Tomkins saga over as he signs for the NZW

[KOOCH]

Joe Lydon responded most eloquently to my emails.Since his departure nothing ventures out unless it's as josie states drip fed through the media.As an example Sam Hopkins.Everyone knew of the deal days before it was announced.Thus leaving the fans frustrated. Unfortunately I no longer have the email from Joe Lydon in which he states that the club preferred to keep dealings of possible future signings in house rather through the media.Thus not attracting interest from other clubs thus creating a bidding war.

[Owd Codger]

Joe Lydon responded most eloquently to my emails.Since his departure nothing ventures out unless it's as josie states drip fed through the media.As an example Sam Hopkins.Everyone knew of the deal days before it was announced.Thus leaving the fans frustrated. Unfortunately I no longer have the email from Joe Lydon in which he states that the club preferred to keep dealings of possible future signings in house rather through the media.Thus not attracting interest from other clubs thus creating a bidding war.

Exactly, and sometimes they feed 'red herrings' to distract attention away from a player they are after.

[DaveO]

And this to me is the problem, we shouldn't be actively losing players because of their talent, we should be recruiting players because they have the talent to play at WRLFC. We should be the club all talented players aspire to play for, if players leave us it should be for lesser clubs. It is a downwards spiral, and not because we are losing 1 player because we are resigned to and conditioned now as fans to say " we have developed them, now the next logical step is for them to be sold to either the NRL or RU as soon as they establish themselves in the 1st team"

That is the problem because if Sam goes why won't Hampshire follow if he achieves the potential he looks to have?

I don't see any logic in saying we will use the money from transfer fees to invest in youth because what is the point? As soon as they get to be any good IL will sell them on.

Sam Tomkins was in a way the first of the new generation of players to graduate to the first team when he did so in 2009 with his 5 try début. The production line should be being used to add players alongside him, not replace him.

I hope if IL does sell Sam there is a Wigan fan wealthier than IL who is suitably enraged enough to want to buy him out! IL might not want to sell of course but I think he'd soon change his tune if someone was known by the fans to be waiting in the wings on a ticket of not selling the clubs best players! His position would be untenable pretty quickly I think.

[cpwigan]

Hey guys- new to the forum. I'm a NZ warriors fan but also a long time Wigan supporter- going back to the days of dean bell and the iro brothers etc.
A lot of the NZ fans are really excited about this possibility, while others not so much. The nay Sayers will tell you we already have Kevin Locke and that tomkins can't tackle- from what Ive seen be actually looks like a pretty good defender and the stats seem to back this up. I was so wondering how u lads view his defence?
Also there's been a lot of talk about a couple of our players heading your way- who would u like to sign from our club if any of this is true?

Sam is actually a very good defender. He reads the same superbly and guides the defence in front of him like the very best fullbacks. He has dropped a few bombs which is odd because he catches / fields all manner of kicks very well normally. IMO, your getting a young Billy Slater.

[cpwigan]

Let's be honest communication at the moment is at an all time low since IL bought the club. Others worked damn hard on this such as Joe Lydon and Mick Hogan. IL seems not to care one jot about communicating with fans / the media. I had several opportunities to chat / discuss things with Mick Hogan and he/other would follow the ILline not comment on rumours blah blah BUT after Mick left he said to me that IL was a very difficult man to work for.

Abve all what fans are worried about IMO is that they saw Wigan offering so much with a GF / CC win AND SL getting weaker and weaker. Most people here have watched juniors for umpteen years and know potentially how good they can be. However, we all know as well no matter how much potential they, no matter how many games they win at academy level; the number of players that emerge are a very tiny proportion of those who represented Wigan at Academy level. Worse you can actually damage and destroy the opportunities those youngsters offer.

There is a very delicate balance between marrying opportunities for young players and providing the optimum amount of experience and quality professional habits to allow those youngsters to flourish and the team to continue dominating.

[Kittwazzer]

And this to me is the problem, we shouldn't be actively losing players because of their talent, we should be recruiting players because they have the talent to play at WRLFC. We should be the club all talented players aspire to play for,

As I've said elsewhere, those days have gone. The clubs that 'all talented players aspire to play for' are all down under.

We have to move with the times and manage the situation as best we can. So far, I'd say we are well ahead of the pack!

[DaveO]

We have to move with the times and manage the situation as best we can. So far, I'd say we are well ahead of the pack!

In what way are we ahead of the pack?

Being the first to actually facilitate our best players leaving despite coming up with contracts to supposedly keep them here in the face of RU and NRL competition? That is what Sam's gagging order was for.

[markill]

We have to move with the times and manage the situation as best we can. So far, I'd say we are well ahead of the pack!

In what way are we ahead of the pack?

Being the first to actually facilitate our best players leaving despite coming up with contracts to supposedly keep them here in the face of RU and NRL competition? That is what Sam's gagging order was for.

I think he means in terms of the youth development structures we have in place to replace players that may leave, but yeah, we're also the first ones to see numbers of players start to leave when they could be hitting their best years - although I'd rather lose them to NRL and have talented players to come in (by buying or promoting youth) than lose them to other Super League clubs and have no young players and the money just pays off debt - i.e. I'd rather be a Wigan fan than a Hull KR fan.

[cpwigan]

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 2opac.html

[DaveO]

We have to move with the times and manage the situation as best we can. So far, I'd say we are well ahead of the pack!

In what way are we ahead of the pack?

Being the first to actually facilitate our best players leaving despite coming up with contracts to supposedly keep them here in the face of RU and NRL competition? That is what Sam's gagging order was for.

I think he means in terms of the youth development structures we have in place to replace players that may leave, but yeah, we're also the first ones to see numbers of players start to leave when they could be hitting their best years - although I'd rather lose them to NRL and have talented players to come in (by buying or promoting youth) than lose them to other Super League clubs and have no young players and the money just pays off debt - i.e. I'd rather be a Wigan fan than a Hull KR fan.

Some clubs have for years run on a shoestring so have always found it hard to keep players but and its interestuing you mention HKR. We now look to teams like that so sign players. So the NRL takes the Sam T's and we sign the Blake Green's. It's no good for anyone in SL.

It would be far better if we kept the players we produced and didn't need to raid HKR as a result.

The players are leaving too early anyway. The NRL will get the best years of Mossop and Sam. If they are a success down-under I can't see why they would want to return when the wages on offer will only be going up with the scheduled increases in the Oz salary cap.

If anyone says we have a contract with any player that guarantees they do return before they are looking for a swan song I'd say they were havin a laugh with contracts being what they are.