This es me right off. Did he not discus it with his family before he signed?

Who knew eh? Oh yeh...

I've got no problem at all with him going if he goes. If his family don't want to be here and are unhappy then let him go, he goes with my full blessing. Came over, give it ago in a very boring most of the time team that is clueless in attack most of the time. He won't really be missed to be fair, he's not come over and lit the team up like sezer so i hope he finds a club back home.

What did he not discuss the potential for a global pandemic hitting and his family being put into lockdown in an alien country?

I can't believe that wasn't at the forefront of their thinking back in early 2019 either.

It's been hard enough for us locals so how hard must it be, as PY says, for his family in an alien country. Gareth has a ready made set of mates and rugby to keep him occupied. His family have 4 walls to stare at. It's a real shame as I, as well as many others, had high hopes for this halfback pairing. He hasn't actually gone yet though.

Maybe the reality of being so far from home was harder to deal with than they expected. You never know. Whatever it was, it must have been exacerbated by the last nine months of restrictions.

He’s not lit the team up here and if he’ll be happier somewhere else then good luck to him. It has been a funny year but it should be a lesson that big name signings won’t change our world by themselves.

I think this is good news for Warrington if true. Widdop has been anonymous on a huge wage and if you can get that cap wage back its a good deal all round. Problem Warrington seem to have though is you can never seem to sign a good half back. Sandow was good but a loose cannon. Kurt Gidley was class but a better 1. If the club has known about it for a while i wonder who they have lined up? Be an interesting signing that because your side really isn't that far away but that is certainly a weak area. Rob Butler is a very good signing too. He will come on leaps and bounds in a higher class of facilities and training regimes. I would have wanted him at Wigan if we didn't have so many young props coming through.

His wife is an Aussie as are his kids you can’t blame them for being homesick. They had already gone back to Australia whilst he was playing here during lockdown. I don’t blame Widdop one bit for wanting to be with his kids half way across the world. Family is more important. It’s always the risk you take signing Aussie based players. I’d look more at the club, did we do our due diligence? Hmm...

Due diligence? Are you suggesting that a couple of years in Warrington playing Super League didn't match up to the players expectations?

The pandemic was unforeseeable his family's reaction might have been inevitable given the situation that we ALL find ourselves in but I'm unsure what the club should've done differently once they'd reached a deal with the player.

I'm not blaming him btw family must come first but surely its more appropriate to judge the club on what it does next not what it should have done without the benefit of hindsight

Everytime any club signs an Aussie based player they are taking a risk. When you sign one with a very young family it becomes an ever bigger risk. We seen that with Peta Hiku most recently.

I’m merely suggesting that in the future it would be nice, if, instead of throwing marquee money to the other side of the world for a 31 year old, with a dodgy shoulder who comes with a serious risk of wanting to return home early, we look to our own academy or sign an English based player like Jake Trueman.

I think covid totally ruined the widdop signing for us. He's a fantastic player, no doubt about it, but it's not surprising that his family couldn't settle here under lockdown and restrions. We haven't seen the best of him and thats a real shame, best of luck to him in whatever he moves on to. I genuinely belive he signed for us with all the right intentions so no hard feelings from me if he does end up leaving us as expected.