On the subject of Lance, as a World Cup winner, he is surely on a decent wedge. I sometimes wonder if the club would be financially better off if they had just paid Eastmond what Offiah claims he was worth at the time he was negotiating his first major contract when Lomgy retired. I seem to remember the rumours being that the club played hard ball and wouldn't offer him any more than 2 years. I wonder if it would have been better business in hindsight.

Burns will certainly be a great signing, in terms of his half back play, organisational skills, his leadership and his sheer competitiveness. There may be questions over whether he fits into the Saints type of player mould but let's be honest, I can think of more successful players who were thought to be difficult than genuine nice guys who are squeaky clean professionals. I'm sure we still have the management structure to cope with the odd Sean Long character.

We need some more players of this type, he's just what we've been missing. A niggly get who winds up the opposition. Wigan have O'loughlin, Leeds have Sinfield

Wane didn't pull the plug. The plug was pulled for him.

Burns is a good player but will be 31 years of age at the start of next season, so this will be his last big contract. I certainly (from Wigans p.o.v) wouldn't offer anything more than a two (or even one plus one) deal. If another club came up with a three or more year contract offer then if I were in Burns position I would snatch their hand off.

I think he's got a good 3 seasons left him in. 2yr with option of a 3rd is good IMO.

Not if it held back the development of Powell, Williams and Hampshire (even Shorrocks)

So your basically saying Green doesn't need replacing ?

In the halves you want quality and experience, it's such a pivotal position where alot of organising, talking and dictating of the plays take place.

The latest article from Brown is pretty ominous for me. He says Dave Hewitt is a good prospect but not yet ready for 1st team rugby and we are actively looking at experienced options for next year. If Burns does sign and gives us 3 years (with Walsh only here for another 1 maybe 2 probably at best) it will allow a smoother transition for us to blood Hewitt (or even Charnock, who keeps getting mentioned) over time and allow him to grow into the role naturally rather than throw him in at the deep end expecting him to dominate and direct more experienced players around the field.

If we sign Burns for next year our 1, 6, 7 and 9 options are fantastic, the best in the league by a long way and it will give us much more flexibility in the squad.

No, I'd have taken someone like Burns, but only on a max two year deal, similar to the way we have used Matt Bowen.

Why is that ominous? Seems he is talking a lot of sense, and you are agreeing with him?

Eastmond was always injured in his last season at Saints, and has spent a huge amount of time missing due to injuries at bath, where he hardly ever has any physical contact with anyone else! He would have been another Wheeler, paying him a wedge to sit on the physios table would have been suicidal.

Wrong use of the word there, but you get the point!