Former St Helens captain Jon Wilkin has broken down exactly where he believes it has gone wrong at the club, with Paul Rowley’s exit ultimately a result of huge fan discontent on the terraces.

He’s admitted that the fan discontent has not just started under Rowley but that it was inherited after three years of Paul Wellens’ coaching, during which time the club underspent and fell far from the heights of winning four straight Grand Finals and a World Club Challenge.

Speaking ahead of Saints’ Friday night derby loss to Wigan Warriors, Wilkin highlighted the crux of the problem and why St Helens had to act.

Just 1,700 fans had made the trip from St Helens to Wigan, with Wilkin stating on Sky Sports: “There lies the problem for me at St Helens. In 2024, they had average of 13,000 is at home attendance. That regressed in 2025 to just 11,000 and we see here tonight just 1,700 fans in a stand that holds 5,500.

“Every time I played here, that stand was full and it’s that lack of engagement with the fans and that diminishing season ticket holders, diminishing number of people who watch.

“Paul Rowley was brought in to improve the style and the substance of the team and play Rowley-ball and engage with the fans to bring them back. They haven’t done that.”

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Wilkin went further, suggesting that not only have Saints not reconnected to the fans, they’ve actually widened the gap and created a clear disconnect as he cited Jack Welsby’s try celebration against Catalans as an example.

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The full-back put his fingers to his ears and faced the home crowd after crossing over, with Wilkin highlighting it as a sign of a troubled club.

He argued: “I think there’s a real disconnect between the players and the engagement with the fans and we saw that with Jack Welsby and his celebration against Catalans.

“What he’s saying is the fans who pay their hard-earned money aren’t able to criticise what he’s doing. They’re well entitled to criticise and they’re voting with their feet. It would be wise to see feedback from their fans about what they want.”

Wilkin also suggested that such a huge decision, parting ways with a coach just nine months into a three-year deal, would not happen without the approval of senior players.

“I would imagine that there’s a disconnect between the style, the feeling of the club, the detail, the Championship mindset that they had, and an element of looseness that came with the Salford culture was maybe brought into the club,” Wilkin said.

“The senior players are very powerful, but it’s more the results, it’s more than the supporters, it’s more than the players, it’s all of it together, isn’t it? The commercial side of it, it has to be all of it.

“It’s not just one thing, it’s probably a culmination of all of those things that lead to a coach being sacked just nine months in to a three-year deal.”

Jon Wilkin’s final St Helens verdict

Wilkin, who played a whopping 424 games for St Helens, went on to offer an honest and harsh reality of the club’s situation, one that he called ‘desperately sad’.

“I don’t like the state that St Helens are in,” he admitted.

“I don’t like the way that the club is at the minute, I don’t like the vitriol and negativity, the disconnect between the fans and the club.

“I played there for 16 years and it makes me sad to look at the stand down there and just have 1,700 fans there.

“I think for a club that won the title four times on the spin and so recently have been attached with success, I find it desperately sad.

“I really hope and wish that they can get back to a situation where there’s a connection back.”