"Warrington isn’t just staring down another season of unmet expectations. It’s confronting the slow, public draining of its own ambition. Leaders don’t leave projects they believe in. They leave ones that feel hollow." "Worse, instead of forging a living identity that connects past, present, and future, the leadership has drifted into a no-man ’s-land — chasing IMG scorecards on one side, clinging to a contrived sense of ‘Northern Cool’ on the other. The result isn’t evolution. It’s erosion. A club caught between borrowed ideas and abandoned roots, with nothing authentic holding it together." https://mattyhenno.shorthandstories.com/winning-nothing-standing-for-less/index.html

"Warrington isn’t just staring down another season of unmet expectations. It’s confronting the slow, public draining of its own ambition. Leaders don’t leave projects they believe in. They leave ones that feel hollow." "Worse, instead of forging a living identity that connects past, present, and future, the leadership has drifted into a no-man ’s-land — chasing IMG scorecards on one side, clinging to a contrived sense of ‘Northern Cool’ on the other. The result isn’t evolution. It’s erosion. A club caught between borrowed ideas and abandoned roots, with nothing authentic holding it together." https://mattyhenno.shorthandstories.com/winning-nothing-standing-for-less/index.html

Wires71: "Warrington isn’t just staring down another season of unmet expectations. It’s confronting the slow, public draining of its own ambition. Leaders don’t leave projects they believe in. They leave ones that feel hollow." "Worse, instead of forging a living identity that connects past, present, and future, the leadership has drifted into a no-man ’s-land — chasing IMG scorecards on one side, clinging to a contrived sense of ‘Northern Cool’ on the other. The result isn’t evolution. It’s erosion. A club caught between borrowed ideas and abandoned roots, with nothing authentic holding it together." https://mattyhenno.shorthandstories.com/winning-nothing-standing-for-less/index.html Has Fitzpatrick arranged for this article to be censored? There is nothing there.

Wires71: "Warrington isn’t just staring down another season of unmet expectations. It’s confronting the slow, public draining of its own ambition. Leaders don’t leave projects they believe in. They leave ones that feel hollow." "Worse, instead of forging a living identity that connects past, present, and future, the leadership has drifted into a no-man ’s-land — chasing IMG scorecards on one side, clinging to a contrived sense of ‘Northern Cool’ on the other. The result isn’t evolution. It’s erosion. A club caught between borrowed ideas and abandoned roots, with nothing authentic holding it together." https://mattyhenno.shorthandstories.com/winning-nothing-standing-for-less/index.html Has Fitzpatrick arranged for this article to be censored? There is nothing there.

oh it's this bloody forum and pasting links. Sorry. Try this link

oh it's this bloody forum and pasting links. Sorry. Try this link

Interesting piece, but I'm not sure I wholly agree with it.


We're a sports club.  The only metric a sports club should be measured by is silverware and they should be ruthlessly focussed on the relentless pursuit of it year on year.


Yes, remembering our history is vital, as is being part of the community and instilling a sense of belonging is important but most fans dissatisfaction with the club is because they feel if anything the club focuses too much on off field activites.


Personally, a Grand Final winning Wire team full of Academy products will give me all the memories and belonging I need - and silverware.

Unless you can hit the ground running with a young squad you won't win silverware ,hence the need for all clubs to bring in overseas players to make the winning differences. The competition & fan expectations don't allow for a team to focus solely on youth development for X amount of years till a winning formula can be found. If you are willing to sacrifice trophies in order to see a home grown team develop into a great team to watch & give wonderful memories then that could be possible & so could relegation. Personally, i am in the memories camp & am content that i won't see the Wire lift a lot of silverware ,if i wanted that i could support Saints or Wigan.
I suppose the article is a bit weighted anyway ,in a sport with only a couple of dozen viable clubs. Transfer the scenario to football & there over a hundred viable clubs who don't stand a chance of trophies.

It is a very interesting read for sure, like Morrissey says you need to have a winning mentality but I also think you need identity. Winning will give you that but without the right culture you can’t achieve anything.

We need a new CEO and a new chairman, otherwise the Groundhog Days since 2017 will continue…….


We’re ace on TikTok though.

The part that mentioned the chasing IMG ratings and this vacuous "northern cool" thing resonated with me. Especially taken in the context of the LinkedIn post from KF. 


I do wonder what the 150 year celebrations will be like. 

But isn't that the point?  Without a strong identity and culture that connects the club and spectators we aren't left with an awful lot to hold onto when we end up in the periods without winning a trophy (e.g. 1 trophy win in 13 years) 


Right now it seems we have a complete disconnect between the club and the spectators. At best there is disillusionment and people giving up watching, at worst there is growing animosity akin to Spurs and Daniel Levy (for example).  


It doesn't feel to me like we are all pulling on the same rope. Or maybe it's just me. 

I am booking a session in Cyro-stasis when that comes around if KFP is still here. We will have everything from Jedward to wolves running all over the place eating happy clappers.

There are problems that need sorting out but the root cause isn't that we've said our aim is to win the Grand Final.
If we'd said our aim was some other woke woolly garbage about being part of the community or making memories, you can bet the fans on here would be saying that if this was Saints or Wigan they would say they were focused on winning.


I suspect the real problem is something the club won't say. They are more motivated by loyalty to individuals in the organisation than they are motivated to make ruthless decisions to bring in people who know how to win.


It's the same issue that makes people sceptical about the government. Every department has a mission statement about making some public service world class or making the UK the best place in the world to start a business. But nobody is willing to make the tough decisions necessary to achieve that. 

This is a very interesting point, and I am not saying that you are wrong. Perhaps we are too nice as a club, and need to be more ruthless in various aspects of how we operate. What I would say, though, is that it's winning or losing that always shapes how fans view certain things. Last season, when we were doing relatively well, fans could easily put a positive spin on something like the Chambers appointment, for example. When the team is winning, it's viewed as "wise appointment, Warrington through and through, knows the club inside out". When the team is losing, it's "has no real experience, jobs for the boys, out of his depth". The same goes for loyalty. When we are winning, loyalty can be viewed as a positive, praiseworthy trait, whereas at the moment, with the awful season we are having, it is easy to regard it as a weakness instead.