Higham Knew Nothing About the Netwon Thing

[DaveO]

ancientnloyal posted:
Is it really that important?

Yes because at the moment this fiasco is a throw back to how the club was run in the Mo era. We have supposedly moved on from that.

Dave

[Sutty]

You are right Dave, it is a throw back to the Mo era, but some people are all too quick to scream blue murder if something happens which could possibly have been handled with more aplomb.

We will never know what really happened between the two clubs regarding this matter. Maybe IL was a bit un subtle in his approach, maybe Bradford are blowing it all out of perspective. I am sure that whatever has happened will have been ironed out in house between Higham and the club.

Let's not forget that Leneghan has managed to squeeze quite a lot out of a relatively small amout of cap space. I say we all lay this story to bed, and concentrate on the forthcoming season.
If IL is going to make many more rash decisions, then we may have cause to doubt his ability to manage the club in a way that we, as fans, would like.
Until then I am going to put this one down to a bit of media gossip which has been over inflated and has probably been dealt with in house.

[ince warrior]

i cant help thinking its a bit of both IL maybe trying to strengthen the squad (not my personal opinion that swapping Terry for Higham is doing that) and the media blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Perhaps IL showed interest in Newton and then the media cottoned onto it and sensationalised the story for selling purposes? We all know surely that the media doesn't tell the whole truth. They may have been simply including Higham in the deal in order to make the story appear bigger.

It may also have been that the offer described in the media had in fact been made, but maybe made a couple of months ago... don't forget Sean O'Loughlin's quote in the WEP about his contract "I signed my new contract 6(?) weeks before the club announced it"

However, I do think that it's a bit dodgy that there's been no vote of confidence from IL and that Bradford have said that they have turned down an offer... it doesn't look that good in my book and I'm just hoping that Noble, Lenagan and Higham can resolve the issue with minimum fuss and get on with making a positive start because IMO he's going to be pivotal for us this season.

[DaveO]

ince warrior posted:
... it doesn't look that good in my book and I'm just hoping that Noble, Lenagan and Higham can resolve the issue with minimum fuss and get on with making a positive start because IMO he's going to be pivotal for us this season.

I think that is what everybody wants but in our new era of openness and honesty from the club I'd expect an announcement from the club that this is the case, not be left hoping it is the case.

Dave

[Matthew-Warrior]

DaveO posted:

It is a rather pointless exercise and given we are according to IL, up to our cap limit what was he going to do if Bradford had said he was available?

There is only one thing he could do and that is make room by getting rid of someone else.

Dave

As stated at the fans forum, these enquiries are likely to have been made regarding 2009 or 2010. We are up to our salary cap limit according to Mr.Lenagan and I certainly believe him. At the fans forum he did say he'd been contacting several clubs and agents regarding player availability for 2009 and beyond. IMO either Bradford are exaggerating or misinterpreting the circumstance or it is completely fabricated by either the Bradford club or Bradford telegraph.

[DaveO]

Matthew-Warrior posted:
As stated at the fans forum, these enquiries are likely to have been made regarding 2009 or 2010.

Can't have been. If they were for then we could not be offering Higham in exchange as Higham would be out of contract by then and not ours to offer.

Also Newton's contract expires in two years so if the enquiry was for him being available in 2010 we would be enquiring abut the availability of a player who would be 31. Not a good idea.

So I think it is obvious if we enquired for Newton now it was for him being available for transfer now, not next year or the year after.

We are up to our salary cap limit according to Mr.Lenagan and I certainly believe him.

Which is why Wigan would need to offload Higham to get Newton now....

At the fans forum he did say he'd been contacting several clubs and agents regarding player availability for 2009 and beyond. IMO either Bradford are exaggerating or misinterpreting the circumstance or it is completely fabricated by either the Bradford club or Bradford telegraph.

I can't believe any enquiry for Newton was for 2009 or 2010 for the above reasons. Newton will be 30 in 2009 and 31 in 2010. Too old to come back. And as I said the idea of offering Higham could only happen if he was under contract to Wigan so Wigan's to offer. In 2009 he is out of contract so Wigan could not offer him to anyone.

So based on that any enquiry for Newton must have been for this coming season.

Dave

[DaveO]

TWO EYED WARRIOR posted:
If it was at all true that it was for this season then im sure the news would have stemmed from a press conference not just a local rag who seems to have had a tip off from an insider at the club and all sorts of questions about salary cap at wigan would have ensued

Eh? All this blew up due to direct quotes from McNamara and Hood the Bradford chairman. Not some unattributed speculation in a local rag.

Dave

[Matthew-Warrior]

I understand what you're saying Daveo, but there is no proof that Higham was offered to Bradford as we all know, we can't make an assumption either way really. The point you're making about Newton being 30 and 31, saying enquiring about him would be more or less pointless at that age doesn't necessarily mean it's impossible, just unlikely. Ian Lenagan could've made the enquiries for 2009 or 2010 regardless of Newton's age.

[DaveO]

Matthew-Warrior posted:
I understand what you're saying Daveo, but there is no proof that Higham was offered to Bradford as we all know, we can't make an assumption either way really.

For it not to be the case we have to say Hood and McNamara have been lying.

The point you're making about Newton being 30 and 31, saying enquiring about him would be more or less pointless at that age doesn't necessarily mean it's impossible, just unlikely. Ian Lenagan could've made the enquiries for 2009 or 2010 regardless of Newton's age.

If it was for 2009 we would still have to pay Bradford a transfer fee as Newton would be under contract. Paying a fee for a 30 your old player is not something I would like to see the club doing.

If we wait until 2010 when Newton is out of contract and no fee would be requited he will be 31.

So I can't understand why we would be interested unless it was for this season which would mean Higham being shipped out.

Dave

[DaveO]

TWO EYED WARRIOR posted:

DaveO posted:

TWO EYED WARRIOR posted:
If it was at all true that it was for this season then im sure the news would have stemmed from a press conference not just a local rag who seems to have had a tip off from an insider at the club and all sorts of questions about salary cap at wigan would have ensued

Eh? All this blew up due to direct quotes from McNamara and Hood the Bradford chairman. Not some unattributed speculation in a local rag.

Dave

Prove it!.

OK then. Is the Bradford Bulls official web site good enough proof for you?

http://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/bb_news_ ... ewsid=3323

The first anyone heard about it was from that nationally recognised paper the telegraph and argus.

I am not sure why direct quotes attributed to the Bradford officials are any less valid if they appear in that paper than IL's rebuttal appearing in the Wigan Observer but since they are now on the Bulls official site I take it that proves it?

A quote from the above link:

Steve McNamara confirmed that the bid has been rejected:

"We've had an approach from Wigan and turned it down out of hand. We're not interested in Terry Newton leaving our club and certainly not interested in taking Mickey Higham as his replacement, which is what Wigan were offering."

How that squares with what IL has said I really do not know.

EDIT: I would add while the Bradford version of events appears on their official site there is nothing on Wigan'a official site denying it. We only have the quotes from IL to the Observer for that.

Pretty poor show by Wigan IMO.

Dave