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absolute rubbish - you have a dalliance with a team mates wife the team turns against you and were doing this

. Bateman and co had a beer too many



a fight broke out - wake up with a sore head



and 10k lighter kissed and made up



all over

I think this is the first post I've seen with more emoticons than letters.

It would seem to indicate a man with a very limited vocabulary.

Are you John Bateman?

Not sure they would have done the same if they had paid £100k for either Carney or Ferres.
Also I'm not sure that this story has finished yet.
Rightly or wrongly Bateman is a saleable asset and to summirarly dismiss him would have effective given Bateman a free transfer. Personally although I rate Bateman if I owned the club he would have walked but then again I didn't pay him £100k out of my bank account.
A bit of petrol still in the tank yet on this me thinks.

Spot on Itchy, if the situation was reversed I wouldn't want to lose Bateman just as I didn't want to lose Justin Carney but you have to put your trust in the coach. Like it or not there is a lot more mileage in this and the RL Journo's will be on it already.

Bateman has just today removed any reference of Wigan Warriors from his twitter bio.

Disagree completely. I like it and only wish I could do this

It still says Wigan/Bradford at the bottom but he has taken 'for Wigan Warriors' out after the 'I'm a pro Rugby League player'.

I've said earlier on in the thread I certainly don't think we've heard the last of him leaving and I still would be far from surprised if he's already played his last game for the club.

Well, that seems to have worked out well for huddersfield doesnt it.

Might as well have bloody kept him.

True. Not sure they could have done any worse, even if ALL the players hated each other.

I'm not surprised that the wigan fans want to get over this incident sharpish and keep bateman as he's certainly a class act but after hearing what he's done I'm surprised the police haven't charged him

The club to their credit have done very well to brush it under the carpet by 'convincing' people to do things and that's the reason why wigan have been able to clear it up quickly and not get the police involved

Fwiw if it had happened at my club I would want him sacked,if he had done what he's done and not been a professional sportsman with a strong club looking after him he could realistically get a custodial sentence

But that's just my opinion of course

Funny how so many other fans get pious about this sort of thing when it's a Wigan player.

"If it was one of our players, I'd want him out, dah de dah ..."

Yeah, right. Talk is so cheap when you think you're on the moral high ground.

But I suppose I'm flattered that you think Wigan are so influential they can convince the police not to charge for a serious assault (bear in mind, the police don't even need a complaint to take action in those circumtances).

Perhaps consider an alternative possibiliy, that the police found reasons of their own not to charge, and then try to work out what those might be.

Bateman is one of our best players adding to that he's only young, a real asset to the club. But does John still want to play for Wigan?

Look at the facts:

-Removed the Wigan Warriors intro on his twitter
-Been talking to Canberra (Confirmed by Canberra)
-Been fined 10k when no one else has had a penny deducted

These are enough to argue he might no longer be settled at Wigan.

Brian Carney has stated that there's a greater then 50% chance he won't be at Wigan next year.

I'd love to see it all be resolved and he goes on to take the 13 shirt when Lockers retires and him to have a long career here but it just doesn't feel that's going to be the case.

I'd still think the odds are stacked well in the favour of him not being here next year.

You say if he had done what he,s done, what has he done no one knows just guess work.

I know exactly what he's done AB and it as I said before if it was you or me we could be facing a period in prison

I'm a widnes fan (don't laugh) and when we had hock I honestly wanted rid of him as soon as he started misbehaving as he was creating a bad atmosphere at the club,he created a divide amongst our fans as he was obviously a good player but his behaviour on and off the field imo had a adverse affect on the club in general which is far more important

What bateman has done is far worse than anything hock has done and it looks like your fans are thinking more of the success he could/would bring but you have to think of the great culture you lot have and by the sounds of it after this season you won't have him upsetting the applecart

There are lots of rumours about saying what might or might not have happened, but no facts to say 'what he's done'. I doubt any actual 'facts' surrounding the incident will every come out into the open as there are always 2 sides to every story. With this in mind, I don't know how anyone can say 'I would want them sacked' as everything is just hear say. Obviously it must be a serious incident due to the severity of the punishment handed out by the Wigan club. To imply also that Wigan have influence over what the police do or do not do is ridiculous. Unrest like this isn't good for any club, players or supporters, look at us with the Carney 'incident' (which bares no resemblance to this rumoured incident I grant you and so cannot be dealt with in the same manor). My only comment would be that its a real shame as I had Bateman down as top of the running for Man of Steel on this years form, but I'm a little relieved that he won't be playing against us in the cup as he tore us apart single handed earlier in the season. Whatever has happened, everyone makes mistakes and I doubt anyone on here is 'whiter than white' (I certainly haven't been) and I hope that he can move on from it as a player, be that at Wigan or elsewhere as he is a talented individual. Things do tend to get blown out of all proportion at times!

I have said it a few times, if what he has allegedly done is true i don't want him anywhere near the club. He has been involved in incident upon incident since he came here and the majority of it is fighting. The club have deemed fit to ban and fine him. I have no doubt this is on the advice of the police because if he went to a magistrate he would probably get a fine and community service so it's saved a lot of paperwork and media attention. If what has been alleged is not true then i can only guess that the fine and ban is for bringing the club into disrepute at Haydock racecourse and is a token gesture for the racecourse. Unfortunately i believe it is true. Some players don't have the intelligence to change their spots and will always be dumb, Bateman is one of these, Hock is another and so many more.

'If' true then that puts a different light on things. However, I was just trying to point out that, at this moment in time, everything is rumours and 'ifs/buts'. To say 'I would want him sacked if he was at my club' without knowing the facts is a little harsh in my opinion. A better way of putting it would have been 'If the rumours are found to be true then I would want him sacked' - Totally different.

Oh i wasn't being pedantic Caslad75, That is just my view of it

Sorry Cherry but no. Do u seriously think the police can advise a club on how to punish an employee? Not a chance in the world mate. The club have said they took independent advice and reviewed everything twice
to make sure they got it right. If there was genuine evidence of criminal behaviour then the police would have no choice but to present the evidence to the CPS for a charging decision. It appears this has not been the case. We simply don't know for sure what actually happened and we have to trust that the club have maintained their integrity and dealt with what ever happened correctly and hope that those involved learn from this whole sorry event.

I know, It was aimed more at Welsh Wizards comment to be honest. No offence taken here

Wigan have got rid of players in the past who were considered to be pernicious influences.

Gareth Hock and Martin Gleeson spring to mind immediately (both of whom were excellent players) so Wigan are not averse to showing stars the door if their behaviour is deemed to be completely intolerable. Past evidence like this suggests there is no culture at Wigan that bad boys can stay so long as they help us win matches.

Even so we have people, including some Wigan fans - who don't know exactly what happened, despite what they may think - and yet insist that this punishment is inadequate and that something much more public and draconian is called for.

I honestly do not understand this position when people don't have the full facts to hand.

Bateman may leave. It may be that he just can't accept he was in the wrong and resents being disciplined. If so, there is nothing the club can do about that other than seek a very decent transfer fee for him to get the best possible return on their investment. But aside from that, there's no other issue - people need to accept the club's judgement on the matter. It isn't going to change.

Gleason only turned up to training smashed though, he didn't have "fracas" with another player. Hock did but during training and it was settled quickly.

There was a lot more baggage with Gleeson and Hock, "apparently".