Joel to Union

[Mike]

Right lets break it down and do a little bit of maths shall we.

If its true that Tomkins is getting 55k a year thats £4.500 a month. You could live a very comfortable life on £2.000 a month easily, without doubt. That leaves £2.500 to put away for when he retires each month so.....thats 30k a year saves.

Say for arguements sake his career lasts what, 8 years thats a total save of 240k Thats not including his pension fund at 67 and no wage increase which is highly unlikely so im going worst case.

Thats his Mortgage paid for, a collage fund for his kids and a little bit left over for him and his wife, if he lives a sensible life.

In the meen time he can go to college and learn a trade, sports science etc, get good qualifications and he will go into a good job when he retires at 32-33 ala Andy Coley.

To be perfectly honest i would eat my own sh*t for that type of life because atm im struggling to retire at 70 at this rate, and i work my boll**s off for no reward, no status and no thankyou. I would kill to be in Joel's shoes.

I would be happy where im comfortable, earning what i consider a decent wage and play the best i could for my home town club. Im not a greedy man.

Got to take 20%/40% tax off your figures. So 55K is around 3,200 per week. Which leaves 1,200 to "put away". With 150K, he could put away a lot more which would make his shoes a lot nicer to be in. But i guess because you wouldn't do it, neither should he?

[cpwigan]

he currently only receives a salary of 55K.

And no one should be afraid of reality either.

That is around £1000 per week (before deductions and wins bonuses - if there are any).

I'm sorry CP, but you (and a few others) make out that sport somehow "owes" players the opportunity to live the life of Riley once they finish playing ie retire at 32-35. I'm sorry - that is not the way. Like Paul Prescott has done, he has already taken steps to make sure once his playing career is over, not only will he be set for life (as long as he doesn't go down the drink/drugs/gambling/prostitutes route so many do with extra money in their hands), but also he will have the education to continue earning after that career has ended.

In an earlier post, you mention that Jason Robinson has a clothing business. Is this is the same player that took great advantage of the super league/NRL war and also Union going professional to make a great deal of money AND also finishing his sporting career in Union? This DID NOT mean the player was/is able to spend time living life like a lottery winner having to just live of accumulated wealth/interest payments. So why now do you try and take the stance that this should be afforded to today's current crop of Wigan players? - especially as in another thread, you actually question British professionalism/mentality at the club!

As for posters saying they can understand him wanting to go to Union for the huge pay increase on offer - of course you can!

BUT, remember he signed a deal that IS binding him to Wigan until the club that values his ability/professionalism/skills so highly enough to virtually treble his wages, at the same time stop expecting to treat his current employers (ie Wigan) as if they are some sort of back-street trader who were lucky to have him, with comparably derogatory offers in compensation.

If the Union club involved rate Joel so highly to treble his wages - surely they are willing to pay his current employer whatever it takes to obtain his release wouldn't you think? This would have all been over as quickly as the rumour started, rather than what now appears to be a penny pinching Union club expecting to entice players away with NO repercussions.

So by your argument BM, Piggy Riddell should have been told screw you big boy you stop here and see your contract out, Trent Barrett? Madge? Etc Etc

Joel Tomkins has A) studied for qualifications post playing B) invested money. I believe he has bought property not on the scale of Chris Ashton who now has several properties across Wigan BUT we have a player who was prepared to take a pay cut to stay at Wigan, to play out of position, to help Wigan RLFC be successful who decides he wants to take an offer elsewhere. If Wigan think the compensation offered is acceptable he will go. Wigan take the view that unhappy players and that is what you create when you play hard ball are better moved on. Anybody ever worked with a Peed off fellow employee. Exactly, you all know how counter productive it can be.

Joel Tomkins career could end next year if bad luck struck. If he has a few bad games Wigan fans / fans anywhere will turn on him anyway, fans will forget about him soon enough. Nothing more fickle than a sports fan. The man is being offered an opportunity to make his life secure. Noting more than Ellery, Andy Greg, Shaun Edwards would have done and guess what I for one would not blame them.

[cpwigan]

I get a sniff of a personal attitude attack against me in this thread CP.
Am I correct on that ?

Not sure on that PM. I do recollect CP having exactly the same sort of "breakdown" a close season or so, where he threatened to leave the site if people didn't stop disagreeing with him

I would guess he is using his own personal circumstances/agenda to push his arguments about Joel etc. We know he is a teacher and the fact that they (as well as all the other public sector workers) are going to have to work longer before they can retire/less final salary schemes/generous retirement pay-outs etc and also have the added stress of threatened industrial action over the coming months. IMO I think CP finds it hard to separate his own to Joel's circumstances (and NO it is not a dig at you CP)

Crazy post. My life has nothing whatsoever to do with what does or does not happen to Joel Tomkins other than I will argue a point of view based on generations of understanding passed to me by many people.

Your analogy re teaching/public sector workers and RL players is ludicrous

P.S you will get your wish at a future point in time

[Kittwazzer]

Blackberry user so no idea who's said what and no intention of trawling 22 pages bu here's my four pennorth.

Wigan - 80 Grand pa
Union - 400 Grand pa

Frankly, if he couldn't work it out I'm not sure I would want him playing for our team. Or using sharp instruments for that matter.

Time for the RFL to save our game!

[josie andrews]

There has been no need for some of the comments made, especially the comments to Josie who is obviously not allowed to voice her opinion?

What personal comment?.......heat and kitchen spring to mind.

I haven't said anything!

[Dicknterry]

This thread is terrible.

[TonyH]

This thread is terrible.

You shutup as well. jking

Seriously though this thread needs locked or something.

[Dicknterry]

Tony. one thing about me i think you should know is i've a black belt from River island!

Admin - please move it to another forum section called 'childish banter....continued'

[TonyH]

Tony. one thing about me i think you should know is i've a black belt from River island!

Admin - please move it to another forum section called 'childish banter....continued'

quality, I used to do karate as a kid, then i got the suit and jacked it in!

[Dicknterry]

After 30 years as a gynaecologist, Joel decided he had enough money to retire and take up his real love, car mechanics. He left his practice, enrolled onto the auto mechanics course at Wigan Poly, and he studied really hard. The day of the final exam came but Joel was a bit worried if he would be able to complete the test with the same proficiency as his much younger classmates. As it happens most of the students completed their exam in two hours. Joel, on the other hand, took the entire four hours allotted!
The following day, Joel was delighted and surprised to see a score of 150% for his exam. Joel spoke to his teacher after class. "I never dreamed I could do this well on the exam. How did I earn a score of 150%?" His teacher replied, "I gave you 50% for perfectly disassembling the car engine. I awarded another 50% for perfectly reassembling the engine. I then gave you an additional 50% for having done all of it through the silencer."