Chris Ashton scoring tries again today, becoming a good player in RU, please IL try and keep our talented youngsters and please take note the RFL.

Who's Chris Ashton?

Oh wait..

Yeah, not bothered.

I'll be bothered if more of our young players follow him.
Just an observation.

Of course. However, I think a lot has changed since Chris left, with attitudes at the club etc. But, I don't think we're missing out on not having Chris Ashton here.

Perhaps not but he is developing into a good player.

Corrected it for you.

Far easier for him to "shine" in kick'n'clap imo, as nobody expects [size=50(the Spanish inquisition)[/size you to run it.

As to Ashton himself - Personally, I couldn't give 2 shïtes whether he wins the world cup for England, or disappears up his own ring-piece (although imo the latter is far more likely), as he plays the wrong code to be of any interest to me.

But worth making him one if not the highest earner at the club to keep him here if we'd competed with the RU offer? I don't think so.

How is his defence being tested in the kick and run game, not much I suppose

No one doubted his attacking abilities, but an offer from the rah rahs that he could not refuse.

I very much doubt we want or would see him back in a Wigan shirt ever

Like him or not, he is starting to shine in the 15 man code.

Why do people post saying they aren't bothered? Pointless to say the least, and if you're a Wigan fan, why wouldn't you be bothered?

I'd have him back over Phelps any day.

Is Phelps on £140000 a year? or put it another way was it worth 8% of our salary cap on ashton?

I dont think so

Agreed, and there ends the lesson.

At £140,000 a year (for an 18-year-old!) even Ian Lenagan would (quite rightly) say no.

He's on the verge of the England RU team and has broken scoring records in his first seasons of playing the game. Whether or not you think he's worth £140k is purely subjective. People in RU probably think he's earning every penny of that.

I'm betting there are several players at Wigan earning over £140k that don't deserve it.

So why would you want to add another in Chris Ashton?

Waste of money and like someone said previously, he could gladly disappear up his own ring piece (if he's not already on his way)

Well thanks for that its a lot easier using your reasons 24 months on from when the decision needed to be made... unless you forgot at the time he was 18 had played a small number of games for wigan had a number of problems in his defensive game there was no way to justify keeping him on anything like the wages he wanted

Like I said, whether you think he deserves that much or not is merely your opinion.

What are you talking about? I said I'd have him back to replace Phelps, it was you that started talking about 24 months ago.

What will have helped his development is playing at a lower level, I think Northampton were relegated the season he signed. And being dropped to the second team to work on his weaknesses.
He wasn't happy to play 2nd team football at Wigan, and I can't imagine him being sent to Leigh for 12 months (as an analogy)

All that's happened is that the RU coaches have done exactly the same as any RL coach would have done, but because he's tied to a large contract he has to stop being a big baby and knuckle down

Now there's no way he was worth what the RU paid for him but the fact that we've tied up Sam on a decent contract shows that we will pay the money when it's justified and the SC allows

The real lesson for the RFL to learn is to how to make our game more marketable so that we have the revenue to compete with RU so that we can keep hold of our decent young players and give them time to develop and not allow agents to simply play one offer against the other to drive prices up

Would you have said that about Chris Ashton at 18 years old, given that we were already performing a balancing act with wages, cap space etc?

Give an honest answer, and disregard the player Ashton is now.

Also, bear in mind that several England RU first team regulars wouldn't be worth £140 grand a year in SL given our salary cap status, so your 'verge of the England team' analogy doesn't mean much.

Why? I'm not talking about what happened in the past. All I said was I'd have him in-place of Phelps and apparently that means I think we should've given him £140k in 2007.

Id sooner have the anti-christ parading around in a Wigan shirt than that little jumped up, spoilt, turn coat, heathan, cocky, snot dribbling spunk bubble. I couldn't give two flying fecks what that nob jocky is doing now.

Some people have short memories when it comes to Mr Ashton and his antics in that yawnion shirt.

The problem was that Wigan allowed Ashton (and his agents) to get gooey eyed over the $$$ by not signing him up on a long term contract ala Sam Tomkins. Hopefully lessons have been learned and we can keep our "cream of the crop", however it's a problem wich is not going to go away in future years.

Wow, posing in a shirt for the team he'd signed for.

Gotta love Wiganers and their amazing over-exaggerations of everything.

His point is the fact he still played for Wigan at the time (and had to for six months more), in addition his attitude on the pitch was visually disappointing!

Wow how short is your memory!!

The bloke was parading around in that yawnion in the national press over 6mth before the end of the season and only 3 days before we played HUll in a vital SL game. It was a huge 2 fingers up to you, me and this great club of ours. Have some feckin standards man!!

You didnt see J Robinson acting like a w**ker when everyone knew he was going to RU.

Nope sorry pal, Ashton showed a lack of respect for the club that had made him into the player he was and for that I can only wish him all the worst.