Got to say Wheeler looks very promising at centre, why move him.

Wheeler offers unpredictability going forward. He also has a willingness to get stuck in. He has great feet and a solid kicking game, as well as being pretty sound defensively. To be honest, I have no idea how any sane man could think Meli would be better starting ahead of him or Shenton.

I agree, leave gaz where he is and play shenton in the other centre. These two could be saints centres for the next 5 years.

Is Meli's contract up at the end of this season? (The annual question)

It sure is!!!

He should never have been given a new contract but to be fair on him, he had a pretty good season in the centre last year.

The big question is can Wheeler stay fit.

Has he ever put three games in a row together before?

Yep. Him and Perry managed a massive 6 games of Sh*thead in the physio room one day last season.

There is no [icredible[/i argument for putting Wheeler at 6. The kid has good feet and hands - but I've seen no evidence of greater tactical awareness. I mean, Wheeler can [imake [/isixty yards with ball in hand. But [idriving a team[/i sixty yards is something else entirely.

Personally if we were to drop Meli from the centres, I would be putting the better defensive centre with the lesser defensive winger and vice versa therefore partnering Shenton with Foster and leaving Wheeler with Tommy.

This would allow us to retain Foster for his outstanding kicking and more natural attack-minded wingplay and allow him to build up his confidence in defensive situations with the support of Shenton's superior positioning and arguably better ability under the high-ball than Meli.

At Wigan last season Wheeler looked class at 6 until Hoffman hit him while he was kicking.

This

You are so wrong, wrong, wrong.
Remember how good he was against the pies last year at 6 until Tommy L did the very late dirty tackle on him which knackered his shoulder. If that hadn't happened, we would have won the game and he would now be our first choice no 6. The goons were terrified of him.

I can only take the word of my nephew who played with him and most of the other young lads in the brook team and always told me that gary was far better and had more potential than lomax, gaskell or foster - a fact acknoledged by all of them (except jamie!!).

I have said this before and will say it again - he will play for england by the time of the world cup (subject to no serious injuries!) - probably at centre as he will not now be given a half back role unless we get (and I pray that we don't), long term injuries in those positions.

A word about Dicko - he is a friend of my mate's family and was apparently very unhappy about royce last year.
I am told he thought royce just didn't like him and wanted shut. Personally I think royce has had the desired effect on him and he is a whole lot better having lost a bit of bulk and increased his speed and mobility without losing strength. Again, he is known to my nephew who thought he was a skully type player in his teens e.g. running to the line on the arc at speed. like a lot of young guys he then bulked up a bit too much and lost speed; he now seems faster and a better shape than last year.

This is nonsense. You're taking, what, fifty minutes of ONE match he played (admittedly well) in and then arguing that [ithat [/iperformance is in itself sufficient evidence to prove he is a) a genuine stand off and b) Saints' future stand off.

Let us pretend for a moment he wasn't injured in that game. We win and Royce selects him for the next ten matches at stand off where he performs poorly. Where is your theory then?

It's ridiculous to judge a player off what isn't even a full game. Using the same reasoning I could introduce a whole cavalcade of failures - from John McAtee to Scott Moore - and embarrassingly argue they should have had long-term careers at Saints on the strength of 80 minutes (or less).



Potential and actuality are two different things entirely. A player with enormous potential does not mean a player with enormous ability (and vice versa). Saints fans shouldn't need to be reminded of this.



I hope Wheeler does play for England. Why wouldn't I? But he'll never win an England shirt simply because I [ihope[/i or [ibelieve[/i he will. Gary has to do that all on his own - which means delivering the goods consistently at a high level. Something he has struggled, so far (for all manner of reasons - many of which can be attributed to bad luck), to achieve.

Sorry, but he has also played in that position for parts of other games and has done well. It's fine pretending but why are you using a silly non-example - if he (or anyone) played poorly at stand off for 10 matches, why on earth would Royce still select him and why on earth would I still be advocating him to still be selected in that team? If he was playing poorly he would obviously be dropped?



I am not judging him off that game alone. I am exposing a theory that a player who has played in that position for most of his youth and at U18's and U21's MAY actually be quite good at it. I'm also saying that if he hadn't got injured in that game (and also not been injury prone generally) then there is a good chance IMO he would have retained the no 6 (gaskell had some doubters at the time and was not a stitched on first choice no 6 then). I am confident that if that had happened he would have made a very good fist of it and quite possibly made the position his own.

As we all know, it didn't happen and gaskell is the no 1 choice, so gary has to make a case for building his career in a position which was not his natural position. In all honesty he will just be so pleased and proud to be in the team playing anywhere he is put.
I'm sorry you don't agree with my opinion and speculation but I won't hold it against you. 2.75146484375:10