Joel to Union

[Sutty]

I'm currently on a highly technical training course, for a major new network that Talk Talk is rolling out. The company has spent many thousands to trainme and some colleagues on this equipment, but if a rival company like BT came in and offered me a vastly improved contract offer, I'd probably not have to think too much about it.

In this day and age you have to think about No 1. Joel doesn't actually owe any of us anything. He was getting paid to do a job and has been offered a better position elsewhere. Anyone quoting the old contract line of he should honour it, really should get with the times. Even in normal jobs most companies only request that staff work a months notice. In sport, contracts are rarely worth the paper they're written on. In fact most of the time it's just so that clubs get handsomely compensated when players go to other clubs.

[butt monkey]

If joel is on around 70k say, and lenegan is going for value of contract plus 50% compensation, we'd be looking at something like 70x4x1.5 = 420K. Not enough IMO, we should be up near the 1M mark given the length of outstanding contract.

Which would sound like fair compensation IF Wigan are being offered anywhere near that amount. But what if the Union club decides (like many fans are advocating) Wigan are better off without an unhappy/unsettled player through their approach and only a relatively derogatory offer (say £100k) and refuse to budge on that?

Also, to those stating the approach is illegal, i believe that only applies within a sport ,not between different sports.

He is contracted, does not matter regardless about differing sports. A contract is a contract. Otherwise why did Kyle Eastomnd not play for Bath as soon as he has signed? I'm bloody glad I have no financial dealings with anyone on here who simply believe they can "walk away" after deciding they do not want to honour what they agreed/signed - what are people saying here????

Also ,remember that some of our great players were enticed to wigan with a substantial increase in wages ,not for a love of the game or the club. Boston and Hanley?

Boston was before the days of contracts, as was Hanley's before the Bosman ruling. Totally different situation being glibly excused as making Joel/his agents move seem "ok"

[josie andrews]

Tbh if he goes i hope he breaks his cruciate knee ligament in both knees

That is a terrible thing to wish on any player or person for that matter

[cpwigan]

Tbh if he goes i hope he breaks his cruciate knee ligament in both knees

That is a terrible thing to wish on any player or person for that matter

Totally agree Josie. I do not even wish injury upon opposing players let alone Wigan past/present ones.

[highland convert]

Logic, I have ten years to set me up for the rest of my life, 50 years if I snuff it at eighty. I can retire with a small nestegg, knacked knees, broken nose and a couple of medals
or
I can retire with a large nest egg, less damage to my body, and a fistful of medals, international honours that mean somthing, and probably a job for life in the upper echelons of some company that sponsered my carreer,

Work it out, you only go round once, make the most of it.

[TonyH]

Tbh if he goes i hope he breaks his cruciate knee ligament in both knees

That is a terrible thing to wish on any player or person for that matter

Absolutely agree Josie, that is a disgusting thing to say and as far as I'm concerned you are no better than the Leeds fans who were telling Sam (And Joel) that they hoped their Mother died of cancer.

[DaveO]

Dave this is RL. Clubs cannot afford to let players rot on principles.

You said "(Wigan)....will let him go provided the compensation is what they want so that IMO is on our terms. If those terms are not met, Joel stays."

So if Joel stays under those circumstances Wigan will be enforcing his contract. So you obviously think they can enforce it if they want to.

Presumably if they did he would be rotting away here so Wigan would have decided that they could afford to allow that because they were not offered enough compensation.

However if they did force him to stay I doubt that would happen. If he chose not to play ball for four years he would be incredibly stupid.

Joel leaving creates a hole in the squad we can't seemingly plug easily with a similar quality player therefore if Wigan have decided to let him leave what they should do is say OK but that will be after next season when we have had time to sort our squad out. In the meantime honour your contract. This approach has been used effectively in soccer with several players.

[yokozuna]

I don't think the discussion should be about Joel's contract and the legalities of it - but instead should be on the salary cap and the legalities of that.

Without the cap, the top players would receive a much higher income in RL and wouldn't be turned to the dark side and the much bigger salaries on offer.

The Bosman ruling gave players a LOT more power regarding contracts in football (and other sports), as what was in place before then was deemed to be a restriction of trade for the players.

Surely the salary cap is a similar restriction?

(Like others I'm sad to see Joel go, and unless we sign a top-class replacement the side will be weakened for next season and possibly beyond that).

[neilbass]

Its a shame he wants to leave, but I can't begrudge him moving if the salary on offer is as high as is being reported.

He has been good for us this season but not amazing.

I'm not even bothered about a new signing - there's no shortage of centres in the reserves (Goulding and Marsh the most experienced, but others up and coming too that really deserve a chance)

I hope he does well in Union - I've enjoyed seeing Chris Ashton get the recognition for his ability and will enjoy Joel doing well for them too.

I do agree the RFL needs to review the salary cap situation though - otherwise we could face a massive drain of talent.

[Wigan_forever1985]

Let's nail this one once and for all shall we? There are two sorts of employment out there. Normal employment where you are an employee of a firm and work to a notice period and fixed term contract work where you are not. I spent quite a while working as an IT contractor early in my career on fixed term contracts. They were highly paid and there was plenty of demand for my services. What I and others doing the same did NOT do was start say a two year contract and then leave after a month because a better contract was on offer down the road. That was just not the done thing. If you did that your reputation went down the pan as your clients projects came off the rails. What you did was see the deal out and look for a better one next time. You could afford to do this because you were being well paid. THAT Is the real world of fixed term contracted employment and how highly paid people who are responsible behave and those are the parallels employment-wise. Not what you say above.

Sorry DaveO this borderlines naivety and while i understand the statement of your argument this is the REAL world and things just dont happen that way.

I also work in I.T and have had several contractors leave for bigger contracts but i digress as this is not relevant nor applicable to sporting contracts.

As CP says the reasons for a "contract" in sport is to make sure a club doesnt lose a player for nothing, thats the be all and end all, id like to see a stat on the completion rate of contracts as im guessing it would be pretty low and only boosted by players of mediocrity that arent sort after assets.

In I.T breaking your leg couldnt/wouldnt end your career and you arent going to be retiring at the short end of 30. Sportsmen and Women need to earn the most they can in their careers as it can be over in a heartbeat with most not trained in any other form of work.

Barrett left early (not forgetting he also left early to ge to us) i dont rememeber anyone making a stink about that? ok he'd done 2 of 3 years but by your logic he should of stayed the extra year and been sent to reserves if he didnt like it?

Madge left early should he have been sent to coach the reserves while wane took over?

i just dont understand how anyone of your intelligence DaveO would even think that these contracts mean anything other than sealing compensation deals for the club