I agree that something needs to be done to keep the best British players in the game for the sake of England RL. At the moment however It's really hard to see a viable way around it. The 1 player thing imo in theory is a nice idea but I just don't see how it could work. especially when you consider teams like leeds that have quite a few players in the England team.... Teams who develop more than 1 great player would end up losing out somewhere down the line. Maybe if the international game can grow then at some point the funding may be available to do club England style payments but at the moment I dont think just throwing thousands of pounds at players like we did with Cunningham and Radlinski is going to work out financially for the sport.

They will still be after him. He proved just how good he is on saturday, he was Englands best player against the best team in the world. He showed so much class against the best players from down under. He was better than Boyd at FB and that is some going, Boyd is one of the top outside backs in the NRL. He is one of the best players in the world in either code, if RU think Ashton is good, they will be singing from the rooftops about this guy. He is special.

Im guessing/hoping that there is most likely a big break compensation clause in sams new contract that wasnt in the old contracts, we should take it as a lession learned and move on

We have the player that really matters to us

Quite.

Now lets get spending that money on a Centre!

Tis finally on the official Wigan site. www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.a ... &type=news Warning. It's very slow.

Tis finally on the official Wigan site. www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.a ... &type=news Warning. It's very slow.

there arent any sadly. i say give it to Brisbane

What money im guessing sams wage increase must have took most of the salary cap space!

We'll have some to play with. The outs wage must total more than the only confirmed signing + Sam's wage increase. Get throwing the compensation at someone for an out and out centre.

But, from a general rugby league point, it doesn't matter who they're playing for, as long as they're playing.
Say you had another player of Sams ability. Sam takes your one special spot.
Hull have no such player taking up their spot, so they offer a contract to your no 2. Said player stays in (British) Rugby League.

That way you'd end up with a good 10 players in Superleague who'd be a lot more difficult to be poached by union. The more it will cost union to pinch players, the less likely they are to take the gamble.

What if we produce ten world class players then have to share them out? Hardly fair is it?

If Sam stayed at Wigan for another 3 years never mind 5, that would be far more than I expected. Obviously very pleased he's staying for the forseeable.

The only concern is that Wigan end up generating a top heavy salary cap again with comparatively huge wages awarded to the big stars to fend off ruby union. I doubt this will happen with Lenagan and there would have been a salary ceiling even with Sam Tomkins. Its one of the things he said when he joined the club that he wanted to sort out so I can't see us going back to those days. But I'll guess we'll see in the future how much money we have left to play with from incoming players or indeed the lack thereof.

That's the problem at the minute, in the NRL even the lower clubs have enough money to pay big wages, so when the top clubs come close to the limit, players like Inglis, Fakir etc etc go to places like Gold Coast + Rabbitohs. You've never see someone like Tomkins going to a lower table side as they can't afford it, nevermind the fact there aren't enough quality players to spread about like that.

Well at least we have the money to offer a good transfer fee

which is exactly what it should be spent on

You could say yeh there'd be more great players spread throughout the league. but why on earth would teams like wigan bother investing in academys and youth teams if they know damn well that if a few of them turn out to be great that we are only going to be able to keep one of them. If anything we would end up with less talented youngsters coming through...

I don't know if this had been posted but official statement on Sam's future. [urlhttp://www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.aspx?id=6588&type=1[/url

Basically Sams new contract means we are guarranteed him for at least the next 3 years then if he choses to leave Wigan within two years after that, we are also guaranteed a massive transfer fee! Excellent business.

True, but I reckon you'd end up with Wigan, Saints, Leeds, Wire, Hull, Hull KR all take it up and I reckon clubs like Cas and Hudds would be able to do it without it stretching them too much.

So, that could be Tomkins, Roby, Hall, Westwood, Briscoe, Chase and Cudjoe currently covered. As we went along, you may see clubs saving the spot for outside backs who would be the prime targets for Union - ie Saints may use it for someone like Lomax, rather than someone like Graham.

You've got a few clubs with money and you've got Saints and Salford moving into improved facilities which should increase their earnings.

Yup good contract for the club from the sounds of it

Good academies go hand in hand with continued 1st team sucess.
The above is only valid if Wigan are the only club producing quality, which is not the case. If it were, and you were the only club producing high quality youngsters, then I would suggest that a)its a good problem for you to have in any situation and b)you'd have trouble holding on to all of them in a salary capped competetion anyways.

This is great news and has really made my day, particularly after reading about the 'partnership' with Saracens.

It sounds great and I am pleased with it but can any of those who have been telling me for weeks contracts are worthless explain why this one isn't equally worthless?

I haven't seen the details yet, but someone mentioned something on one of the other threads about Sam and his agent agreeing something like 'a non-communication clause' (presumably with other clubs) for the first three years.

Kind of makes you wonder why bother having a contract for five, if one party is demanding the right to duck out of it after three, but this is clearly a sign of the times in RL. If we've got Sam nailed down for 3 years, then that's a result for me.

Yeah totally agree with you again today. FFS going for a bath in liquid nitrogen.

He didnt need to sign a new contract and he could have easily followed his brother, or at least stated his desire to do so. However he chose to stay and has signed a new, and presumably greatly increased contract. This both extends his contract and as its for a much greater value makes it much more difficult for Union clubs to sign him without shelling out a huge sum in compensation.