The saints board at the time was not the worlds most professional, however, the fact they actually sold players to balance the books was far better than the Wigan board who bankrupted their club to buy the likes of Connolly.

It's not selling players that that was the problem it was the sneaky way in which they did business. The Goon board is a different kettle of fish , they were reckless but I suspect had the right intentions

Not really fully accurate.

The noises coming from Connolly whilst he was guesting for Canterbury in Aus, were that he wanted to sign for them permanently. Connolly had been refusing to sign a new contract at Saints, and had only 3 months left to run on it. There was an agreement between the RFL and ARL that inter-comp transfer fees be limited to £70k, and Saints were terrified of losing their prize asset for (what was then) a peanuts fee. Wi*an had sniffed around before and been rebuffed by the Saints board.

The Board asked Connolly once more to sign their new contract, but he declined. Connolly said years later in an interview that he'd already given a verbal agreement to sign a 3 year deal at Canterbury. In a bit of a panic, the board contacted wi*an and said Connolly was up for sale, £250k, take it or leave it. They took it. Connolly got a chunky pay rise and the almost guarantee of silverware.

The Saints fall-back plan was to sign Newlove, but by the time the Connolly transfer went through, Newlove had signed for Bratfud for £245k from Fev.

Connolly leaving came soon after Saints had lost colossal packman Kevin Ward to career-ending injury, and after losing the league to title to the scum only on points difference after a tense 8-8 draw at Central Dump. After so many years of pain, many Saints supporters had hoped the end of the dark ages were nigh, but the loss of Connolly to, of all teams, wi*an, was the final straw and he became the focal point for the anger & frustration. I remember screaming 'Judas!' at him with the rest of the Scaff. I laughed when I heard his car got done in. I wished him a plague of boils - and worse.

Years on, the rational side of me realises I was daft. He was looking out for his career, same as anyone would. The contract Saints were offering was poor (between £20k and £25k, depending on which account you heard at the time) - certainly a hell of a lot lower than the overseas players and some veterans were on. There was a culture of paying homegrown players less, a kind of "you should be playing for the love of yer hometown team, lad" attitude.

The Saints board were always a bit of a shambles and, although anyone could see their point in securing the best price when faced with losing their best player, to sell him to the scum verges on criminal. Especially when their Laurel & Hardy act saw us miss out on the only top-class replacement in the market.

As it happened, there was only another 3 [long] years to wait before we stepped out of that smelly, rancid, retard-accented shadow and took Super League and summer rugby by storm.

Just a pity we've been on the decline again since Anderson left.

On Super League Supermen he gave the full account of the transfer to Wigan:

He was in Australia and then got told he was getting sold to Wigan he then told them he would play for Saints for half the money Wigan offered him. But they sold him to get a fee.

- like Gaskell allegedly (£12K).

Whilst the stick Connolly got was a bit over the top, you should remember the abuse Sean Long suffered for years and years off Wigan fans before throwing stones in glasshouses.

And that wasn't even a direct transfer between the clubs.

I know for a fact that Gaskell is on much better than that.

You have to remember that Wigan were a lot more professional in every sense than Saints in those days, not just in monetary terms. I remember the likes of Andy Platt and Paul Loughlin hanging around the town centre with nothing to do, Saints were the happy amateurs who could beat Wigan every so often but not consistently. To improve yourself you were looking for a move to Wigan.

I reckon that Paul Loughlin could have been a absolute world class centre if he had been handled correctly, he was a good un, imagine how good he would have been if he took it seriously. Similarly Andy Platt wouldn't have scaled the heights if he had stayed at Saints.

People often underestimate the impact of a professional full time environment on players. Connolly and other players visibly bulked up shortly after joining wigan for starters

that said player like Andy Platt used to take there own fitness and conditioning seriously despite the lack of direction from the club