I am sorry Rouges but you are missing the plat. All the above logic can be applied to any player. Who do you consider the worst player in RL at the moment? Using your logic we could sign this player and it would all be OK because he would only get into the team if he performs. But we would never sign this player would we?

No we would not and you know it. We would not sign him because he would not be good enough to give any of our current squad any meaningful competition. It would be a complete waste of time for club and player.

And so it is with Thomas. He is simply not good enough so all this "he will only get in the team if he performs" is just a load of nonsense.



No it won't be. Wigan sign less than average 37 year old retired RU player is not good publicity. No one in their right mind will have Thomas on the back of a replica shirt next year. We are not going to sell shed loads of replica shirts to the Welsh and there won't be bus loads up from South Wales every week to watch a Wigan team that doesn't actually have Gareth Thomas playing in it!

The publicity for this will last about a week at most. When his film comes out it will last another week if anyone notices at all.



The most obvious one is this signing is so transparently to do with PR and nothing to do his playing ability it will be seen as such and so it's dead in the water on that front before it starts.

Another is Thomas will not have been on any Wigan coaches list as a player they wanted so this signing will not have been made at the request of any coach but is right out of the Maurice Lindsay style of chairmanship. Mind you I am doing him a disservice there as I doubt he would be daft enough to go for this one.

There is also the danger he will get 1st team games because the PR people need him to not because he is good enough. You can't generate positive PR from a player languishing in the reserves. That won't give them the happy ending for his film will it?

And finally the ultimate negative - he simply is not good enough.

I'll admit my post was a little bit of a WUM post even though people are genuinely laughing at it.
You're coming back with laugh because we have this and that and sit at the top and massively missing the point. That's the reason, because you have these accolades yet make possibly the worst signing behind Ah Van.

Dave's been waiting four torturously long years to be able to say something like this.

Enjoy your moment, pal.

Perhaps Lenegan is trying to tap into the north west's gay market, like Stade Francais did in Paris. Could be very lucrative for the club, another good move from the number one chairman in the game imo.

Just as an aside, I don't understand some of the negativity around the Welsh on this thread.

There have of course been other prominent Welshmen who have been part of the story of the greatest club in RL, but there aren't many (any?) bigger figures in the history of the club than

Jim Sullivan and Billy Boston

were they both 37 when they joined the greatest club though....

Think we have room for Scott Quinell?

Are you sure about this Rogues. Remember him signing for Leeds from Warrington's Service Area? Sure you're not thinking about his brother?

Not sure if this has already been said as I am not bothered about reading the full 19 pages of this thread.

My stance is this.

1.Those who think it will attract no publicity are deluded the man is a legend in Wales and that alone has the potential to open up a whole new fan base for us, especially now there is no top flight team in Wales.

2.Gareth Thomas will get more column inches than any other rugby player in the world in the next year or so. The film will only enhance his reputation and bring him to new audiences. Again great potential to piggy back this.

3.Sam Tomkins recently stated if he moved to union much of it would be fuelled by the recognition the union guys get any extra media attention Thomas and his club get can only boost the star attractions profile.

4.IFL recently stated foreign targets were increasingly difficult to attract due to the money now involved in the NRL. He also stated that we would be looking to Union for targets. Thomas' signing by Wigan means again that due to his reputation in Union we may prove a more attractive draw in the future.

5.George Carmont is as we know getting on a bit in terms of his professional career. We also have a converted second row in the other centre birth. Resting George against the lesser lights and giving Thomas game time against certain clubs would not do us any harm, we are clearly short of a quality centre coming through the ranks and we are unaware of the future of some of our fringe first teamers such as Marsh and Goulding, neither look like breaking into the first team in the foreseeable future (in my opinion if ever) and may be allowed to move on for the good of their careers.

6.It appears that he may cost us very very little in terms of cap if anything according to some of the rumours.

7.He is a pretty good player. Not a world beater but certainly on a par with any of our current back up backs in my opinion.

Careful Jon, let's not let a careful assessment of reality get in the way of blind, knee-jerk panic.

think Jonh has it spot on.

Shrewd move from Lenegan.

How can he set up a new fan base if he hardly plays?

He's not a star signing for you and the Welsh know it they didn't even turn up in droves to watch him at Cru.

He draws attention everywhere he goes, you may say they did not turn up in there droves at Crusaders BUT how many would have turned up IF he had not played for them?

Do you have that market research?

Add the fact that like it or not he for a short time will probably be the most famous rugby player in the world, not a bad string to the bow.

Wonder when the last time a current rugby league player was the most famous player in the world.......oh that right.......never.

Andrew Johns managed it, didn't he? ... except that was for the wrong reasons.

So you think they are all going to follow him to Wigan after checking if he's actually in the team first like, he's stock was at its highest when he first came from Union your not breaking any new ground here apart from pinning your hopes on this film being a mega success.

When is it out?

Here's my list of positives for signing Gareth Thomas;
1.
2.
3.

And negatives;
1. Too old
2. He's woeful
3. We have better in the academy
4. Karl Pryce would do a better job (and thats saying something)

It goes straight to DVD in about 12 months I would imagine.

Stop trying to justify his signing. It is awful.




Nah, not even DVD. Probably straight onto iTunes instead.

I thought Sinfield was signed from Oldham.

Great post Jon!

I'll go along with the signing for now. If he doesn't cost owt, he might do a job for us, a la Ben Cross. He's a model professional and will bring extra media exposure for us, our players and the game, something the RFL seem incapable of doing on their own.

Sinfield made his first team debut aged 16, and had already been at the club for about 3 years before then. He is an Oldham lad though.

Ta.

Who do we have that is better in the Academy and ready for first team action?


Can you see no benefit from our new policy in relation to targeting union players to recruiting one of there legends?

Can you see no commercial opportunity that our business can benefit from?

I can't believe the knicker pi$$ing that has gone on over this. Talk of him "pushing out our younger players". Well if he is good enough to do that, are those youngsters good enough to be at the club!! Get real people. This not a serious signing from a playing point of view, its business.

Shrewd signing from a publicity point of view and there is no such thing as bad publicity. I think he will hardly play. Maybe he will increase our profile with non Rugby fans and fans in other geographical areas, and he will not cost us much money, or a quota space.

Perhaps it will help us get rid of any unsold "pink" shirts that you all hated.