Cameron Phelps

[shawcross da warrior]

i fully agree with you there sutty about signing young talent from all over....

i wouldnjt want an all english team of youngsters because i feel if we had just s few austrailians they add that little bit of flare some of our youngsters dont have...

[trotski_tgwu]

Dobson has also been cut but you wouldent rate him as a no hoper.

Cant say i know alot of Phelps, but the more the merrier i say, if hes another of these players that the fans want to keep then we will have the lad. Better prospect in the long run than Lockyer i feel.

Vanessa Phelps? God

[pedro]

Just because they are young Wigan lads doesnt mean they are good enough. Id rather watch 13 people from Warrington playing for Wigan and winning the league that 13 local lads finishing mid table..no room for sentiment at the top.

(not that 13 people from warrington could win the league...was an example)

And on Vanessa Phelps...we do need another prop or we could be signing miss piggy not piggy riddell.

[DaveO]

I thought one of the reasons for going down the franchise route was that we could generate (or germinate) youngsters through the accademy and not continually buy in "stars" from the other side of the planet who see our game as a cushy number and a retirement plan.

Phelps would be a quota player like Barrett is so it is up to the club how it wants to use its quota slots. At the moment the quota is high (10 I think) so clubs may still end up signing less than brilliant players until it gets down to five. (Even then I can't see any clubs signing fiver overseas super stars but that is a different subject).

However the quota rules also state how many "home grown" players you must have in your squad and how many "federation trained" as well as how many overseas players.

So as long as the club meets all these requirements signing players like Phelps isn't in theory impacting on the local lads as we have enough of those to comply with the rules.

I am pretty sure Wigan already meet the "home grown" requirement and obviously comply with the current quota.

Whether the quota is still too high or the number of "home grown" players it set too low is also another question.

I know we're a bit skinny in parts but surely, we should be lauding the efforts of Coyle at the weekend and holding him up to the rest of the nippers as a shining example of what can be achieved, instead of looking past them and over the sea.

If Pryce isn't going to play a part this season the coaching staff must decide if we can manage with Richards, Calders and Colbon as wingers or if we need a fourth more experienced player than Ainscough and Stanton.

Dave

[medlocke]

Dobson has also been cut but you wouldent rate him as a no hoper.

Cant say i know alot of Phelps, but the more the merrier i say, if hes another of these players that the fans want to keep then we will have the lad. Better prospect in the long run than Lockyer i feel.

Vanessa Phelps? God

She would make a brilliant prop forward, full of enthusiasm

Would rather have Vanessa Feltz

[cyberpieman]

What's wrong with a sprinkling of overseas talent

just for the record I wasn't saying we shouldn't have any overseas players but I'd just like to see at least a good amount of recognition that we have talent in this country. It's all too often sidelined in favour of the quick fix (I still cringe when I think about Andrew Johns coming over for all of 3 games for Wire).

We've been "building" the squad now for it seems an age, only for it to be held up by kids leaving because they know they'll never get a first team place unless there are 7 broken legs and a prolapsed hernia.

I'm glad that the accademy is popping out talent in the way it is, I just hope this fantastic progress isn't ruined by any panic short-termism (not that a top three place - if not first - and a good cup run wouldn't be nice - and on current form neither is beyond any realistic dream).

[jimmy5bellies]

The rumour has it that Karl Pryce is out for the season so Wigan are going to release him from his contract so enabling us to get Cameron Phelps..........

[Sutty]

Even though he isn't registered and isn't really costing us anything. I doubt very much that he will be released, as he has huge potential, and with age on his side, could be a great asset for us in the future.
I do however agree that we may be looking to sign Phelps as cover in the three quarters. Plenty pace and can play stand off. Could be a shrewd move by the hierarchy.

[GeoffN]

Even though he isn't registered and isn't really costing us anything. I doubt very much that he will be released, as he has huge potential, and with age on his side, could be a great asset for us in the future.

That's what Ian Lenaghan says in the WEP (linked on the Karl Pryce thread).

[LKC29]

I was talking to a first team players dad on friday and he said that his lad had told him that Phelps had signed and will be at wigan in a month. He also said that piggy had currently knocked us back as we haven't offered enough cash