Could not agree more, Nobby should be given a good rousing reception IMO. He did indeed save us from the brink under Agent Millward and I think it is churlish to have a pop now that he has gone. I think we need to keep everything in perspective here. The regime under MM appears to be developing well, but we have yet to put "boot to ball" so lets see how it goes. I hope that MM is everything that we have been led to believe he is in terms of getting the best out of the players but lets see the first 6 games or so and then start to analyse both the regime and the players.

He tried his best, and he was committed to the cause. He just didn't seem to have the scope to evolve his coaching methods. He stuck with what worked at Bradford, and we didn't have the size or quality to do it. He tried it with GB and it failed there too.



Good luck to the guy, I bare no ill will towards him.

On the subject of former coaches, who would you give a standing ovation to if they were announced prior to a Wigan game.



For me it would be Graham Lowe, John Monie (Both for obvious reasons), Graeme West, Frank Endacott. After that I'm struggling.

I could not agree more and part of that is saving us from relegation needs to be kept in perspective as well. He could not live off that forever and it was no excuse for the performance over the next three years IMO.







I agree. There are no guarantees that MM will be a success but the number of posts on this board that go on about the change in attitude in the camp, the new approach to training we hear about and so on highlight that people think there has been a revolution in the off season which unfortunately for Noble highlights his weaknesses.



Dave

Given the problem he has building a squad should we lend him a few players?



If so who?

Fringe players to give experience , Stu Howarth, Ben Davies, Josh Vievers, Sam Gee, Neil Holland and John Walker on one year deals.



Some of these are I believe earmarked for loan deals.



Short term (dual registration) Liam Farrell, Darrel Goulding, Shaun Ainscough, Mickey McIlorum.

Personally I believe we should give Noble some respect when he comes back with the Crusaders, for the job he did at Wigan, a mild reception though, lets not go too overboard.

As for loan players, Pryce & Goulding probably, and maybe a couple of the reserves. But I think we should let MM monitor the players development, before we farm them out.

the one thing i will always praise Noble for is his integrity. in a game tarnished with ego's he acted superbly through a situation that was badly managed by IL. We were unfortunate not to be in the grand final last season and when you look at the embarassing situation surrounding Noble and his future, how he managed to get what he did out of the team is astounding. I agree that he should be given a round of applause for what he achieved. He may not have taken us back to the top but he came pretty dam close with a team that to be honest isn't good enough.

we are not in the eighties where we had a right to win everything. we live in an era when 4 or 5 teams are as good if not better than us. our time will come again and i feel we are very close but lets get out of this mentality we have a right to win and expect to challenge because we are wigan. all teams around us are developing as well and we need to do more. i honestly feel we will be the next leeds, maybe in the next 2-3 seasons but lets support what we have, this nucleus of young talent and give it time to develop into a home grown championship winning side.

How can you be certain it was all of IL's doing?

Murphy, Hughes and millward.

I'll never understand the argument that if you're not happy with the way Wigan are playing that's because you're living in the past and think we have a right to win everything.



That really is the kind of statement trolls come out with.



As fans, we're surely experienced enough to recognise that, during the three and a half years of Brian Noble's tenure, the Wigan team performed poorly for most of the time. That was obvious to me regardless of the results (which weren't that good anyway if we're honest - we got to loads of semis under him, but were embarrassingly trashed in all of them, so in truth we never really got near a final, let alone won one).



As for his being mistreated, maybe he was and maybe he wasn't. We'll never really know, but I'm glad we've got the outcome we have. I'd be far less happy about 2010 if Nobby and his crowd were still in charge.



By all means be polite to him on his return, but let's also keep some perspective about what really matters. For Wigan to continue to exist at their current level, they had to improve significantly. That's all there was to it.