[quote="MattyB":1778imjw]I agree the atmosphere and increase in attendances were incredible as each game came and went. Not sure any other team before or since has had such an instance of this. I think the worst I felt personally (more so than the 75-0 / 70-0 fortnight) was Wakefield away where Richards 'scored' in the final seconds which was ruled out. At that point I thought we were gone. The Wire home win out of nothing gave us the smallest glint of hope, I think we struggled a win v Hudds with a late Danny Orr try under the sticks. One of the reasons I can only slightly recall certain events is that I won't rewatch anything of that season as it still sends shudders. [/quote:1778imjw] The 75 and 70 point defeats were actually in the 2005 season and we briefly flirted with relegation that year as well. Our recruitment for 2006 was actually very good aside from moving Terry Newton on for Micky Higham. I think we had a lot of injuries but clearly there was a huge breakdown in relations between Millward and the players. Agree completely about the Wakefield game - there felt no way back after that. The run of games towards the end starting with Fielden's debut and the Warrington is still one of my best memories as a Wigan fan. Leeds away right after the salary cap breach was a huge effort from the players.

[quote="NickyKiss":2imbwnlw]Replacing British players in a nightmare. There just isn't the quality available form this country and then you go overseas and you start tying up quota spots. I do think Saints will retain at least one of Knowles/Lees but we'll see. Maybe one going will help keep the other but to lose both would be a huge blow. I just can't see it though because that is totally against how Saints have managed their roster in recent times. It's very rare players leave who Saints would like to keep.[/quote:2imbwnlw] Money talks though. A NRL club could sign either for £300k a year which is a drop in the ocean in relation to their cap yet that amount would (I'm presuming) be way over what both are currently earning individually now. There's no way that we (Saints) can compete.

Knowles is more of an immediate concern as there is an option on Lees for next year. Ideally both will sign again but couldn't begrudge either of them an NRL move. We've 18 players off contract in the next 12 months, and up to 5 quota spots to play with. Of those there's only four I'd definitely want to keep and another 5 who should definitely be let go, so we should be salary competitive with recruitment and retention right now.

[quote="SFW":2hy1wqo0]Knowles is more of an immediate concern as there is an option on Lees for next year. Ideally both will sign again but couldn't begrudge either of them an NRL move. We've 18 players off contract in the next 12 months, and up to 5 quota spots to play with. Of those there's only four I'd definitely want to keep and another 5 who should definitely be let go, so we should be salary competitive with recruitment and retention right now.[/quote:2hy1wqo0] There is a guy ITK on the other Wigan forum, who is very well connected, and he is saying that Knowles to Dolphins and Lees to Wire are done deals.

[quote="SFW":3rf0gwz5]Knowles is more of an immediate concern as there is an option on Lees for next year. Ideally both will sign again but couldn't begrudge either of them an NRL move. We've 18 players off contract in the next 12 months, and up to 5 quota spots to play with. Of those there's only four I'd definitely want to keep and another 5 who should definitely be let go, so we should be salary competitive with recruitment and retention right now.[/quote:3rf0gwz5] Jeez that a lot of players. Possibly looking at a further rebuild. What’s McManus said on all this, has he lost interest?

[quote="Zig":cyzw6dh3]There is a guy ITK on the other Wigan forum, who is very well connected, and he is saying that Knowles to Dolphins and Lees to Wire are done deals.[/quote:cyzw6dh3] The guy from fir tree farm?