Just had a peep and it seems to be a massive circle tug by all the usual (in the know) suspects.

They havent been so excited since that window fitter turned up or crusaders handed them a lifeline in the big league. Shame that big Kid of theirs wont let us join in.

You make my heart sing, you make everything .....groovy ............................................. sad sack

CAS WONT BE ABLE TO AFFORD GARETH ELLIS SURELY

IF YOU SIGNED HIM YOUD HAVE TO GET RID OF HALF THE SQUAD TO ACCOMODATE HIM

OUT OF ALL THE SL CLUBS, I DOUBT CAS ARE TOP OF THE LIST OF THOSE HE WOULD JOIN, EVEN IF YOU OFFERED HIM THE BEST DEAL FINANCIALLY

Common sense, as usual; whilst ever there are clubs with bottomless wallets and the ability to circumnavigate the salary cap, a commodity with as much value as Ellis will go with the money. This flirtation with the media is nothing more than his agent's marketing campaign and it's a simple but very effective strategy - he'll now be fielding contacts from every SL club and will, I'm sure, go with the best offer, after whittling them down and playing one off against the other for a while to get the best deal.

I'm not condemning Ellis by the way - he has a short career and a family to consider.

Bren - totally agree with your assessment, but I am more concerned that some of the black and amber loyalists seem to think that it is Richard Wright's signature to lose and believe this media show - while some criticism is valid, if this plays out as we all expect, it wont be valid in this instance.

I don't doubt it although in fairness, Gareth's own interview from May last year stating he'd like to end his career at Cas won't have helped the situation in terms of managing people's expectations.

If it helps, Richard Agar has also said publicly today that WTW would put themselves into the mix for the Ellis signature; as, I'm sure, will every SL club in England.

That's not true and a bit of an over-reaction; the majority of the posts on that thread are positive about Cas.

if it was just about the money surely he could have made more by just staying in oz?

As I said before, it wont take a bank breaking offer to get Gareth to Cas and as we all know money is not the key factor in his move back to SL. I'm in no way influenced by any of the media hype and to be honest I haven't read more than 2 lines of any paper report surrounding his return anyway. He won't go to the club that offers him the most money, he will go to the club that makes him the right offer to fulfill the wishes of himself and his family. This is why I think it is Richard Wrights signature to lose, don't get me wrong, it needs to be a good financial offer but should be well within the finances available to us for 2013 and beyond.

I kept Mitchell - he's on the bench.

No one is questioning that money will play a part in the grand scheme of things and that he has a family to look after. However, Cas can offer him a financially secure deal over a good period (three years) that will be enough to put food on his table and enough in the bank for him (£100k p/yr)

Additionally, I'm also pretty sure that someone of Gareth Ellis's ilk will have a coaching position with his name on it. He's the sort of role model you need around the place and he has that community champion spirit (with his links from Lock Lane).

Still think there is a lot of naive guess work and taking Ellis and his agent at their word with no realy consideration of the facts. I am not calling either of them liars, but they have a job to do.

I'd love the romantic notions to be right and maybe I shouldn't be so cynical as to judge everyone by my rather mercinary standards but now we are evolving the theory to include a figure of salary he is likely to accept and a job off the field too. I think people are getting way ahead of themselves.