Quote ="DaveO"The same thought has crossed my mind before now.
It's inevitable some will be released but stating the obvious, it's a balancing act (though a bloody hard one). I have some faith that what the club won't do is overlook the younger players in favour of experienced-but coming-to-the-end-of-their-career type players who may become available either here or in Oz.
I'd like to think the days of signing average players are in the past and if they are, then that gives every opportunity for the younger players to push for a 1st team contract. Hopefully they won't find their way blocked by such players which I don't think was true in the recent past. Of course they may find their way blocked by other Wigan produced players and there is nothing we can do about that except hope the club makes the right choices when it has to.
What the club needs to get going is a balanced squad in terms of age such that each season a player (or players) may retire then everyone moves up a slot and a new player(s) is added in at the bottom of the 1st team squad. I doubt we can ever reach this ideal but can probably go some way toward it.
Dave'"
I think we'll be able to keep most of our youngsters for another year or two, without too much impact on the cap - as Rogues has pointed out previously, most of them still qualify at U18 level, so presumably won't be earning much yet. As far as your "balanced squad" concept goes, that's already building, I believe - with good prospects coming along in just about every position.
