SMITH SIGNS FOR WIGAN!!!

[cpwigan]

Awesome signing. Another IL masterstroke. He really attracts quality. Phelps and now Smith. Dear God we lose our best highest paid player and get a player with very poor form following a rookie season and enormous baggage. If you think our backs do not get much ball wait until Mr Inside Pass struts his stuff.

Roll on 2010 and Sam Tomkins being ready.

[El Bobbers]

Hey CPW, see your as positive as ever?

[lucky 13]

Hey CPW, see your as positive as ever?

Sorry CP but that's funny was only thinking you had been a bit negative lately .

[cpwigan]

No I am ecstatic. Replacing Trent with a retired scrum half is a cracking ploy. IL is amazing. Still Smith should go well as he has experience of guiding mediocre teams to mediocre results. I think we should just let Trent go home now. It really is not fair to ask him to play amongst such quality.

[MrDave]

Good player the down side is that he is yet another overseas player which means Wigan now have the most overseas players of any club in Super League.

Wigan will have to start getting rid of some overseas players in 2010 so they better make sure they have decent British replacements.

[cpwigan]

Behave yourself cp when was the last time we hammered a Saints side? when was the last time we contested a final? options are needed, over payed players need to go and some of our academy are nowhere near ready for regular Super League rounds,Tim Smith is a fantastic player as is Riddel.

IMO Smith is better than Dobson and Dobson was outstanding for us.
Contract length spot on again.


Answer me this, what if Smith turns up and becomes our best player alongside Trent and god forbid we actually win something? will the same attitude be dished out when were all drunk and merry at the grand final watching the players do a lap of honour with the trophie

I will happily bet you £10 that we will not win anything whilst Brian Noble is our coach.

We really attract quality players under Noble / IL

Cheap as chips, if you shop in the bargain basement shop you get cheap but poor quality goods.

Imagine if this had been ML

I am now wholeheartedly in favour of the franchise system

[KOOCH]

Can we at least give the guy a chance cp? And as for IL how long as the man been in charge? under the tenure of dave wheelan did we achieve our once giddy hights of yesteryear? i think not!If IL does not deliver in a couple of years then by all means slate the man and his signings.But have we really given him the chance to prove that his signing have been good or bad signing? i think not.I for one am prepared to give tim smith the benefit of doubt until proven otherwise.Likewise cameron phelps.Remember the george carmont doubters and the pat richards hatchet mob. Bring on the saints :baaa: :eusa17:

[El Bobbers]

I actually agree (in part) with CPW. I'm not sure how successful a scrum half can be at stand off. I don't agree that the positions are exactly the same, as CPW said in the Tim Smith thread in the rumours forum, stand off to scrum half seems to be ok but not necessarily the other way. How many scrum halfs have been successful at stand off?

But I am not complaining about this signing, Tim Smith is obviously very talented, to get 40 assists in one season is quite an achievement!

I look forward to finding out how successful he will be playing at stand off.

[DaveO]

I suppose at the end of the day no one of the same standard is available who was going to fill Barrett's boots. That is before we try to entice them to the UK and there aren't any established stand offs in the UK as good anyway (even if we could prise them away from their current clubs).

So IL was on a hiding to nothing in his search for a replacement and it just shows that for all Mo's critics he did manage to bring a truly great player to the club in Barrett.

I doubt we would have gone for Smith were Barrett honouring his contract but given Smith is available now it was I am sure either act now or miss out. Whether missing out would have been a blessing in disguise or if Smith is the answer longer term we will find out.

It's pretty clear we are still struggling with some big contracts to pay enough money to just go and try and get an established top quality player in to take Barret's place.

Signings like Mathers, Pryce and Smith were/are all risky signings that if they eventually come off means IL is a genius or if they fail, he isn't. Phelps is another long shot even if he isn't actually carrying any baggage. Even so you can't blame IL for trying to get a quart out of a pint pot.

So I think IL is doing the best he can with the room he has available under the cap.

The question is will the players he has managed to sign take us to a GF? I have my doubts partly because I have a feeling the player to miss out for Phelps will be Calders which will solve nothing and even it it's Goulding, I am not convinced a 14 stone five foot ten centre (Phelps) is going to set us up with a devastating 3/4 line.

In an ideal world I'd rather have seen the wages being given to Phelps and Smith this season be put together for a centre like Carmont. With a clone of him and we might get somewhere but Barrett leaving has put the kibosh on that idea and has forced the club down the path it's taken IMO.

Dave

[mike binder]

call me a sceptic ,but how many aussies are we allowed can some 1 please explain the rules im getting confused