: Wed Jan 14, 2009 6:44 pm
So for some clarification of what happened then. (I was not there so I'm only going off what has been said on this forum).
Amos Roberts was at the forum. He had originally signed for 2010 (on a three year contract) but his sudden availability led to Wigan signing him earlier than originally planned for 2009 hence the four year contract. George Carmont applied for a samoan passport at the world cup and it has been granted and now they're just waiting for the paperwork to come through and for George to come off the quota and register Roberts. Wish should take no longer than ten days. Roberts will still fly off with the squad to lanzarote. However Amos Roberts has a hand injury and will miss both friendlys and the opening match against Wakefield.
No official sponsor has been announced yet by the club but the deal is sealed. If you don't know who it is by now then god help you.
The kit (home and away) is expected to be revealed the same time as the sponsor January the 23rd/24th is being the date tipped.
Major push to increase club revenues with promotional and sustainable things put in place, such as going into schools regularly and corporate initiatives.
3 year plan to put us at the top of SL with regard to club revenue.
Wigan will NEVER offer to exchange their young players in order to sign players from other clubs, but will consider loan deals.
At this moment in time we are not spending the full salary cap. We have 20K left to spare.
Wigan have made an offer for Bird. However IL does not expect it to be excepted as other clubs have offered more. (What was the point then?)
we would like a prop but we would not consider letting any of our young props go on a permanent deal, listing O'Carroll and Prescott. He did however say that it would be a possibility that we could loan certain players out to 'smaller' SL clubs to make room on the cap and within the squad.
One club has asked for a £75K transfer fee for a player we're interested in. We won't pay that for this player.(Richard Moore) However we're willing to pay up to 50K. (If any more signings are likely to be made Richard Moore is the most likely)
Lots of conditioning staff and other coaches were appointed a while back but weren't made public. All such appointments will be announced in the future
Noble has promised us a more entertaining brand of rugby this season.Noble basically said that the reason our style of play isn't as exciting was partly down to the squad we have and due to the enormous importance of field position and territory in the modern game, said they are working on finetuning skills to allow them to be more expansive in situations they weren't last year.
It's a balancing act and it's about priorities. He also mentioned that he envisaged 'in the medium term' that we are seeking to provide the bulk of our players from out own Academy, with about three world-class players from elsewhere.
He also mentioned that the current situation would change radically in 2010, when five of our current big earners come off contract.
Brian Noble was apparently very enthusiastic and animated. Everyone who has come back from the forum have been really positive about what he's had to say. Brian Noble has also said this is the best squad he's had since he's been at Wigan
From Mick Hogan:
Saints Home Game - Fully confident of a Sell Out / Near Sell Out.
Celtic Home Game - The club have put plans in place to achieve an extra 4,000 on the normal expected gate.
he club are looking at a unit in the town centre in addition to the Hilton Street Shop which is to undergo a full re-fit!
within 12-18 months we should have an agreement with an NRL club to send players over on loan and vice-versa with players from thr NRL coming over her for a year. IL mentioned that St George would be an ideal club to get a partnership with.
Noble spoke excellently, he made it clear of what the players are up against, and what we need to do to break the top 2 positions. They work on a rule of '1 less & 1 more' which based on last season means, we concede 1 less try per game and score 1 more try per game we would finish in the top 3 without doubt. He is happy with the side, although we are a little short within the half backs which will see Tomkins play some good game time in 2009. IL mentioned that he is still looking for that 'enforcer' prop forward, but what they do not want to do is risk letting players such as O'Barrell and Prescott leave to get this player.
Plans are being made to triple our merchandise sales from 500K to 1.5million like Saints Leeds and Warrington.
A greater focus is being made on the young lads on the club. There is going to be a quick development squad with 11 players. (Apparently shown on a slideshow though no-one has mentioned names).
The situation with the stadium is that we share a stadium, that is a magnificent stadium. We have a great deal in terms of the long term lease and the price we pay. It's a superb deal as far as Wigan rugby league is concerned. It means occasionaly perhaps 1 in 20 times that if there is a conflict somebody has to make a decision that happens to be the stadium company as they own it and they have the right to make that , that means for short term matches like cup matches that could come up on a short notice or play off games that there's a 5% chance and IL puts it as low as that because we're planning well in ahead the FA with their fixtures the rugby league with our fixtures. Wigan Athletic and Wigan rugby league are working together to minimise the inconvenience. His point is that these days shared stadiums are becoming the norm whether it's Hull Huddersfield Harlequins there are occasional instances very occasional instances where long term planning can't get around this buts its significant that this year ever single fixture that we've got at home suites extremely well for us.
