Quote: sally cinnamon "The key point is both those players would have easily got in the Warrington team had we kept them, and would have been better than the players we replaced them with.
The one player who did get one over on us by winning honours was Martin Gleeson. Despite the fact that Gleeson had been a very good player for us, and was the signing that really kicked us off as a team to be taken seriously, he seemed to have become unpopular with our fan base by the end. I think it was because by the end of 2008 he seemed to be seriously peed off with playing in an underperforming team that was not going to win trophies and he looked like he was sulking, although in terms of performances he was still playing quite consistently well for us. He then went to the 2009 World Cup and was one of England's best players and looked sharp and motivated when he was playing for England, more than he did for us. One of TS first decisions was to move Gleeson on to Wigan and sign Mathers in return, I remember that being a popular decision amongst our fans, proof that TS "didn't care about reputations". Gleeson then went on to win Super League with Wigan although his career did tail off alarmingly after that point. I think we got rid of Gleeson about 18 months too soon.'"
Hindsight's a wonderful thing, Sally, but personally, I think Smith played a blinder, for all concerned.
Smith's man management skills indentified a problem with Gleeson (I'd heard one or two stories about his off field behaviour, if they were true, maybe it was for the best)
Gleeson's Wire career had "platteaued" a bit, but still better than most
We get a fresh player, and a ton of money, in the bank.
Gleeson goes on to win a GF for his hometown team, we win 3 CCs in 4 years.
Everyone's a winner, pot pourri, as Del Trotter would say
