Gaskell already has too many deficiencies to be top class. I have been watching Saints for over 30 years and maybe my standards are a little higher than many on here. I just don't see in him what others seem to see.

Thankfully yours is a minority view among both your fellow Saints fans and the rest of us. I've seen him play a fair bit. Gaskell is a quality player with a great kicking game and he made a really good partnership with Lomax when a regular in your team. The lad has a lot to offer and hopefully he'll get back on track and into the starting line-up with Nathan Brown in charge there now that Rush has gone. I'm sure at least one or two of the top sides would sign him in an instant if he became available.

Depending on who's available i'd like to see the older players move on/retire. Flanagan to stay. We should sort makinson a 5 year contract asap and cash in on Gaskell cause for some reason people still think he's a superstar.

Lots of teams have shown an interest for Gaskell, who wouldn't he was in the running for rookie of the year?
But there can be no firm offer or tapping up whilst he is under contract and Saints have told him from what I understand that they would not let him go anyway.

If Saints wanted to cash in on Gaskell there are plenty of clubs wanting a half back, Hull, Huddersfield, I think even Wigan at one point where having a look before smith went. Salford, Bradford there are more clubs needing halfbacks than there are available quality halfbacks.

Gaskell is an interesting one. He's a player I have always liked. From Wigan pov it would be interesting. We have two exceptional halfbacks in the U18/19 age group (Hampshire and Williams) who have both represented their country in various age groups. However they are probably three years away from 1st team level on a long term basis, and that's assuming that they progress as well as we hope (it may not happen)

So I would have Gaskell at Wigan because of his versatility, fullback, centre, stand off, and MAYBE even loose forward. I do think he is a player we should be looking at.

Maybe you should put this in your sig, it would save having to repeat it.

He is right, Wigan do have some good young half backs coming through. So him saying that he would not say no to Gaskell a pretty big compliment. Gaskell has a great general kicking game, distributes the ball better than any other player in the squad and can also kick goals. It is pretty hard to justify why he was not in the 13 no matter the 17 last year, even if you do not want him at 6 or 7.

I don't like to question other posters knowledge of the game but if you don't think Gaskell is any good I am struggling to find a another explanation (this is aimed at other poster not you Albion).

Amid all the hyperbole there are still big question marks over his decision making and he still needs to beef up a bit more, find a bit more consistency and improve his defence - moves died a lot when the ball went to him in 2011. He has potential to be a very good player but he's not there yet - he may have been by now if he'd have played at all and for a competent coach in a decent system last year but sadly we decided to pointlessly waste a year of his career instead.

There are question marks over his decision making this I fully accept, but I would argue that at least he makes a decision in a creative sense.

He may make a kick that was not correct, or choose to run rather than pass, but by god it was more of a threat than lets simply shift the ball.

I get he's not the finished article but I have to agree, we did him no favours by effectively shifting him out in favour of a ball shifter.

Would Gaskell bring a more creative dimension to our attack? Yes.
Would he give us a half decent kicking game? Yes.

These two alone justifiy his place in the starting line up, I would suggest at 7 rather than 6. He has a long way to go in his decision making, I remember quite a few times he held onto the ball when the better option was to pass but he's only young. I'll be surprised if he isn't in our starting line up next year.

So what you're saying is that we have to put up with mediocrity rather than seek out a genuine Stand-Off. He will never be good enough, END OF.

I think only Rush in the entire universe thought that playing Lance at #6 all last season instead of Gaskell was even remotely a good idea...



...what we're saying is that in a league where Smith and Myler are the best young halves around and where the biggest club in the game are having to make do with Green as their creative lynchpin for at least the next few seasons then a player like Gaskell is practically made of gold. Why do you think we continue to persevere with the forlorn hope that Wheeler will still come good? You may want to wait indefinitely for the next Long, Martyn, Goulding, Cooper, Ropati or Pryce to appear (they won't, trust me) but I'd rather we focused on signing the best players that are available to make the best team we can here and now if you don't mind.