This is surely correct.



I think Fitzgerald is quoted as saying we don't have a second marquee signing on our books at the moment. If correct then how are we spending the money as our squad has looked thin this year with a lack of quality in too many positions.

I don't doubt that he wants it, my doubt is on expansive rugby being delivered under the current coach.

This is completely right. Unfortunately these days you see it in a lot of fields of work, there's a generation of managers who have studied intensely theory about branding and marketing and end up not seeing the wood for the trees. Their hallmark is usually exaggerated slogans that become a parody of themselves. I saw a presentation from a company a few weeks back that said their vision was to provide the ultimate coffee experience for the modern dynamic company. They sell coffee machines. I'm sure many people on here have worked with cringey managers who take themselves too seriously on team 'away days' or whatever and like to talk about 'what's our team vision', 'what story do we have to tell'.



Sometimes you just have to step back from all that. The gameday experience is massively important, but you can come away from all the different gameday gimmicks and slogans like 'memories are made here' and instead follow 2 principles. Do the simple things well (quality of entertainment on the pitch, quality/price/availability of food and drink at the ground), and create an air of class. Gimmicks work against creating an air of class. I went to the Emirates a few times a few years ago, and even though Arsenal weren't the top team there was just an aura about everything in the stadium, and the way they did everything, how elegant and refined it was, that this was a club that rung of class, without appearing to try too hard.



The problem with some of the marketing types is that they are so convinced in their own theory of what people want, that they respond to any declining customer figures by saying they haven't gone far enough. I bet at the club right now there are a load of meetings going on and powerpoint presentations being created with people saying things like how do we make sure we have more wacky wire flyer type ideas, to make sure that next year when we make the playoffs we pack out the HJ, and missing some of the obvious basics.



I also think this reflects the shift in approach since Andy Gatcliffe left. The club was more understated in the Gatcliffe era, but it quietly focused on the things that matters.

Fitzpatrick's 'orchestra pit' nonsense tells you all you need to know about how classy we intend to be.

Ah yes, Fitzpatrick quoting Roger Ailes, the father of the "alt-right" media who got forced out of Fox news because of sexual harassment allegations. If one man says he can create peace in the middle east and another falls in the orchestra pit, its the man in the orchestra pit who features in the lead story in the news, so you want to be that man not the one who solves conflict.



It seems to be in vogue these days to quote these alt-righters as some kind of strategic geniuses who have the key to understanding the 'man on the street', Roger Ailes, Steve Bannon, Lynton Crosby. Look for conflict and controversy and that creates headlines. Especially in the social media era.



Fitzpatrick was trying this orchestra pit stuff earlier in the season, saying we should be talking up rivalries and conflict, it gets people talking about the club, generates social media headlines. When we upset Hull and Lee Radford had a go at us after they beat us, Fitzpatrick probably chalked that kind of thing down as a win, because it generated publicity, got the club being talked about in social media.



Problem is, it's a dangerous game delving in to the alt-right playbook because you don't know what you might unleash. Later in the season we had that Wire fan tweeting that a ref should be shot dead live on TV, that got the club talked about a lot on the internet too, generated tweets that had 'Warrington Wolves' involved, everyone got to see what club that guy supported. Publicity for us.



Maybe that's not what Fitzpatrick meant when he wanted to stir up rivalries and a bit of controversy but from the Ailes/alt right playbook that's exactly the kind of thing you want. It upsets the PC brigade but there's a chunk of the fanbase who would have read that tweet and loved it, thought it was funny/edgy. Ailes would have approved.



You could do better than the orchestra pit, just announce that we are renaming one of the stands the Donald Trump stand. This will get us massive worldwide publicity. The news will reach the great man himself and he will be only too happy to provide us with a free retweet or give a line at one of his press conferences.



"The people in Britain, in Warrington, they love me over there. It's a great club, great people they really love me, and I think they're creating something really special over there, real smart people"

You forgot "a club that is really going places, they really are"