Mr Radlinski it's over to you.

[catman]

Kris Radlinski has been our head of recruitment for several seasons now.

In the past few seasons he has been criticised for not being very pro-active. However with the news of Sam Tomkins leaving at the end of the season and perhaps several others joining him out of the door Mr Radlinski now has a sizeable chunk of salary cap at his disposal. Kris now needs to live up to his job title, buy a return Qantas ticket to Sydney and get some recruitment done. There are no shortage of quality Aussies on the final years of their contracts for example Robbie Farah, Josh Morris, and even pipe dream Jonathan Thurston. Kris needs to use his powers of persuasion and a few Bob of Lenagans to persuade some of them to put cherry and white shirt on for a couple of seasons. If he can't do this you must wonder what we are paying him to do.

One thing Wigan fans will not accept is the replacement of Sam Tompkins on the cheap. Sam is a quality player and even though he has not hit the heights expected when we resigned him from New Zealand his absence will still leave a significant gap in our squad that needs to be filled by an established quality player, not a youngster or a Wane project. If he is not adequately replaced it will hit our season ticket sales and attendance next year.

[shaunedwardsfanclub]

I am not sure that JT and RF could do another season it looks like their bodies have had enough, but I understand your reasoning. Don't hold your breath!

[Caboosegg]

Sizeable chunk?

Only 75k of tomkins salary counted so not that much for a star replacement.

[First Try Tickle]

But we only need 150k if he's the new Marquee player. Maybe Lockers could take a pay cut for next season as he only plays a third of the games he starts.

I think Hardaker is the replacement for Same, I can see the Marquee spot going to Bateman and any extra money on keeping the youngsters here. Unless Wane follows Same to Catalans, I can't see Powell moving from Scrum Half in the future.

[DaveO]

But we only need 150k if he's the new Marquee player. Maybe Lockers could take a pay cut for next season as he only plays a third of the games he starts.

I think Hardaker is the replacement for Same, I can see the Marquee spot going to Bateman and any extra money on keeping the youngsters here. Unless Wane follows Same to Catalans, I can't see Powell moving from Scrum Half in the future.

Unfortunately I think you are quite likely to be right in your last paragraph and if you are, we are going backwards.

Hardaker for Sam is not a direct replacement because they are different types of player and for Hardaker to enjoy the same success at Wigan as he did at Cas we need better half backs than we have got.

So I agree with the O/P, it's time for Radlinkiski to go and find a marquee player and that needs to be a half back. It's also time for Wane to stop being obsessed with playing Powell.

If we don't do this I think people will be disappointed in Hardaker.

The marquee slot should not be used to keep Bateman. He's good but he's not that good we should be flinging marquee money at him.
I don't think there is anyone in the current squad who should be given marquee status and as I said the team needs strengthening in the halves to support Hardaker and that will cost. Unfortunately I don't think the club is prepared to spend what would be required to get a top half back over here. It wanted to reduce the cost for Sam T so cost saving seems to be what is driving the recruitment agenda at the moment.

I would not be surprised if our new marquee player is in fact Hardaker. Sam going only frees £75K of the cap and despite the drugs ban I don't think the club will have offered Hardaker peanuts to come here. So to offer him the wage of a star player he might well be given Sam's marquee slot.

[Wintergreen]

We desperately need an orgainising half back, even more so with Sam going.

You could put the Austrailian national team alongside our current offering and they would get hammered.

[moto748]

There are no shortage of quality Aussies on the final years of their contracts for example Robbie Farah, Josh Morris, and even pipe dream Jonathan Thurston.

How about Benji Marshall?

Skillful, smart, great kicking game...

[Barney841]

Tyrone peachey is a player will should look at, can play almost anywhere including in the half’s.
If they don’t want one from overseas take a punt at trueman from cas, abit young but lots of potential

[yokozuna]

We'll also need a regular goal-kicker, and hopefully we don't wait a few years before that issue is addressed...

[DaveO]

We desperately need an orgainising half back, even more so with Sam going.

You could put the Austrailian national team alongside our current offering and they would get hammered.

Well perhaps I would not go that far but I can see where you are coming from. There certainly needs to to be some thought applied to building a team around Hardaker as opposed to Sam T and not adopt a "square pegs into round holes" mentality. By that I mean just because Hardaker has a reputation as a top player you can't just slot him in like for like.

We have in the past recruited players with a good reputation and then asked them to play a different game to that which earned them that reputation and the result has not been good.

As we have an ex-player in charge of recruitment in Radlinski you'd think by now this particular penny would have dropped but I don't think it has.