I hope thats creative journalism or someone is on a wind up, for the next few years at least our 2nd row is going to be Ben Westwood and Trent Waterhouse so where would John Bateman fit in ? You can't pay that sort of money for a bench player.

We already have some good back row prospects in the youth setup so what would this say to them ?

I'd prefer us to stick another £200k on top and bring Sam Tomkins home, as a Warrington supporter as a kid it would surely be his dream to put on the primrose and blue.

To be fair Warrington supporters' opinions of their young upcoming players has always been optimistic.

Go back ten years and there were 'the future is bright' threads on here because we had the likes of Dave Alstead, Steve Maden and Mike Callan coming through the ranks....then it was Durbin and Pickersgill, lots of our signings have had the "do we really need him when we have X coming through..." asked, not least Chris Hicks when we had Kevin Penny coming through

If Smith rates him, I'd be chuffed if we got him. Young, heaps of potential and loads of time to be molded into the player Tony wants him to be.

Limahl had the strange blond and black thing going on. I think it was the bass player who had the rats tail






I 'll get me coat

Well Morely may not be here next year, Solo will surely not be here too much longer and GC is getting on, perhaps TS is thinking of moving someone from 2nd row to prop ?

Also Currie looks exciting but what price him being DR'd to a championship side next year to learn his trade ? Sally also makes a fair point - not all our juniors will make it in SL, but Bateman is already a regular at Bradford.

It is difficult to know what is in TS's thinking, assuming any of these rumours are even true.

Good point about Solo, Bateman being signed surely means Solo out the door at the end of the season.

Hope not,don't need him(Bateman)rather keep Solomona for 1 more year and with Currie learning from the Man himself will surely benefit his game..

Lee Mitchell is also a regular at Caslteford we could take him back for nowt.

Maybe I havent seen Bradford enough and when I have Bateman hasn't dont anything, and thats why i'm not so keen.

when we have blown our youngsters trumpets in the past (so to speak) we havent had a youth set up like todays, where by so many are making the step up to first grade and then younger players step up to keep the reserve team top of the league....if Sally thinks crowing over these youngsters is akin to crowing over Dave alstead and Mike somebody or other its just way off the mark, the current crop of kids are years ahead of anything we've ever produced.....

By the way that doesnt mean we cant poach other teams players, we've had it done to us time after time over the years...

Aye, but this is true of all clubs.

Wigan have had the 'next Great Britain captain' at scrum-half in the u18s every year since about 1997.

The difference is Wigan have produced far more quality since 1997 than we have. So have Leeds, Saints, Hull and Bradford.

thats a big call from flying biscuit who saw Mark Roberts and Mike Gregory come through in the 80s

i did as well and have a tendancy to agree with him, we have good young tallent coming through in so many different positions, it used to be one or two players coming through every few years, harris & sculthorpe spring to mind- one forward one back. now they all give a feeling they could compete in any superleague team in a few years time, if not next season, dwyer is top grade in my opinion, currie looks very good indeed, the list however does not end there! it's good being a wire at the mo, and long may it continue!

aye Mike Gregory came through that great youth set up.....

signed from Wigan St pats in the close season June 1982
made his debut in the first month of the new season in September 1982.

Christ if I saw him 'come through' i had one hell of an eagle eye.........

Whitehead and Bateman will be talking terms to Moran on Monday apparently.

The Bulls message board is currently going through the grief cycle over this. They were in denial for ages, currently dealing with acceptance and anger.

Selling Iestyn Harris helped to safeguard our short term future. Signing Harris has destroyed theirs. Funny how things work out, isn't it?

*funny weird, I don't mean funny ha ha. Not pleasant to see them on their knees.

It's a done deal. He'd have been playing at Newcastle Knights now if not for having a young child.

Ryan Atkins anyone? Worst haircut in Europe. Not to mention him and Myler go to get there eyebrows "threaded" every week in the mall.

their*

I am still struggling to work out why we need these players considering the depth we have in these positions.

Possible scenario;

Morley (35), Solo (33) retire (-2)
Trent / Ben H to prop
Whitehead, Bateman 2nd row (+2)
Currie to Championship side for 1 yr
Laithwaite eases into 1st team with 8/9 matches
Other juniors e.g. Bridge not proven yet

Note also that Currie and Bateman can both play centre. I have seen a couple of tries from Currie where he simply outpaced the opposition centres and wing. He is very fast. Not sure how quick Bateman is.

So your going off 1 season to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a kid? would rather give Solomona 1 more year while Currie is improving.look at wigans forum they were gutted they lost Currie,for me looks more a complete player already than Bateman.. stick with what we have i say

This season we have not missed Solomona. We have been lucky to have had a few good seasons from him.
We are Warrington & the money side is not a problem.

First off, I am not saying we do the above, the question was why should we buy. I am presenting a possible reason for that.

Second, who do you think would be at the forefront of this purchase ? Obviously it's TS. I would suggest that he is likely to have a very good idea of where all his players are, and if Moran offers him money to strengthen the squad, would spend it wisely.

Third off, Bateman has a proven track record. He is playing regular 1st team football, but obviously the expectation would be that heh as a lot of potential to come. How much money did we spend on Myler and how old was he when we purchased him ? All signings are a gamble.

Fourth, what if Currie does not improve while we are playing out Solo. We have to plan ahead for the next couple of years. We need experienced players that can win titles and back up in all our positions. You simply can not assume Currie will be the real deal in 2-3 years time.

Fifth, we don't really know how much has been offered, and how much is' a ridiculous amount of money' ?

Bateman is a top quality youngster, I'd love to see him at Saints.

Same goes for Currie who with Dwyer are the absolute stand outs for Warrington at that age.