Don't build Yourself up for a letdown.
The deal is done

Why no announcement then and why is Shaun Wane saying he knows nowt about it when hes just taken over as head coach? I would say hes going but something doesnt add up. Why hasnt it been announced already too?

The length of time its taking suggests to me its not cut and dried yet.

In these situations when no comment is offered or 'its just rumours' 99 times out of 100 it happens. If there was no truth then the situation would be denied.

Indeed. Cast your minds back to the rumours about Madge going back to the NRL. Feels exactly the same.

Yep,

If it's all conjecture and not a bit of truth in it, it'd be laughed off in a second, as easily as someone suggesting we're about to swap Sam for Richie Mathers.

Could be money , Wigan will want compensation and rightly so. Until Wigan are happy there can be no deal.

Because we had a coaching team to set up and announce.
Well done IL for doing so and not letting any negatives overshaddow IMO

But the negatives have overshadowed the announcement, I'm afraid. Not a good few days for Wigan or the sport.

The rumours about Eastmond going to Bath were rife for weeks. They went on so long everybody actually started to wonder if they were true. They were though, and sadly I think your's will be too. I just hope you can keep his brother though. To lose home-grown talent like that just for money is gutting. RL needs its best players, or we will die as a sport.

That's exactly how it is.
You want him, you pay for him or no deal.

In this case Wigan hold a few aces. They want him now, Wigan don't play until February.

Joel Tomkins will be a loss to the game, Sam certainly would be a huge loss. Eastmond has obviously p*ssed about this year, but again he was destined to be a star in SL, and whilst the fuss about his leaving has died down, he is a big loss to the game.

I hope Joel doesn't go, although I'm not sure the salary cap itself is the problem here - you could double it and still have trouble beating off silly money from union.

I do think that a central fund for young British players ought to be established - or simply overtly exempt third-party deals from the cap. The only reason third-party payments are not exempted is because they would benefit a few clubs (those with stars) rather than every team equally. Personally I think that if it benefits Wigan, Sts, Leeds, Wire at the expense of other clubs, sobeit - its already a 4/5 team competition.

One other thing that strikes me is that whilst the grass may look greener in RU, for every Ashton there's a Lee Smith, Chev Walker, Danny Williams. In that respect, if Joel does go to RU I hope he's a massive flop. The more big-money failures there are the less frequent defections will be.

When the last England v Australia game was played at the DW stadium it wasn't even sold out thats not the fault of the RFL is it?
How do you explain the poor Attendance's for the play off games. surely you can't blame that on the RFL can you?

Just a thought, if Wigan are paid a large transfer fee for Tomkins and they use that to go out and buy Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Sonny Bill or similar talent, would that be ok?

Its maybe a fair point about the last international but i cant remember how it was marketed/priced etc so i cant really stick the blame on anybody.

Poor attendance for the playoff games is because the system is utter sh*t. They decide on the system so yes that can be blamed on the RFL.

oh yes that's fine.

Or Manu Tuilagi.

It's all good coming this way, keep up man !

It would be good for season ticket sales and exciting for the short time they are here but they would be gone again pretty quick imo which would put us back to square one.

For me transfers will always happen even to the biggest clubs, just look at Ronaldo at Man united leaving for Real Madrid. It just feels worse when weve developed him ourselves and he has his best years to come then he gets stolen. We have taken players from smaller clubs than us so we can hardly start crying now somebody with more financial muscle than us does the same to us can we? That money we get will be superb for the club though and all free money so to speak as we didnt buy him. It proves our youth system is doing a good job imo.

Its just sad we are losing him from our sport and theres nothing anybody can do. If Sam goes too it would be a massive loss to England and knocks us back a few steps in our attempts to improve our international game.

Agree mate. His talent would be a loss to the sport. It makes you feel for some of the smaller Superleague clubs who are unable to keep any talent they develop or uncover. Look at Wakey. Any player who shows any talent has been taken from them by bigger clubs. Nigel Wright, Henry Paul, Gareth Ellis, to name a few. Must be hard to support a club were this happens often. I know how I felt when Peacock, Fielden and Burgess were signed from the Bulls. Although they're still in rugby league, I'm not sure It feels any better when they're ripping your team apart.

tell us your source then

Don't be daft I'm sure you expect I can't do that.
Believe me if you want or not so but the source is as close to Sam/Joel as needed.
It'll all come out in time but I think Joel looking at Property near Faz says enough really...

What about Sam?

He used to annoy the hell out of me with his antics, but he really seems to be growing up and getting better and better.

Be a lot worse imo if he went.

See my recent post in the rumour thread about Sam.
Not as clear cut as Joel but don't expect to see much for much longer than 12months at Wigan (if that)
Nothing is certain on Sam yet though so there's hope on all fronts there

worth a try!

I understand.
But I don't expect most others to reveal their sources on here with other info. I just appreciated they're usually repeating what they've been told - for our benefit on here.

Thats all I'm trying to do.

Or just add more fuel to the fire lol

But the game [uat Wembley[/u has already sold more tickets than people can fit into the DW which proves my point.

You also have to look at the pricing. Previous International tickets at the DW have been over £20 whereas to encourage people to go to Wembley they have been selling them for a tenner. No coincidence we get more going.

Poor attendance at play off games is down to two things IMO the cost and the format. There are just too many teams in it to offer quality and meaningful games. People have worked it out. The fans of the 7th and 8th placed teams rightly have low expectations because they are basically poor sides who they know will not progress far. There is no sudden death in the top 4 games of round 1. So at £19 a head, [ua price set by the RFL[/u, people refuse to be ripped off. Not when they are expected to pay the same for each round. As I said in my previous post the cost of watching the play offs is excessive and can cost more than a season ticket. In case you hadn't noticed we are pretty much in a recession again with prices up, wages down, unemployment up and inflation at 4.5%.

If the RFL want to market an 8 team play off tickets should be half price at £8 or in with season tickets for round 1. Do you think it is a coincidence there are over 30,000 sold for Wembley at £10 and play off games struggle to get crowds at £19? I don't.

The RFL need to take a leaf out of Wigan's book over the way games like the heritiage day game were marketed. A huge crowd for a game that normally sees the north stand closed.

So yes I can blame the RFL for low playoff attendances, they are simply pricing them too high.

Same here. If he failed they may stop looking at our game so readily and our players may think twice in the first place. However money does task and given what Joel said last March about the risks of going to RU so didn't see himself going its clear the wages on offer have convinced him otherwise.