully gives us a natural succession plan when Lenagan does step away. He is nearly 20 years younger than Lenagan and is maybe getting to an age where he will have more time on his hands in future years. It certainly seems better than having nobody interested in the club and wondering where we go once Lenagans time is up.

Well, if it does cause confusion, it's entirely down to Martyn Sadler.

I'm sure there are some so-called fans out there who will already be looking at ways to twist this thing into being IL's fault. But it doesn't matter how good you think your source is, no journalist should ever publish without giving the target of gossip the opportunity to offer their own side of the story.

It's not just good ethics, it covers you against farcical situations like this ... where you're not only having to defend your front page story, but are also unable to provide evidence with which to do so.

Has anybody come in to take Latics over yet ?

All gone very quiet on that front, last I saw an ex-player was leading a bid.

the worst run administration I can remember

Oh absolutely, I completely agree. The only thing that ebbs away at me is that whether Sadler is bang on the money or not, the story has come from somewhere and because it’s been broken, it won’t be going away. I might be way off here but it could even be a seed planted to put the idea of selling, and the pressure attributed to it, public. Once the chatter starts, the pros and cons get discussed over and over again, questions constantly asked by the press and fans it’s only natural for the ‘receiver’ to start thinking “what if?”. That’s pure speculation on my part.

Thankfully here, on the face of it anyway, it’s a good news story for us either way. IL wants to sell to a Wigan born multi billionaire or IL is staying with the Wigan born multi billionaire as an investor.

We all know how close the Yorkshire trade press to the mafia clubs that side of the hills.
It appears Sadler messed up.
Nothing else to report.

Sadler may have got it wrong, but has anyone considered that he may have got the story from what he considered to be a reliable source here in Wigan?

Why is it worth £10 million big debts losing money no real assets ?

I suspect you don't really want the true answer
But before we start, Big debts? Really?

I'm sure lots of people have considered it, because if he didn't get it from somewhere he just made it up.
The question is, are you suggesting that someone in particular at Wigan fed him the story? If so who and why?
Wherever he got it from he was wrong

That’s what I’ve been insinuating. It’s come from somewhere, he’s not S*n type journo just to make something up

So if he hasn't made it up, he's spoken to someone who either has, or has spoken to someone who has spoke to someone else who has etc.

The headline was "On the verge of selling", unless he sells in the next 3months I would suggest he isn't "on the verge".
He then said he was "Succession planning", well if he wasn't then I'd be worried, most people are succession planning.
He then claimed " I think he's already sold it". So which is it? Is he on the verge, or has hearsay sold it? If he has already sold it I'm sure companies House, the tax,legal etc people will be interested to know.

A suspect there could well be an element of truth in this story.

Lenagan could well be selling more equity in Lenagan investments to fund a purchase of Latics and the stadium? Danson has already invested 2.5m. Lenagan could sell another 2.5m and still retain control. Is Lenagan potentially brokering a deal which brings Danson in at almost 50% to fund latics purchase? Admins want £3m for the lot and enough to cover their ongoing losses. If Lenagan had 4-5mil from Danson's investment, plus a small injection of cash himself, that could easily be achieved.

The fact Danson's lawyers were pouring over a data room for Wigan RL would be enough to set Journos off that its a full blown sale, and there is often some truth to these stories. I suspect this could be part of a larger plan to acquire latics.

75yr old bloke planning for life after a lifetime running successful businesses. Absolute common sense.

Personally I'd rather IL sells up whilst he still has time to sit back and enjoy the rest of his life - and I'm sure he has a plan in place for this. I certainly dont want him turning into a Whelan-type owner which was pretty cringeworthy towards the end of his tenure at the Latics.

duplicate post

Definitely. I would go further than that and say Lenaghan is the single best thing to happen to our club in the last 25-30 years. He is probably the best administrator the club has ever had, possibly in Wigan RLs top ten most influential people in terms of contribution to the club. Strange for someone who is non-playing, but I would put him up there in a list with people like Jim Sullivan, Maurice Lindsay etc.