Unsurprisingly, the usual responses are already starting to appear from the usual suspects. They range from "he hasn't gone anywhere yet" to "he's crap anyway" to "good on him if he can get so much money" to "he's crocked, so it doesn't matter" to "Let him go, RL can't afford to bankrupt itself chasing dreams" (I kid you not!!!!), to "it still isn't an exodus of talent" to "we'll just produce another one" to "we don't need megastars, this will create an opportunity for an unknown kid" ...

What more needs to be said? If other clubs don't care about losing their best players, I just hope Wigan can find some way to tie up their own. Let everyone else do their bit to improve prospects for the game's unknown kids (and for England RU, who will later sign those unknown kids when they too become stars), while we concentrate on trying to win some cups in the short time left this game has to exist as a major sport.

I've not seen or heard any saints fan say "he's crap anyway" but most saints fans are worried that he won't live up to his potential as he's never fit. He's not played much rugby in the last two seasons.

IMO he's not anywhere near worth £200,000 a season and we couldn't justify giving him anywhere near that due to not seeing enough of him at the top level.

What I don't like about the whole episode is, it looks like he is using saints as a stepping stone to a big money move to RU. The feeling I get is , he is totally money motivated which is hard to blame but our great club in the past has had the likes of longy, scully, kc and roby all stay loyal.

While I think he has potential to be great player and would be a loss to rugby league, I wouldn't to concerned as the is also no room for big time Charlies at saints.

I think for the money Kyle is looking for we would be able to bring a top class ball playing scrumhalf.

RU will suite Kyle as he don't look up to the rough and tough of super league at this moment ( that may change).

Only time will tell but if Kyle wants to go for the big money move then saints should transfer list him now and sell.

Just because you read this on the internet doesn't make it true.

Has Phelps signed for anyone yet? He's a bit of a jack of all trades but I didn't think he'd have trouble getting a gig another SL side.

Surely Salford have got room for another ex-Wiganer.

Thought Salford had filled their quota up

I think he's back in Oz, but haven't heard of him being picked up by anyone, either here or over there.

Wow that is shocking given how highly people rated him on here.

I feel sorry for the lad, but I don't think he was ever signed by Wigan to be anything more than a stop-gap.

He was a nice guy who brought a lot of enthusiasm to the team, but some comments on here - about him being the best fullback in the competition, or being better than Roberts (and all on the basis of a couple of gutsy performances) - were a bit on the silly side.

Correct Cruncher. What amazed me the most were these comments about how good he was at fullback even [iafter[/i people had seen Amos Roberts and Sam Tomkins play at fullback. There is simply no comparison and I was dumbfounded that some people could be so blinded as to how so-so Phelps was.

Like you say, a nice lad, full of enthusiasm, but sadly he just lacks the natural ability to play this game at the highest level - certainly at fullback. I do hope he finds a club and has a bright future somewhere else.

If anyone needs a microcosmic snapshot of how and why British RL is slowly destroying itself, you need look no further than the thread on TotalRL dedicated to the impending departure of Kyle Eastmond. It now runs to 7 pages, and almost entirely consists of people trying to explain why they don't consider it a disaster that yet another starlet is going to RU.

There is some indignation, but largely people are either resigned to it or consider it a sacrifice worth making. Those one or two who say we have to take drastic action to prevent it are basically ignored.

There was a phrase during the First World War that the British army comrpised lions led by donkey. British RL, I fear, is donkeys led by donkeys.

If Eastmond is lost to Union then it is bad news for Rugby League.
What worries me is that it is a given that Saints, SL clubs and the RFL won't do anything whatsoever to keep him all in the name of the salary cap.
The SC is not worth losing our best players for.
Clubs that can afford to keep their best players should allowed to do so.
This proves how damaging and counter productive the SC now is to RL.

Correct me if im wrong - I dont know the ins and outs of everything because im really not that interested to research it all.

But wouldnt it solve alot of problems if the RFL could just simply say 'ok, home grown players do not count on the cap' or even 'a percentage of home grown players wages do not count on the cap'

That rewards clubs with a good youth system and encourages clubs with a poor one to work on improving their youth system therefore benefiting England Rugby League & Super League in general... am I missing something here? This seems all to simple/easy for the RFL to think up?

There would be so many clubs opposing that move though.

The best move all round (imo) would be to introduce only 50% of home grown players count on the cap, but at the same time reduce the cap to please those who point out that most clubs aren't making a profit at the minute.

That way it not only benefit clubs who produce their own players, but "punish" clubs who aren't and force them into doing so.

The problem with that situation is that it would be similar to the quota situation, where clubs have to honour existing players contracts.

I'd say a cap of £1.2mil with a 50% reduction on players from your own academy.

Believe it or not, one guy's response when I made this suggestion was that it would still give Wigan an unfair advantage as they produce more players than anyone else.

The idea that his own club could, and in fact should, start identifying and developing its own talent never seems to have occurred to him.

I agree that we should be rewarded for producing talent, but doesn't this give even less incentive to lads from none-rugby league towns who happen to take a liking to the sport and be talented? Plus we would end up stockpiling all the young talent in our reserves while worse players make the first team for other sides, thus potentially damaging the national team.

You identify the fundamental problem of the SC; each and every SL club want it to suit their own specific needs.

To those saying throw more money at the problem (and it is a problem), we will fail, miserably, in a bidding war. I really do wish I had a solution, even the incremental discounts to Academy produced players that I have mooted, may be futile of the figures are to be believed being offered by RU.

An answer has to be provided, but it has to be sustainable.

I think we've reached the stage where we need to stop nannying clubs, and should allow them, as much as possible, to run their own affairs.

I doubt there'll ever be a perfect solution that will suit all. But the advantages of everyone producing more talent will outweigh the disadvantages.

Except that this latest debate has been generated by the impending departure of a St Helens player, and yet is here being played out on a Wigan message board.

In every quarter there is an element of "what do we get out of it?" when there are major changes in the game, but that's a generalisation. With regard to this situation, quite a few Wigan fans seem to be saying that the loss of another quality player, even from a rival cluib, is bad for the game overall. I don't think you can fairly accuse us of looking out for ourselves here.

One way of keeping talent in RL is making RL a more attractive career.

1 - Scrap England and become GB again

2 - Proper Ashes tours again every 2 years with the National sides playing club sides (I know the leagues run side by side but something could be changed so that it could become possible e.g. GB tours Aus and plays a few warm up games versus the club sides that missed out on the play offs and vise versa).

3 - Hiring someone like Max Clifford to bring publicity to RL and the players, David Haye was nowhere 2 years ago and with him being top of his game and having a good publicist he gets his face everywhere, Carl Froch is going the same way.

4 - After getting more publicity we will attract more sponsors so a thrid party sponsorship deal to the players to stay outside the cap.

5 - Get back on the BBC, all internationals should be on the BBC plus maybe if there is space to rejuvinate the Regal Trophy and have that on the BBC/ITV.

6 - Bring back 'A' teams, with the extra games, tournaments, salary cap space, 3rd party sponsorship deals etc I think it would work.

That was just a quick 5 minute plan so go easy with the hole picking and look at it with the glass half full, if the RFL had any brains they would at least do step 3. With this plan we wouldn't have players wanting to go to RU, the RFU would need to worry about the top RU players coming to RL like they did many years ago.

The best form of defence is attack but it seems the RFL are burying their heads in the sand coming up with half hearted low risk low gain ideas such as Millenium Magic in freezing cold Febuary.

I agree with all of your "5minute plan", apart from No.1, personally I think it should stay as England - then as in RU have a Great Britain and Ireland Tour and only then be known as GB.

The best form of defence is attack - and the RFL seem to be constantly running away from the challenge to topple the rugby monopoly of RU. I like the concept of Millenium Magic, its practicality however is some what desirable.

The RFL need to take a serious look at how the RFU and other sporting governing bodies for that matter, gain sponsorship and gain mega publicity. Look at darts, a few years ago no-one bloody watched it, now its arguably one of the most popular games (I'm not getting into this is it a sport argument!).

Seeing as only two clubs have been profitable over the last few years, I'd say that only Leeds and Hull are in any position to be able to spend more on player wages.

You have completely misinterpreted my point. The SC is a single solution to fourteen very different business models, all seeking to extract as much value as possible, but varying reasons.

My point has nothing to do with Wigan looking after themselves, it is finding a viable solution that suits all clubs, as eventually all clubs will suffer a similar fate. Simply saying let us spend more is far too simplistic, and ultimately futile, as I have previously mentioned RU as a whole has far greater wealth.

If Wigan, Catalans or whoever find a sustainable answer to this problem, I am all for it.

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Read's as though we were interested in signing him, but he chose FC instead. Anyone know for a fact whether we were chasing him or not?

It always looks better if you can make it sound like you beat Wigan in the chase for a signature.

Steve McNamara kept his Bradford job for an extra year on the strength of something similar.