Saints gave contracts to the likes of Gary Wheeler for 60k after a handfull of games to warn off Wigan and a few other teams.

Which is a hefty chunk from the cap for someone relatively young. If that fee didn't count on the cap, or maybe if only half of it counted (in respect of Wheeler's former Saints Academy status), then Saints would be enjoying the fruits of a talent they've nurtured themselves, and still have salary cap space to play with.

I can't see why anyone in the game would object to such a state of affairs.

He is the 2nd most injury prone young player i've ever seen. Behind Kyle Eastmond.

SM is still correct though, Wigan DID try to sign him at the end of 2009.

I know, i've seen you mention it quite a few times.

I just don't see the point in even attempting to sign Eastmond, good player yes. He wouldn't be interested though.

Plus it's all alright haveing the likes of Finch, Tomkins, Eastmond, TL, Deacs in the halves but only 2 out of those 5 can play, my point being whats the point of having a team jam-packed full of superstars if some of these 'superstars' can't get in the side? They'd only leave anyway. A successful team needs the right balance for long-term success IMHO, a blend Man Utd/Arsenal have mastered for the past god knows how many years.

Look at Real Madrid, jam packed full to the rafters with so called superstars and have had very little success. For me, I'm saying there is no point ATM in offering him a deal.

But out of those 5 you mentioned, by the time Eastmond "could" come Deacs will have retired, TL will have played a full season at hooker, Sam will have possibly played a full season at FB leaving Finch as the only recognised halfback, and he's a 6.

Hence why I said ATM there is no point, maybe in a season or 2 time but not now.

I reckon this is a pointless discussion anyway, he'll either stay at Saints or go RU. I can see this signing Kyle Eastmond being the regular end of season thread - much like the Sean Long to Wigan era

Is the sport even in the black? How can you raise the salary cap if nobody is making any money as it is.

I'm not a financial expert, but surely Wigan's turnover must be £4 million in a season - revenue from season ticket sales ( including the £300+ for my and my daughter's tickets!) must be almost £2 million ( I know there are very cheap child tickets in the South Stand, but simple/approximated maths is 10,000 X £200 = £2 million).

All the season's ground receipts would, I have thought, amounted to another £2 million+ and thus a total of £4 million+ - hence my view that Wigan should have a salary cap of £2 million. This would be the 50% figure which, if I remember correctly, was the original way of calculating the cap. A club could spend up to a total of 50% of their income, providing it didn't exceed the stated amount of £1.6 million ( or whatever).

The current system (called communist cap by some on here!) may make it a more even playing field for the likes of Wakefield, Salford, Castleford with their low crowds and turnovers, but it does nothing to encourage clubs to bring in larger crowds and ultimately leads to to the loss of several players to RU where they are offered bigger contracts.

The bottom line is the salary cap in its current format discourages success and has lost some/most of its original intention which was to prevent clubs going bust. Restoring the 50% rule would rectify the current anomaly, where a club in theory could have a turnover of £20million and still only spend £1.65 million on players' wages.

The SC has basically brought the bigger clubs, down to the smaller clubs level.

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... codes.html

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... codes.html

£200K for a gingerbread man. Fair play to them if they're stupid enough to pay it.

So at the end of 2011 they could lose Graham, Eastmond & Pryce.
They will take some replacing.
By like who I wonder?

Anyone who's good enough will also be on RU's shopping list.

There's no way Eastmond is worth £200,000, but it would be a damn shame to see yet another promising talent join the ' now we'll never know' crowd.

That said, if the Saints fans themselves don't seem to care - which, thus far, they don't - why should we?

ive heard a rumour that richie myler is going to one of the hull sides on loan for the year anybody else no anything ?

I heard Andrew Johns is coming out of retirement to replace him.

If nothing else, that should teach him some humility.

I wonder what position Eastmond would play in RU. He is a very elusive runner with lightning acceleration, but from what I can remember seeing of him, he hasn't got a good enough pass to be a RU scrum half, neither does he strike me as a RU fly half/stand off. He may become a Jason Robinson type full back - but I do wonder if he is physically up to it.

It would be another tragedy if we were to lose Eastmond, while I agree he is not worth £200k his legacy is. Basically what we are advocating is a year in League can get you top cash in Union, which could be devastating to an already too small pool of British players.

If such a brittle player like Eastmond is worth £200k per season in Union then how much for Sam Tomkins? £300-400k per season?

Good job we tied him up to a long deal (till Nov 2014), but should he play regularly out of his skin till 2014 then we'd struggle to keep him I reckon. Unless we raise his current deal in twelve months time to increase till end 2016.

All these union clubs are just taking chances with our young players who are not proven and are just hoping to strike gold. Our code should remember this when they want to come back if it goes wrong for them in yawnion if i was wigan id offer eastmond £130,000 a season.

If he was offered £130k he could well be the highest paid player at the club.
At present he is injured and not worth it.
He will be considering Union due to the cash of course but there is his injury problem.
Perhaps he's seen how Hape and Big Les have gone in Union.
They were both smashed up in league. Neither could train and couldn't play 80 mins when they left.
Now they are in Union, years later, are still going and Hape is an England Intl.
Perhaps he's drawn to Union as much for a less intense game, contact and possible injury, as well as the cash.
Wigan should stay well away and leave it between Saints and Union.

Thats a crazy sum of money. I told a Saints fan that Sale will be in for him a few months back but they called me an idiot and look now. He's from Oldham and Sale is much closer than Saints is. I'd hate to see another young RL player go but to be fair he would, frankly, be an idiot to reject the Sale offer never mind that Bath one. 150k or 200k to play an easier less intense and less risky game injury wise? He'd get a third of that at Saints now at the very best (Sale's price not Bath's). They will probably be long term contracts too knowing Union.

Its not gonna happen because there are so many teams spending nowhere near the cap coz they cant afford it so aint gonna vote to change the rules to disadvantage themselves. Plus some teams will have such low turnovers that their cap would be something like 1 mil tops. Think Crusaders and Salford theyd never vote for it because their cap would drop.