Still, has Parker[i ever[/i got one right?

We have signed Sammut for next season, pretty good source.

I believe his contract at Wakefield is too high for anybody to take him this season

And I also expect a few more to sign in the next few months. We do have some decent players and who would blame them if a good offer came in. I think we should be concerned about the likes of O'Brien, Addey, Clough, Pitts, Fergusson and one ore two others who would do well in SL. I hope I am wrong but I do feel we have to go up this year to have any chance of keeping them if they haven't already signed in the next couple of months. We won't find out till it is too late. Sammut is a backward step for me as I bet we would not be fighting off any top clubs for him as none of them will want him.

Not sure Gaskell would be the type of player Warrington need to be honest. He's having a great season and looks like the move to Bradford has done him good, but not sure he's the sort of player you'd bring to replace Briers and play with the likes of Ratchford, GoB etc...

Like somebody mentioned earlier, if we don't go straight back up I could see Gaskell and some of our other top players looking at gaining a place in a SL squad. Thankfully he's signed up for another year so if Wire want him they'll have to pay for it.

Would imagine its if we dont get promoted. We have him under contract for next year so only way he'd be going is with our consent unless hes got a SL get out clause. Ateotd he too good to play in Championship and I wouldnt begrudge him a move next year if we're still down here.

The problem is that we have no idea how these contracts have been written up. There may be a number of players with it written that they can leave for all we know. What would annoy me though is that everybody says he is too good for the championship - which is true now.
But when he was at Salford and not being picked he was classed as a fringe player who was struggling to make a name for himself. All of a sudden looking great against the part-timers he is world class. If I were to find out that some of our players (on 2 Yr contract ) have signed with others so soon I would not be impressed. The club needs to be very careful how it deals with speculation like this as if they say it is not true and it turns out someone has already signed the fans would be furious.

It was a tricky situation for the club to get good players to stay with us this year but we can't afford to be held over a barrel by their agents.
Fingers crossed it is all speculation - even the Sammut one.

Or, at the very least, ask really nicely.

Is it more the case that the thinking should be, that when we fulfil our ambition of returning to the top flight this year. We want to keep our best players, in this case Mr Gaskell. Does it make sense that we decide to release quality players? It should be in the players minds through this competition that if they do not perform to there maximum, its quite possible that we will bring in the quality that is required. Removing the impact of being a yo yo club.

Players can make dreadful mistakes by leaving clubs and find that they are left in a vacuum of their own making i.e. Sammutt and Carvell.

I've said this before, but I think it may be worth repeating.

The guys we've got on long term deals are, most likely, on low wages this year with the promise of a big wage hike next year assuming we get promoted back to SL. If we don't then I'd imagine that those same players will have a SL club/non-promotion release clause in their contracts

This seems completely unfounded to me. Are you basing this on any factual information at all? Why would any player agree to this? We can offer absolutely no guarantees to any player about future earnings should we get back into SL.

I think what's more likely is that we've offered reasonable salaries to the majority of the squad, reduced wages to the younger/fringe players and a decent wage to a handful of key personnel. In my opinion the reason many (like Lee Gaskell and Dale Ferguson) chose to stay with us is because a) they were happy here b) their salaries were reasonable and c) the promise of regular game time and a platform to demonstrate your talents to other clubs (SL sides).
I think the theory of buy out clauses should a SL club come calling is also probably accurate.

I'm basing it on the fact we've got a £1 million salary cap and 31 first teamers. So, just taking that as 1,000,000 split 31 ways gives us £32k each. Now, given that the average wage for a SL player is approximately £65k it seems reasonable to assume that our top players will get bumped up wages next year

Well, each to their own I suppose. But I seriously doubt it is worked that way.

I agree with Roofaldo, I think it will be "stick with us this year,get us promoted and you get a big pay rise next season."

I think it's difficult to make these decisions sometimes.

We have to remember that Sammut, Carvell, and I'll add in Scruton, were probably happy enough playing for Bradford, but had gone through periods of being paid late and, no doubt, had worries about not being paid at all. That they would have wanted to 'normalise' their employment situation was pretty clear, to be fair - and given a similar set of circumstances I'd guess they would again look first at how their families bread was going to be buttered. I guess the last thing on their minds was that we were going to hit some stability whilst their position at Wakey were going to start looking 'dodgy' again.