It allows then to sign 25 players who share the £1.6m cap and no more. You can't divide the £1.6m between 30 senior pros for example. Is 25 enough to assemble a squad with depth?cherry.pie wrote: The current salary cap allows all teams to assemble a squad that has enough depth to see them through the season if they spend it wisely.
The point I was making was that each player who takes a wage that puts them into the clubs top 25 earners takes up a slot in that 25. If you sign too many grafters as part of that 25 you just do not have room to add the required number of star players even if you pay the grafters low wages.
It is obvious we can't have 25 star players but if for example we replace Lima with an average prop and keep all our other props as they are we can't excuse that by saying the new player is there to add depth.
That depends on how many such players you sign. I can remember in the 80's and 90's Wigan had a knack of signing seemingly average players who went up to another level when they got here. They were however playing alongside some star players of real quality once in our team. My concern is that the average players we do sign won't be playing alongside the star players as they are in fact their replacements.I don't believe the club would at any point sign a player they thought was average. They'll sign players who they think can provide a real benefit to the team but I'm sure that sometimes bringing in an experienced player who isn't necessarily a superstar would add something even if they aren't at the top end in terms of ability. That's why I'd like to see Wigan taking an interest in Matt Diskin, but that's another story.
Then people need to lower their expectations. The fact we may have to sign a lesser half back may be due to the younger players not being ready doesn't really matter. It is the quality of the half backs we do sign that does.If, hypothetically, Wigan hadn't been able to sign Blake Green then I still think the club would have had to go out and sign someone with a reasonable level of ability, even if they weren't convinced about him. We just can't go into next year relying on Smith, Powell and two teenagers in Williams and Hampshire. At the very least more competition was needed so that the club had real options.
That is not my understanding of squad depth. The player would be (has been) being signed as the first choice half back.That's what I meant by the club needing more depth. If there weren't any genuine quality players available the club would still have to minimise the risk in some way and would probably have gone out and signed an unknown NRL reserve grade player. It is better to sign a small amount of cap money on someone you aren't sure about who offers depth and potential value later on than not spend any and be short handed. That's what the club did with Gelling and he's showing good signs when playing at centre that the gamble may well pay off.
I think Blake Green is the best we were going to get.[/quote]As it stands the club has signed a very talented player who should offer a lot to the team next year. There are issues about his fitness and injuries this year but the club must be satisfied that he will be over them by next season and will be able to hit the ground running.
You seem to rate him so fair enough on that score but if he isn't as good as the player he replaces (as Smith isn't) being the "best we are going to get" is pretty uninspiring.
We could go to nearly any club in Super League bar Saints and possibly Warrington and throw abit of cash at a player who is "under contract" and he would become available.