Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Nov 19, 2023 8:11 am  

CobraCraig wrote:

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.

I’m sure Thompson will be our English marquee player with Field and French the overseas ones.

Farrell wouldn’t need to be marquee in year one as he would count as 0 against the cap.

In regards playing transfer frees for Minchella or Smith, it would be a big no from me. Don’t see where they improve us other than with squad depth but would command inflated salaries, I’d rather keep Shorrocks.

There may be significant risks on the field with any move for Farrell but from a profile and commercial point of view despite the salary out lay it would not be a massive win for the club.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Nov 19, 2023 6:58 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

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.

We will have three marquee players but we will nominate those players that give us the greatest financial benefit against the SC. We didn’t need to let Powell go to balance the books and if we allow Shorrocks to leave we will have more than £150k to spend which would, in theory, allow us to sign a marquee player. As Jon says, OF wouldn’t count against the cap and Field, dependant on his salary (he wasn’t marquee last season) could also be accommodated as well.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Nov 19, 2023 11:31 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

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?

Wasn’t he already on 800k at saracens though that’d have to be some climb down wage wise to even come close to what he’s currently earning and yes I understand he will be on less as the next contract won’t be anywhere near the one he’s on it’ll still be a fair slice of pie far more than league can realistically offer.

I’d say this union as a sport is coming to a big reckoning sooner rather than later you can’t keep shelling wages out like this without huge deals in place to cover it.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Nov 20, 2023 7:40 am  

Stranger wrote:

Wasn’t he already on 800k at saracens though that’d have to be some climb down wage wise to even come close to what he’s currently earning and yes I understand he will be on less as the next contract won’t be anywhere near the one he’s on it’ll still be a fair slice of pie far more than league can realistically offer.

I’d say this union as a sport is coming to a big reckoning sooner rather than later you can’t keep shelling wages out like this without huge deals in place to cover it.

I don’t believe under our current ownership that the wage is more than our new owner could realistically offer. It’s probably not sustainable but it would be as a 1 off statement signing.

Another Union club is reported to have struggled to make payments to its players last week so after losing 2 clubs in the last few years I’d say you are bang on with your second paragraph.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Nov 20, 2023 1:49 pm  

jonh wrote:

I don’t believe under our current ownership that the wage is more than our new owner could realistically offer. It’s probably not sustainable but it would be as a 1 off statement signing.

Another Union club is reported to have struggled to make payments to its players last week so after losing 2 clubs in the last few years I’d say you are bang on with your second paragraph.

I certainly respect what you say in regards to a statement signing but I'd counter Danson has made a statement signing in Thompson he will be on few Bob for sure,I agree the Farrell story refuses to go away but to me the all it ever was just rumours and nothing more,I'll say it again Billionaires tend to stay that not by chucking money about,who knows is this agent talk using Wigan as leverage to secure his marquee deal who knows but for me and I make no claim to any knowledge at all I think it's just that rumours.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Nov 20, 2023 2:50 pm  

Stranger wrote:

I certainly respect what you say in regards to a statement signing but I'd counter Danson has made a statement signing in Thompson he will be on few Bob for sure,I agree the Farrell story refuses to go away but to me the all it ever was just rumours and nothing more,I'll say it again Billionaires tend to stay that not by chucking money about,who knows is this agent talk using Wigan as leverage to secure his marquee deal who knows but for me and I make no claim to any knowledge at all I think it's just that rumours.

I think there was a point where contact has been made but I’m not sure it’s gone beyond that.

With Itoje confirming he is due to leave I’d say it’s virtually impossible that Farrell will leave as well in the same season given their leadership roles at Saracens.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Nov 20, 2023 2:59 pm  

Zig wrote:

We will have three marquee players but we will nominate those players that give us the greatest financial benefit against the SC. We didn’t need to let Powell go to balance the books and if we allow Shorrocks to leave we will have more than £150k to spend which would, in theory, allow us to sign a marquee player. As Jon says, OF wouldn’t count against the cap and Field, dependant on his salary (he wasn’t marquee last season) could also be accommodated as well.

We might have £150k but that may include 3 players budgeted as marquee, either way the market for marquee or even players at £150k a year that are non quota must be slim to none this late in the off season?

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Nov 20, 2023 3:01 pm  

Stranger wrote:

I certainly respect what you say in regards to a statement signing but I'd counter Danson has made a statement signing in Thompson he will be on few Bob for sure,I agree the Farrell story refuses to go away but to me the all it ever was just rumours and nothing more,I'll say it again Billionaires tend to stay that not by chucking money about,who knows is this agent talk using Wigan as leverage to secure his marquee deal who knows but for me and I make no claim to any knowledge at all I think it's just that rumours.

If he didn’t want to lose/chuck money away being involved in a sports team and taking one over as the main shareholder is the last thing you would do so maybe this is a late in life venture to spend some of the money he has made in his life?

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Nov 21, 2023 5:07 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

We might have £150k but that may include 3 players budgeted as marquee, either way the market for marquee or even players at £150k a year that are non quota must be slim to none this late in the off season?

i don't disagree with you, I am just pointing out that we do have the money to do some business if we want.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Nov 22, 2023 9:20 am  

Zig wrote:

i don't disagree with you, I am just pointing out that we do have the money to do some business if we want.

Probably best to be left in the kitty for a potential mid-season signing, might be able to bring someone non-quota in a few months earlier or you never know there might be a case (due to injuries or just not playing) that maybe Miski, Isa or Mago get released early so we can sign someone from the NRL.