Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:57 pm  

Anything less than at least £500,000 and we'll have been robbed.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:10 pm  

Think big picture. No team who has a system that includes transfer fees on the cap is going to pay big for any player, let alone an unproven lad who has bags of potential.

[Pemps]

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:49 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

We'd all rather see him in the NRL then Union but I just think we need an extra year year out of him. His original deal said he wasn't going anywhere until the end of 2014 at least and that fits with our development of the youngsters much better then if he leaves now.

If the NRL are offering peanuts to Wigan then we need to look after number 1 IMO.

We need an extra year out of him to give Tierney, or whoever, another years worth of development. If he leaves at the end of this season I think we'd have to get a replacement from outside the club and that could see one of the young lads having his path blocked for another 2/3 seasons.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:12 pm  

Pemps wrote:

We need an extra year out of him to give Tierney, or whoever, another years worth of development. If he leaves at the end of this season I think we'd have to get a replacement from outside the club and that could see one of the young lads having his path blocked for another 2/3 seasons.

If he goes next season we need a 3 year plan, if he goes next we need a 2 year plan. Sam cannot be replaced from within in my opinion.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:52 pm  

Living in melbourne now, I cannot wait to see how he goes in the NRL. I am sick of reading newspaper reports rubbishing his undoubted talents because he hasn't tested himself in the NRL.!! Arrogant ignorant Aussies of which their are many. (Trust me).

I have only been here now 8 months and although gutted when he leaves Wigan as I still see all the matches and love the club, I have really enjoyed watching him grow from the youth system into the world class superstar we see today. In much the same way, as a parent, you let your child leave the nest and send them off to university or just leaving home. Its tinged with sadness but you want them to realise their potential in the big wide world, In many ways I have the same about feelings about Sam.

Sam is ready to tackle the NRL and IMO its him alone who wants to test himself now, its a difficult one because ATM the moment in the lead up to the world cup his stock is high and he is able to get the renumeration he deserves. Supposing he has a poor world cup, what happens to his stock then? IMO yes he may be able to get more after a decent world cup, but most clubs will have already assigned most of their S.C. by the end of the tournement. IMO this is the ideal time for Sam to announce the move.

I am just thankful its NRL not RU.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:39 am  

WarriorSteve wrote:

Living in melbourne now, I cannot wait to see how he goes in the NRL. I am sick of reading newspaper reports rubbishing his undoubted talents because he hasn't tested himself in the NRL.!! Arrogant ignorant Aussies of which their are many. (Trust me).

I have only been here now 8 months and although gutted when he leaves Wigan as I still see all the matches and love the club, I have really enjoyed watching him grow from the youth system into the world class superstar we see today. In much the same way, as a parent, you let your child leave the nest and send them off to university or just leaving home. Its tinged with sadness but you want them to realise their potential in the big wide world, In many ways I have the same about feelings about Sam.

Sam is ready to tackle the NRL and IMO its him alone who wants to test himself now, its a difficult one because ATM the moment in the lead up to the world cup his stock is high and he is able to get the renumeration he deserves. Supposing he has a poor world cup, what happens to his stock then? IMO yes he may be able to get more after a decent world cup, but most clubs will have already assigned most of their S.C. by the end of the tournement. IMO this is the ideal time for Sam to announce the move.

I am just thankful its NRL not RU.

To be honest, I have real difficulty celebrating any aspect of Sam's departure to the NRL, and I couldn't give two hoots about what's best for him personally.

Yes, it's better than if he throws his sporting credibility away by going to RU, but these departures to Aus are still a disaster for the British domestic game. We've yet to see any real benefit at international level, and now we're hearing that some of the lads are talking about taking on Aussie citizenship so they can be selected for State of Origin. I actually hope that happens because then the message might finally get home to the powers-that-be that the NRL are not our mates, and that we are losing these lads as surely as if they were going to kick and clap.

[DaveO]

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jun 17, 2013 8:48 am  

jonh wrote:

Whilst I understand and appreciate it is frustrating. I do not think you can comment on the deal until the details are announced and maybe until Sam's career is over when we have all the facts at our disposal.

The fact that transfer fees count on the NRL salary cap is a fact and so unless an Aussie club can get round it in some way they are not in any position to be offering shedloads of money for anyone. By shed loads I mean world record fees like £750K or £1m. Even £250K is not not going to be that palatable for them as added to the players wage it is still a huge chunk out of even their cap.

One thing I believe is that IFL is not the kind of person to let Sam walk without a whole load of caveats in place.

Only tone will tell, but to throw the toys out of the pram at this stage without knowing any details is a bit daft in my opinion.

I am not throwing anything anywhere merely pointing out if people think we are going to get a shed load of cash for Sam there is a good reason to question that. Do you disagree given the NRl salary cap rules?

I am not sure why people seem to set such store by the level of fee we get anyway given this isn't Monopoly where the idea is to amass as much cash as possible but sport where the object is to win trophies.

As to IL inserting load of caveats what do you mean by that? That we will have first refusal if he returns to SL? If so, big deal and I'll believe it when I see it.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:57 am  

I think it's ridiculous that transfer fees count towards the salary cap in the NRL. The clue is in the title, the fee is not part of the player's salary and therefore shouldn't count on the cap. This does mean that there is noway we are going to get a huge lump sum for Tomkins, it will probably be a fee that is paid in installments throughout his contract with NZ Warriors.

I think it's unfair to have a go at IL if Tomkins wants to go early and there are teams in the NRL prepared to pay us a fee and him a big contract. If IL was only concerned with shipping him off to the highest bidder then he'd be off to union where we probably could get a massive lump sum transfer fee off the RFU.

ATEOTD we have produced a world class talent who has probably got around 10 years left in the game. He is perfectly entitled to test himself in a league with much better overall standard than he is currently playing in and earn as much money as possible doing it. If IL can reach an agreement with a new club then it's up to him and his coaching staff to make sure we are ready for life after Sam.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:35 am  

If he comes back, it might be to his moneybags childhood club.

[DaveO]

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:43 am  

WARRIORCRAIG wrote:

I think it's ridiculous that transfer fees count towards the salary cap in the NRL. The clue is in the title, the fee is not part of the player's salary and therefore shouldn't count on the cap. This does mean that there is noway we are going to get a huge lump sum for Tomkins, it will probably be a fee that is paid in installments throughout his contract with NZ Warriors.

You might think it is ridiculous but those are the rules and why would we want it paid in installments anyway and how much would they be? If he signed a four year deal and we got a huge fee that would along with this wages still be a wedge into the NRL clubs salary cap even if they paid in instalments. They don't pay the rest of their players peanuts and so will have far less room to maneuver than people think. Sure they can better any wage a UK club can offer but they can't do that and pay £750K or £1m for him as well. That is just the way it is.

I think it's unfair to have a go at IL if Tomkins wants to go early and there are teams in the NRL prepared to pay us a fee and him a big contract. If IL was only concerned with shipping him off to the highest bidder then he'd be off to union where we probably could get a massive lump sum transfer fee off the RFU.

Yes he probably could get more money out of the RFU but Sam might not want to go to RU! IL can't just sell him like a sack of spuds. It's not up to IL where Sam goes and the only thing he has control of is when he goes.

So given the nature of Sam's current deal and how it was lauded as keeping him here for three years at least and maybe for five it is entirely fair to have a go at IL because the only way he can leave two years into this deal is because the club have colluded by agreeing to a transfer enquiry from another club.

ATEOTD we have produced a world class talent who has probably got around 10 years left in the game. He is perfectly entitled to test himself in a league with much better overall standard than he is currently playing in and earn as much money as possible doing it. If IL can reach an agreement with a new club then it's up to him and his coaching staff to make sure we are ready for life after Sam.

Sick of hearing this line to be honest re Sam. We all accepted we had a deal that would see him here for a certain amount of time but also accepted he'd probably leave at the end of it for the usual reasons of more money and because he'd want to test himself. Fair enough. This deal was lauded by the fans with IL getting pats on the back and it mitigated the disappointment to losing Joel to RU.

In fact I bet you were right up there telling us all what a genius IL was for securing this sort of deal.

It looked as though IL had at least protected the club from losing its best player at least for three years. Now that deal looks worthless IMO there is only one person to blame if true and that is IL. The idea he can do such a deal, then rip it up and it's all OK and IL is blameless because Sam wants to test himself is ludicrous.