Why fire him with 10 games left of the season? He may as well say to him that his contract isn't going to be extended.

Are you seriously saying that IL hasn’t told BN about his future at the club or that he expects BN to wait until right at the end of the season to sort his future out.

I very much doubt BN hasn’t already have a conversation with IL about his future and isn’t fully aware of what’s going on.

Nor is a top business man like IL going to think that Noble will stay if we can’t get another coach.

It’s obvious to most that BN has already been decided and that he won’t be staying for next season.

It's obvious.

1. You decide if you are going to give BN a deal or not.

2. If you are, you offer him the job and if he accepts goto step 6.

3. If you do not want to give him the job you [utell him[/u and goto step 5

4. If he doesn't want the job any more, goto step 5

5. Start the search for a new coach.

6. Having decided on new coach who accepts the job , get the contracts signed etc

7. Announce it to the fans and media

What you don't do this this:

1. Start the search for a new coach.

2. Offer the job to someone.

3. Tell the world BN can have a job if the results warrant it when he clearly can't if "someone " at step 2 accepts the job.

3. Offer BN a new deal if "someone " at 2 rejects the approach.

The issue of Noble being coach or not next season is a single issue. He is either the right man for the job or he isn't. If he isn't you do not offer him a new deal. Offering him a new deal because any coach you may have sounded out knocks you back will not alter the fact you already decided Noble is not the man for the job. You know it and as it happens Noble now knows it (if he didn't already).

Dave

How do you know that this didn't happen?

But that where i fell IL is not planning for any future. He seems to be going from 1 issue to the next. Coach wise was a simple one. Tony Smith was available last year but IL did nothing. IL reacts to situations rather than plan for them. It was apparent last year that over a season BN struggles to get us to perform. No side out of the top 3 will win SL.

Replace him with who?

Good point as ive heard on here so often how bad Noble is how inept his tactics are. Yet are people now beginning to think that maybe we better hold on to him just incase we cant get anyone. As if Noble is wise enough he will walk from this at the end of this season. If hes not good enough now he wont be good enough in the future at the club. As if he did dtay hed be on a stay of execution and any bad results next season would see people gang up on him.

As a replacement hed be better giving it Wane if he cant get anyother good coach. And let him have a real crack at it. As its apparent that IL has no confidence in Noble. And after all according to some we would be better of without a coach than keep Noble.

What does it matter what IL is telling the media? What matters is what IL is telling the players and the coach. If IL tells the media Noble may be staying, then it should limit speculation linking us with everyman and his dog. If rumours are to be believed then Noble is in full possession of the facts regarding his situation with Wigan and he has been for some time.

~If thats true then fair enough Noble knows.

But we still dont have a coach lined up. And thats the problem if he cant get anyone then why tell Noble hes going to look for a new coach.

I really do feel that we've missed out on Tony Smith

This is the thing, sacking him now would leave us short of a coach, potentially, until the end of the season. Giving the job to Wane would seem to be the logical short term fix but who's to say he'd take it? As has been discussed before, Wane runs his own business and is only part time at Wigan. Would he risk his business to take a temporary job at Wigan? I wouldn't. Maybe IL has already approached Wane about being caretaker coach and they decided it wasn't an option. If that has happened then we don't really have much of a choice and we'll have to let Noble see his contract out.

There are really two schools of thinking on this.

Those who believe that BN was told some time ago that his services won't be required next year, and those who don't believe it.

If you fall into the first camp, all of this stuff is pointless fluff. If you fall into the second camp, it's bad form by IL.

Personally I fall into the first, and regard this whole thing a storm in a tea-cup. In fact, it's not even that, it's a storm in a forum poster's teacup, so it's of even less relevance to the wider world.

Why you would be in the second camp I'm not sure - it's pretty difficult to believe that someone would openly try to replace a senior manager without having told him first (even though Noble himself was allegedly putting himself in the shop window at one stage without having told anyone). Now I can assure people all day that Noble knew the writing was on the wall for him some time ago. But if they're simply going to disbelieve it, there's nothing else really to be said.

So do you think a situation may arise where we "can't get anyone"?

One way or the other, Noble has to go.

You can't hang onto a badly underperforming coach because you're scared that no-one else will take the job.

The reason that I and many others would like somebody from the club to come forward and make a public statement with regards to the position of coach and what sequence of events has happened/ is going to happen to resolve it for next season is not a feeling that the fans are always the last to know and feeling left out (although some people may feel this way).

The issue is with the outward perception of the club and the way it is run. Without clarification this situation and similar ones that have gone before can and will lead to a situation where people's opinions of the club and the people who run it are negatively affected. The chairman has made some statements in the media that appear to be contradictory to his actions and so people start to wonder what is going on and to doubt how he is treating his staff.

The image of the club in the eyes of potential employees is the really important issue as if the club is considered as a result of such situations to be not entirely honest with regard to availability of new contracts then surely a prospective coach/player would choose another club where they would not be worried that they may be left in the dark or replaced behind their back when coming to the end of their proposed contract. I'm not saying these things are happening but people are beginning to assume that they are as this board demonstrates.

It is unclear what exactly has happened in the case of the coach's position but to leave it unclear to all outsiders only leads people to draw their own conclusion and in many cases this will make their opinion of the club worse. I can't see any way it could improve someone's opinion of the club.

Yes i do think were getting to the time where its starting to look like we cant get anyine. Kearney though did a great job with NZ he had Bennett with him. And Bennett is an all time great coach. So in reality Kearney would be an untested coach as Wane would be.

As for Noble its being apparent for a while hes not going to get us to challenge at the top of SL. So a change is needed but it needs to be dealt with a lot better than it has been.

As I said in another post, we all have our entrenched views on this. You aren't going to change mine, nor me yours. But just because one coach - who's on the verge of being offered the NZ job - has turned us down, doesn't mean that others will.

Correct. At the moment it is still (just) a plum job. The last problem we should expect is a poor quality of successor to Nobby.

Exactly, Kearney is on the verge of an NRL chance, i have no doubt he has something lined up so why would he come to Wigan.

There are plenty of other targets out there, we do not even know if Kearney was our first choice, simply that we enquired as to his interest, which i am sure we have done to several other coaches then with all interested parties logged we would enter into the selection and negotiation process.

Added to this of course would be the enquiries into the club should they wish to advertise the post. There would be the usual dross but also some applicants worthy of consideration IMO.

Steve folkes not available? He would do ok for you

So why didn't IL just come out and say this? He'd have more respect if he came out and said that we wouldn't be offering BN another contract and that the search had started for a replacement. Instead, it appears that he went on the radio and made it appear that Noble could get an extension on the basis of results. Okay, so that's not a problem now, because our results have been pants, but if IL had already decided this prior to the interview, then why cover it up?

On the other hand, the reasons the process is neither nice and linear or completely transparent are: (1) he doesn't want to make a public announcement about Noble leaving the club until he has a replacement, and (2) he's still negotiating with interested parties.

Do you work in computing perchance?

I don't know. But it all depends on what was said to Noble in private - that's what really matters. My info is that this was all dealt with at that level several weeks ago.

IL's comments, such as they were, don't look particularly good, but I don't see how publically stating that Noble won't be at Wigan next year could be seen in a much better light. It would still have been hugely embarrassing for the guy.

I'd imagine that if we'd gone on to win the CC (which won't happen), and the GF (which we now probably won't even quality for), then something might have changed. But otherwise, everyone in Wigan must have known perfectly well that Noble was going.

I'm quite amused by all the people suddenly rushing to defend Noble's honour in all this. We should remember that, almost from the beginning of his time at Wigan, there have been stories that he's been applying for other jobs. There've also been his highly unprofessional bleatings to the press and to groups of drunken fans. He hasn't conducted himself particularly well, and that's before we even take into account his poor coaching.

People keep saying that this is irrelevant to the issue. I don't think it is. Sometimes you make rods for your own back, and I don't think Brian Noble has helped his case at all this last season.

Sums up my thoughts perfectly.

If results are still house by the end of the season and he didn't line up an alternative, some of the same people would criticise him for having no plan B. It's obvious certain posters have really got their knickers in a twist about Lenagan and have an agenda to whinge about him whatever he does. It really does make them look silly.

Pemps - how about a Whinging Wiganer t-shirt line? You'd sell thousands.

That is the point though. You can't negotiate with interested parties and hope to keep it secret. It all came out over the Higham thing he was not going to be here and the same has happened with Noble.

No one is suggesting IL says who he is negotiation with by the way just that if Noble is no longer wanted then that is made clear to all parties and that the search for a new coach has begun. I cannot see what is wrong with that straightforward and above board approach.

What you certainly can't do and IMO expect to pull off, is offer the job to someone else and hope if they knock you back your current coach doesn't find out about it so you can keep him on, which is I think, was one of the suggestions being made as a reason for IL to prolong the myth Noble gets to keep his job if results are good enough.

As I have said if IL decided Noble was no longer the man for the job than that ought to the end of Noble's time here. Keeping him on because no one else turned out to be interested ought not to be an option.



Yes but I will get fired for using goto's



Dave

Well plan A is clearly to get a new coach.

What is plan B?

Dave

Is it?

You know that for certain?

Of course you don't, but why let the facts get in the way of a good whine.

Why would anyone conclude plan A is not to replace Noble when IL has offered the job to Kearney?

To suggest otherwise is simply not being plausible. So what would plan B be again?

Dave

Surely IL wouldn't have question Kearney about the job at all if he wasn't looking for a new coach

Unless you are suggesting that its Noble that wants out of Wigan and IL is having to scout around?? (Noble has a nerve if this is the case)

That said i believe Brian will have been first to know either way re his position for next season after the board came to a decision.