Wigan squad for Leeds

[DaveO]

It’s been largely irrelevant if IL runs it as a business or a hobby because according to the fans forum Wigan spend to the cap and operating losses have been covered.

IL can’t spend any more on the squad if he wanted to apart from on two marquee players which he has done in the past and was in fact a prime mover in getting the marquee rule in place.

So on the one hand we should be grateful he covers the losses and. funds the squad to the full cap.

That does not however give him and Rads a free pass on being in charge of the current shambles that is the current squad. It’s not a minor issue that he’s spent £2.1m minus G Burgess salary on that squad this year. It’s ridiculous.

Had Mo Lindsay delivered that squad costing that much money he’d have been labelled incompetent.

[jaws1]

It’s been largely irrelevant if IL runs it as a business or a hobby because according to the fans forum Wigan spend to the cap and operating losses have been covered.

IL can’t spend any more on the squad if he wanted to apart from on two marquee players which he has done in the past and was in fact a prime mover in getting the marquee rule in place.

So on the one hand we should be grateful he covers the losses and. funds the squad to the full cap.

That does not however give him and Rads a free pass on being in charge of the current shambles that is the current squad. It’s not a minor issue that he’s spent £2.1m minus G Burgess salary on that squad this year. It’s ridiculous.

Had Mo Lindsay delivered that squad costing that much money he’d have been labelled incompetent.

I did not go to fans forum but it came up about investing in the youth looks like we have OVER INVESTED gave them long contracts and now we are stuffed. You have to get the balance right youth as well as experience Rads has gone for youth .

[nathan_rugby]

There’s nothing wrong with giving youth players these contracts and the market will dictate the value.

The issue is we seem to have given too many at the same time to players in similar positions of similar standard.

I assume the players on these upgraded contracts are: Partington, Byrne, Smithies & Havard.

The club mentioned a standard 2 year contract when you join the first team so I would imagine that Shorrocks and Smith are on that along with KPP, Halsall etc

Hopefully this mis management doesn’t cost us too much, looking at our current squad and next weeks it looks like it will do. Reserves being back may help us make better decisions in the future?

[fozzieskem]

There’s nothing wrong with giving youth players these contracts and the market will dictate the value.

The issue is we seem to have given too many at the same time to players in similar positions of similar standard.

I assume the players on these upgraded contracts are: Partington, Byrne, Smithies & Havard.

The club mentioned a standard 2 year contract when you join the first team so I would imagine that Shorrocks and Smith are on that along with KPP, Halsall etc

Hopefully this mis management doesn’t cost us too much, looking at our current squad and next weeks it looks like it will do. Reserves being back may help us make better decisions in the future?

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head Nathan,too many similar players all got contracts I’d argue as well that isn’t the way to run. First team squad,get youth in by all means but it has to be spread around evenly unlike now and it’s an issue that will need to be addressed.

We all say it “you can’t keep every player”and that’s true I suspect KR has tried to keep these young lads,with little idea if they’re going to,push on and make the grade,some do some don’t but the present squad simply isn’t up to scratch and to have saddled the club with so many young lads is a worry because there simply isn’t any stardust in the team to try and bring fans back.

I genuinely fear for season ticket sales after the travesty of this last season and,little,to,look forward too.

[DaveO]

There’s nothing wrong with giving youth players these contracts and the market will dictate the value.

The issue is we seem to have given too many at the same time to players in similar positions of similar standard.

I assume the players on these upgraded contracts are: Partington, Byrne, Smithies & Havard.

The club mentioned a standard 2 year contract when you join the first team so I would imagine that Shorrocks and Smith are on that along with KPP, Halsall etc

Hopefully this mis management doesn’t cost us too much, looking at our current squad and next weeks it looks like it will do. Reserves being back may help us make better decisions in the future?

I think the issue is the market isn’t dictating the value of these players.

I think that standard two year contract has been automatically applied to all those players you mention when I don’t think the market would value say Partington and Byrne as highly has Harvard for example.

This is pro sport and at some point if Harvard does meet his potential he’s going to earn more than the others.

In the meantime paying the lot of them this standard first team contract seems to have gone a long way to gobbling up the cap leaving virtually no room to address glaring issues like we will be going into another season with just one specialist centre (and next season that’s Thornley).

This seemingly slavish application of these standard contracts obviously makes it easy to administer. Just decide who is staying and they get the boiler plate deal.

The club instead needs to offer players varying contracts based on their ability and what potential the club views they will have. A director of rugby might have that as one of his jobs.

If offering a young player less money sees him leave, let him leave. As others have said you can’t keep them all. If this means you occasionally back the wrong horse and let a good player leave so what? You have to back your judgement and you need to limit how much you spend on young players salaries.