Mr McCabe V Mr Whelan

[beightonblade]

No contest ..................................Mr Whelan £100million in ! and he'll let it go for a £50 note.

 

[Coily]

Watching that made me feel sad for him. He's basically spunked his entire fortune into average players wallets and the people of Wigan don't even give enough of a shit to turn up. He'll have to sell up for £50 because no-one will want to pay more for that club.

 

[Micalijo]

Watching that made me feel sad for him. He's basically spunked his entire fortune into average players wallets and the people of Wigan don't even give enough of a shit to turn up. He'll have to sell up for £50 because no-one will want to pay more for that club.

Things is Coily, Wigan has zero history of football - quite obviously rugby is by far the biggest deal and always will be. It is a tiny town, not particulalry wealthy and horrible in parts - you could easily argue their crowds are fantastic given the history of the club. One thing money cannot do easily is overturn years and years of tradition and culture.

 

[BladeHearts]

In 10 years time Wigan Athletic will be back in League 2, playing in front of crowds of 2500.

 

[Revolution]

Things is Coily, Wigan has zero history of football - quite obviously rugby is by far the biggest deal and always will be.

Rugby is a big deal in Wigan, although I bet it's a while since the egg chasers last had larger crowds.

Wigan's bigger problem is they have too much local competition. When we were last in the PL, there was no other PL team within 30 miles. That's a good way to pick up floating support. By contrast, how many other PL teams are within 30 miles of Wigan? Seven?

 

[super_pig]

shame he didn't buy us

 

[raul]

Things is Coily, Wigan has zero history of football - quite obviously rugby is by far the biggest deal and always will be.

Rugby is a big deal in Wigan, although I bet it's a while since the egg chasers last had larger crowds.

Wigan's bigger problem is they have too much local competition. When we were last in the PL, there was no other PL team within 30 miles. That's a good way to pick up floating support. By contrast, how many other PL teams are within 30 miles of Wigan? Seven?

About two weeks ago Rev, full house v St Helens.

 

[Revolution]

About two weeks ago Rev, full house v St Helens.

I meant on average over a season...

 

[BladeHearts]

About two weeks ago Rev, full house v St Helens.

If it wasnt for the proximity of other PL clubs in the north west Wigan Athletics average home crowd would be well below 10k. They don't even get close to selling out v Man Utd.

Wigan RL on the other hand average about 17,000.

It's not that Wigans a small town, its that football fans in Wigan already have an allegiance to a bigger club usually Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool or even Bolton.

 

[SwissBlade]

Quite a nice little comparison Beighton, seeing as though it was Wigan that put us down it made me think whilst I was watching that programme, that if the result had been different that day,then McCabe might have been sat opposite Sugar instead of Whelan. Or to that matter, McCabe instead of Gold if West Ham had been docked the points correctly.

I am sure that had we not gone down that day, then we'd have progressed in the division in a similar fashion to Wigan and West Ham (spending beyond the means in the attempt to push ourselves up the league but still hanging around the bottom 3)

Anyone else watch the BBC programme of PL spending and Debt last night?

I thought Whelan gave an excellent commentary on his personal experience and its sad that a man like him can't do anything to change the way that the PL is. The arrogance of Scudamore shows why the PL is such a dirty place which is heading for a massive fall. The massive fall will protect him, because it points towards not a cap, but ring fencing the massive clubs (without Wednesday) into a Super Premier League or even a European League.

I'd have been interested to hear more from owners of teams who were there but aren't anymore. The likes of Gibson at Boro, Owners like Delia at Norwich and those hanging around the top end of the Championship trying to get up. Owners of Forest, Swansea, Reading.

Lets just hope that we really learn our lesson and start living within our means and do things the right way

 

[raul]

If it wasnt for the proximity of other PL clubs in the north west Wigan Athletics average home crowd would be well below 10k. They don't even get close to selling out v Man Utd.

Wigan RL on the other hand average about 17,000.

It's not that Wigans a small town, its that football fans in Wigan already have an allegiance to a bigger club usually Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool or even Bolton.

With a greatly inflated average based upon it being able to offer a bigger than average away allocation.

This in no way detracts from the desire and achievements of Mr Whelan, in fact you'd have to say the opposite.

 

[super_pig]

the short sightedness of scudamore was breathtaking wasn't it?.. i agree with sugar (bloody hell!).. it needs a few clubs to go under to wake them up.. the problem is caused by the transfer window.. teams can't simply go out and buy replacements if they need them in an emergency anymore.. so they stock up with highly paid benchwarmers and talented youngsters who would be better served by playing not playing in the reserves for loads of money..

 

[beightonblade]

Hey up Swiss .......................... Scudamore says all whats wrong to me.

 

[SwissBlade]

Scudamore arrogantly sat there as the Chief Executive of the PL and talks about the responsibility being that of the clubs, not the PL. As Chief Exec of the PL then surely he has to take the responsibility for his members to act appropriately and responsibly if they can't then he HAS to act, not just use the teflon shoulder approach as usual whilst creaming off the profits

 

[bottletree]

If we'd had stayed up instead of Wigan i have absolutely no doubt in my mind that somehow and somewhere along the way we would have managed to fuck it right up like we have done throughout our glorious failures in the past.
Our club is cursed and the sooner we all realise that the better we will be at accepting our usual demise. Fucking Blades, Why did you have to come into my life and fuck things right up for me. Bastards.

I feel better now.

 

[sitwell]

Things is Coily, Wigan has zero history of football - quite obviously rugby is by far the biggest deal and always will be. It is a tiny town, not particulalry wealthy and horrible in parts - you could easily argue their crowds are fantastic given the history of the club. One thing money cannot do easily is overturn years and years of tradition and culture.

It has go a pier to be fair ,and my mate works in a kebab shop in the town. On the flip side it will always be connected with the worst music ever produced.

It seems another lifetime when won at Springfield Park getting bricks lobbed at us in the ground before chasing them all over the terraced streets of the town.

 

[maxtheblade]

Whelan is legendarily tight - I used to work in St Helens with a lad who had worked for him at JJB and told me two stories that summed him up - obviously for legal reasons they may not be true but are alleged.

1) he thinks of himself as Mr Wigan and when the number plate 'W1 GAN' came up he despatched one of his lackeys to the auction to buy it for him whatever the cost. The lad arrived late and missed it, but instead bought him '1 DW' - he got sacked.

2) he was once walking through his warehouse and noticed a member of staff wearing trainers where the sole was coming off on one of them - Whelan walked over and asked why he hadn't replaced them and the guy said because he couldn't afford any more. Whelan took a roll of twenty pound notes out of his pocket wrapped in an elastic band, counted out several hundred pounds in front of him before popping the cash back in his pocket, handing over the elastic band and telling him to use that to hold the shoe together.

 

[DP8789]

he's a top bloke, he keeps faith in his managers, sells players for the right price and has always put his money where is mouth is, him, al fayed, the fella at stoke have worked wonders with clubs that without them would still be languishing in the lower leagues.

we have a man of equal wealth (maybe not alfayed - think he sold harrods for a cool billion) and he ruins our club, its people like whelan that keep my faith in this game, if we tear him apart who's left?