Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Nov 18, 2023 10:47 am  

stpatricks wrote:

EXCLUSIVE: England rugby star Maro Itoje is offered a 50% PAY-CUT on his £800,000-a-year Saracens contract as they are forced to choose between him and Owen Farrell for 'marquee' deals - and now he could move abroad

That sort of money makes you realise how much we’d need to pay Farrell and the risks that come with that. Giving a guy who might not be able to contribute as much as many other players an absolute fortune might not be the best thing for squad harmony.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:13 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

That sort of money makes you realise how much we’d need to pay Farrell and the risks that come with that. Giving a guy who might not be able to contribute as much as many other players an absolute fortune might not be the best thing for squad harmony.

Sounds to me like OF's agent is playing a canny game.

It might be for the best if we just steer clear. For that kind of money, we could get an RL international who's younger and has a proven pedigree..

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:29 am  

Who do you think we could realistically look to bring in for next season? (if we do recruit)

Do you think we will start the season with what we have and look for something mid season again?

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:29 am  

dh13 wrote:

Who do you think we could realistically look to bring in for next season? (if we do recruit)

Do you think we will start the season with what we have and look for something mid season again?

We always tend to have room to bring in a mid-season signing

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:37 am  

[Gareth] wrote:

We always tend to have room to bring in a mid-season signing

It’s always a good option as you never know what can happen with injuries in certain areas etc. Being really greedy I’d like us to get a ball playing 13 in, but if we go with what we’ve got for now with the Owen Farrell ‘rumours’ looking further far-fetched, I still think we will be fine.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:05 pm  

[Gareth] wrote:

We always tend to have room to bring in a mid-season signing

We have room on the cap at the moment and if Joe Shorrocks leaves we, in theory, could sign another marquee player.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:07 pm  

stpatricks wrote: Post on RU site that Saracens will be using their one marquee slot on the cap for Owen Farrell. This? https://www.planetrugby.com/news/400k-p ... ell-report

stpatricks wrote: Post on RU site that Saracens will be using their one marquee slot on the cap for Owen Farrell. This? https://www.planetrugby.com/news/400k-p ... ell-report

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:47 pm  

Never quite understood where the Farrell talk came from,ok Wigan have a rich owner now but they tend to stay rich by being canny with their money the sheer amount that would be needed is clearly silly money (why would he come for a huge pay cut) and the risks that him not playing the game for many,many years is and are huge to me it makes zero sense.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Nov 19, 2023 7:21 am  

Zig wrote:

We have room on the cap at the moment and if Joe Shorrocks leaves we, in theory, could sign another marquee player.

You sure? Surely we have 3 designated marquee players now? If we brought in someone as marquee it would relegate one of those to a position where their wage would fully count on the cap, and looking at our squad for next season I find it pretty hard to believe we have much wiggle room for bringing in another player. If we do have room for this and we were willing to spend silly money on Farrell then I would like us to send a transfer fee to Leeds or Hull KR and try to get Smith or Minchella.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Nov 19, 2023 7:26 am  

Stranger wrote:

Never quite understood where the Farrell talk came from,ok Wigan have a rich owner now but they tend to stay rich by being canny with their money the sheer amount that would be needed is clearly silly money (why would he come for a huge pay cut) and the risks that him not playing the game for many,many years is and are huge to me it makes zero sense.

Due to the amount of people posting about OF and some with good track records and reputations on this site I can only presume there was some truth behind it and a meeting was had with Wigan and OF, looking at the article posted maybe OF and his agent thought he would be the one who would get pushed out of the marquee spot and offered £400k to which Wigan could compete with? Maybe a deal was close to being agreed which made Saracens counter with a marquee offer which Wigan couldn’t compete with?