Not sure anybody put that to be fair

He may have specfically requested him but at the end of the day, the decision to sign him or any player is made by the Owner/Chairman/Management and has always been the case at Wigan!



At the time of John Monie being Head Coach, he wanted to sign Phil Blake but was overruled by the then management who signed Frano Botica instead.

I wonder with the Lee Briers connection would Wigan look at Gareth O'Brien?

Goalkicking halfback.

Mitch Clark left the club according to the MEN

And we had to pay him off which probably counts on the salary cap

A Cas fan on their own forum reckons he’s been given permission to discuss a move elsewhere but everyone else has shot the bloke down.



A far better player than Richardson for my money.

Newcastle bound, apparently.

That's because nobody wanted him!!



As for the salary cap it'll all depend on how much we have paid him and when it was i.e. 2021 or 2022.



Saints did something similar a few years back with Luke Douglas and Ryan Morgan.

blake left in 89 and we signed frano in 90, so we already had blake...

And to think their fans were expecting to sign Kylian Mbappe

That made i laugh . Nice one

You'd hope that, logically, whatever we've paid him is less than the total amount of his deal. If it's the same amount, we might as well have kept him on the books. It's offers little sense to pay him 100% of what he's owed and then let him leave.

Him leaving means we are not over our quota spots...

Paves the way for Corey Norman?

How? We don’t have any spare quota spots.

He had to leave to fit Tommy in by the sounds of things.

Misread your post

Might be misremembering but I seem to think they said they had final say. I took that to mean ultimately they could veto any signings, and would be the ones who discussed salary etc, rather than it meaning they sorted them all without the input of the coach.

Pieman,



You are indeed correct. Memory is not what it used to be and on checking, it would appear that Monie actually wanted to retain Phil Blake at the end of the 1989 season, but the then board of Directors insisted on replacing him with Frano Botica which proved to be a very wise decision.



Best goalkicker in all the years, I have supported the club, followed by Andy Farrell, Pat Richards and Colin Tyrer.



If only, we had one like them now!

Re: Goalkickers, I wonder how last year's ratio of goalkicking accuracy (Hardaker & Smith) compares with someone like Colin Whitfield who 'from memory' skewed some absolute whoppers that should have been nailed on.

It did feel at the time like he could miss an easy conversion attempt





we have also just had someone saying Botica was overrated on warriors fans, and couldnt put anyone through a gap. not sure what they were watching but certainly a different player to the one i remember

Most likely they weren't watching anyone. That's the only explanation for an opinion like that.

Anyones who has an opinion which is that, isn't someone who is worth listening to their opinion

i know at times i am shocked at what some people post, and i believe that we should all be allowed to air our opinions (within board rules), but i honestly think this poster must have been watching someone else. i genuinely couldnt believe i was reading it and i've copied it in below



[u"Honestly, I think Botica was made to look a far better player than he was by the quality around him at the time. I can’t recall a single time he put a man through a gap. Though he could kick goals (ironically, we would still have won everything with no kicker at all...)."[/u



we are talking about a player who started on the wing, moved to stand off and also played Full back for NZ. Yet, he couldnt play rugby