Funny you should mention that - A month or so ago I went back to around 2009 posts just to see what reaction etc there was. Didn't quite get there as was intrigued by a lot of other threads etc. However, as you say, I suspect there would be some quite interesting observations from back then!
I've had a look tonight back through the records to 2009 (Main Wigan page- topics 760 to 910) and picked out a few threads, not had chance to digest much of it as its late but I've split into two sections.
Brian Noble, fan reaction in 2009 to rumours to official announcement.
Michael Maguire, Rumoured signing in 2009 to official announcement.
Funny you should mention that - A month or so ago I went back to around 2009 posts just to see what reaction etc there was. Didn't quite get there as was intrigued by a lot of other threads etc. However, as you say, I suspect there would be some quite interesting observations from back then!
I've had a look tonight back through the records to 2009 (Main Wigan page- topics 760 to 910) and picked out a few threads, not had chance to digest much of it as its late but I've split into two sections.
Brian Noble, fan reaction in 2009 to rumours to official announcement.
Michael Maguire, Rumoured signing in 2009 to official announcement.
I've had a look tonight back through the records to 2009 (Main Wigan page- topics 760 to 910) and picked out a few threads, not had chance to digest much of it as its late but I've split into two sections.
Brian Noble, fan reaction in 2009 to rumours to official announcement.
Michael Maguire, Rumoured signing in 2009 to official announcement.
Happy reading
Happy reading indeed and nice to see things don't change.
A poster adamant they are right, when in fact they weren't. Edwards rumours. Complaints about the lack of signings. Complaints about the front row. And to top it all off - a post about Madge potentially not getting a visa. Was this the 2009 version of our passport rumour?
Happy reading indeed and nice to see things don't change.
A poster adamant they are right, when in fact they weren't. Edwards rumours. Complaints about the lack of signings. Complaints about the front row. And to top it all off - a post about Madge potentially not getting a visa. Was this the 2009 version of our passport rumour?
When I looked a month or so ago, and again last night when I had an hour reading those points you make are exactly what I thought!
It's like Groundhog day!
The parallels I took were :- Noble had a Good squad that were 10 to 20% under performing and a General malaise/stagnation - Lam had a Good squad that IMO were 25/30% under performing and a General malaise/stagnation but also Anger about the club
Maguire (Wane etc.) - Took that same squad plus Deacon and not only got them to improve their performances & Consistency by the 10/20% he actually got 10% more out of them Peet ( Wane Etc.) - Will need to repair that 25/30% with a larger turnover of player and Possibly not as good a squad as what Lam had at his disposal.
I think the current situation will be harder to turn round in one off season than the task Maguire/Wane had IMO but although not expecting us to be Top dogs next year I do think with 10/20% improvement we can challenge and more importantly start to actual produce more consistent performances of a Good standard (It can't be that hard surely to improve on maybe 10/12 Good performances from 100+ games over the last 3 years!).
Your right though - With regards to Fans reactions then & now - There were a lot of fans more worried about what players & the need to sign better players (Which is always the case I get that) than they were about the potential improvement from existing players by improved culture/training & coaching. The knives were also out for IL at that point as well.
When I looked a month or so ago, and again last night when I had an hour reading those points you make are exactly what I thought!
It's like Groundhog day!
The parallels I took were :- Noble had a Good squad that were 10 to 20% under performing and a General malaise/stagnation - Lam had a Good squad that IMO were 25/30% under performing and a General malaise/stagnation but also Anger about the club
Maguire (Wane etc.) - Took that same squad plus Deacon and not only got them to improve their performances & Consistency by the 10/20% he actually got 10% more out of them Peet ( Wane Etc.) - Will need to repair that 25/30% with a larger turnover of player and Possibly not as good a squad as what Lam had at his disposal.
I think the current situation will be harder to turn round in one off season than the task Maguire/Wane had IMO but although not expecting us to be Top dogs next year I do think with 10/20% improvement we can challenge and more importantly start to actual produce more consistent performances of a Good standard (It can't be that hard surely to improve on maybe 10/12 Good performances from 100+ games over the last 3 years!).
Your right though - With regards to Fans reactions then & now - There were a lot of fans more worried about what players & the need to sign better players (Which is always the case I get that) than they were about the potential improvement from existing players by improved culture/training & coaching. The knives were also out for IL at that point as well.
Sport is highly cyclical imo.
I remember around 2012 someone did a really good post about the comparisons between Madge and Lowe and it was quite eye opening.
In regards to your last point, I guess in 2009 people hadn't seen what was possible with some of the players. So many players at the club went onto have champion careers, but until you 'make it' - there'll always be questions about if a player is good enough. When you look at our current side there's quite a few who've seen success. Guys like Faz, Bateman, Singleton, Powell, Tommy, Zak have all won leagues and in some cases individual honours too. It's why Lam was so bad - there was so much more in that side.
I spent a few hours last night/this morning reading posts relating to the 2009 season. A few things to come out of it.
* Lam's name was rumoured as a replacement to Noble, bullet dodged there you would think.
* A few posts from myself knocking about that I probably wouldn't post nowadays. I'd like to think I'm a 'little' bit more chilled these days (unless I'm defending our club with good reason) Good job we can't go back to 2003 when Rlfans started, I was a bit of a wind up merchant on Saints & Wire forums that I certainly wouldn't do these days.
* Sad to see a hell of a lot of Wigan posters from 2009 that simply don't post on here anymore. It's made for a poorer forum I believe.
I spent a few hours last night/this morning reading posts relating to the 2009 season. A few things to come out of it.
* Lam's name was rumoured as a replacement to Noble, bullet dodged there you would think.
* A few posts from myself knocking about that I probably wouldn't post nowadays. I'd like to think I'm a 'little' bit more chilled these days (unless I'm defending our club with good reason) Good job we can't go back to 2003 when Rlfans started, I was a bit of a wind up merchant on Saints & Wire forums that I certainly wouldn't do these days.
* Sad to see a hell of a lot of Wigan posters from 2009 that simply don't post on here anymore. It's made for a poorer forum I believe.
Agree completely - So much so it's crossed my mind a few times to start a thread about Long lost posters and lets see if we can get them to post again!
The more views/differing opinions etc. including other fans of other teams (Obviously not the WUMS like Steph/Lebron) the better it would be IMO It was interesting to note there were approx./over 100 pages of threads for the 2009 season - I reckon it would be half that now???