And if they were supposedly looking at Hodgson then I'd probably be questioning that somewhere on here too! haha

I have questioned them to my mates in the past but always give up coz they're probably untouchable from the RFL anyway.

Leeds squad is built differently though. They have a lot of players they produced through their academy, whereas you've bought most of your top players and therefore would be expected to pay more.

Doesn't matter does it?

Top players will want top money doesn't matter if they bought them or not.

Someone said it the other day one problem of the cap is its harder to hold onto good players that have come through the youth system because there isn't the money so they go elsewhere.

TBH im amazed,now we are starting to do well people start on the salary cap,if we are cheating we would be found out,SIMPLE. SO why not get back on to the title of the topic.

MOVE ON NOTHING TO SEE HERE.

We broke it in 2005 as well and had 2 points knocked off when fighting relegation in 2006.

yeah because melbourne were found out straightaway.....

You've convinced me, some Wiganers are thick/ignorant.

By the time he left, Gleeson was a cancer at our club. Talented player but an absolute . Getting him out of the door for £100k and replacing him with a player like Mathers was the perfect solution for a club that desperately needed a fresh attitude. Wigan needed a strike player and had £100k to waste. Everybody won.

Mathers has his limitations as a player but he made a significant contribution to our season and winning our first trophy for 30 odd years. You might not like it but it's true. If Mathers gets shipped out to be replaced by Brett Hodgson I'll be sad to see him go but there's no shame in that.

And the underlined is what convinces me that some Wire fans are thick/ignorant.

Works two ways.

Yes it does work both ways. On another thread on here someone has quoted Feka as being on £200,000. I've no doubt he isn't, but look at your overseas and federation trained players (all 9 of them), all of whom will be on good money, then Fielden, Gleeson etc, and you start to wonder how Wigan get under the Cap.

Why have we got 9? I can only count 6.

Roberts, Riddell, Carmont, Bailey, Feka and Phelps.

Leuluai, Richards and he's probably counting Hansen

As for all of them being on good money. Bailey took a massive pay cut for his extention this year, and Carmont and Phelps will be on Peanuts.

Yes I am. Hansen has played international football. Please don't say that Richards is Irish.

Hansen came through our academy. He counts as home grown. & your the first person to bring up Richards being Irish in this thread

And Leuluai is Fed trained as well from being at Harlequins. I remembered Richard but didn't write his name for some reason.

So I presume that he's federation trained then?

He's Irish.

Hansens first International cap was for England.

Still too many.

The ones who were already here before they changed the rules still count as federation trained - i.e. Feca, Carmont & Bailey. The only 3 non-federation-trained (and also the only 3 on the overseas quota) are Roberts, Riddell & Phelps.

There's a good explanation of the quota/fed-trained rules by Ian Lenagan somewhere on the board, but I can't be bothered looking for it now...

I agree that we have too many over seas (forgetting all the clauses crap)

IMO only Roberts and Richards are worthy of their Quota spot. We need to start signing overseas players like these two instead of Mr Averages because lets be honest, we could do alot better than what we've got. Feka, Carmont, Bailey, Phelps, Leuluai and Riddells wages could get us at least 3 world class players from overseas- Fullback, Scrum Half and a Prop. And Carmont, Bailey and Riddells positions can be given to the wealth of talent we have in the reserves, or look into super league for british replacements.

.....and am I right in thinking he's played for both NZ and Samoa since then?

Yes. Although his NZ cap was that nonsense game against England at St Helens when it was just kiwis based in England playing.

I agree that we really shouldn't bother with average overseas players, but the problem is that world-class players cost too big a chunk of the cap. A truly world-class player would be in the region of £200k+; three of those would only leave us with £1m to split amongst the other 22 in the squad, which is an average of about £45k each.

Ian Lenagan has already said he wants a more balanced squad in terms of salaries, and I think he's right.

You're way out on this. Phelps is on peanuts. Bailey took a massive pay cut at the end of his last contract and Carmont came to us on peanuts but got a raise at the end of his previous contract. He wanted a 2 year deal this time and, I believe, we got him for good money this time round by offering him that based on appearances.

To balance that out we have more youth/academy players coming through the ranks than any other side and we all know that the majority of those aren't on good money. In fact, some are on terrible money as the Chris Ashton case clearly shows!

The only 'over priced' players that I'm aware of are Fielden and Feka. I'm pretty sure that IL has stated we aren't even [uup to cap[/u at the present moment....and that's before we get into all the players we have or have been out on loan!