That, my friend, is precisely how a few other clubs felt when it was US who were doing the pinching.

It just go's to prove how far off the pace we really are, hope we are better next year as the fan base will not accept this for much longer.

I suppose so, and until we get a sugardaddy like the majority of other SL sides, we'd better get used to it.

Sadly, I fear your argument is irrefutable.

Wardle and Hellewell weren't pinched we offerd them peanuts and rightly so they wen't forthe better offer on the table.

Indeed. As happened when we did the same when we were in the ascendency. I was assuming that by "pinched" he meant "able to offer them a much better package than we were. THIS, my friends, is where your sugar daddy really comes in.

Tom Burgess is the biggest 18 year old i've ever seen, he's a beast!! it took 3-4 of our players every time to stop him. Hope you can keep hold of him and he doesn't have his head turned by Maximus Crowe.

I wouldn't say it was a much better package more a realistic offer.

And therefore a much better package!

I was about to say that Adey, but to be honest, I couldn't really think of any cast iron examples off the top of my head and didn't care enough to go and do some research

I guess the frustrating thing from a supporters viewpoint is that we don't have the money to retain the likes of Wardle. But we waste money on someone like Ah Van who won't have travelled across the world without his family for peanuts. Benefit of hindsight helps I guess, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.

Yes this is exactly what I mean.
I remember an article in the T&A some time ago featuring an interview with Andy Lynch. In it he was expressing his concern at a lack of salary cap (or its equivalent) monitoring the amount teams could spend on their junior talent. A few seasons later and we are seeing teams like warrington snapping up junior players left, right and centre.
I'm not having a go, they are completely within their rights to offer as much as they want to these players, but I have a feeling Andy knew exactly what was to come further down the line and we are powerless to help.

Ok if you want to be picky yes you could see it like that.