Why, exactly?

As for Bateman I haven't really seen much of him, but when I have he doesn't seem to stand out much...

Why, exactly?

Because he's ex St.Helens and some Saints fans said he shouldn't have been released when he was, and he's now going to wear a Wigan shirt.

I doubt he's going to rub Saints faces in it the way Sean Long rubbed Wigan's faces in it though.

I can't understand Wigan going for Matty Smith, he would not be good enough to get into our team so them signing him is hardly a positive move forwards if they end up losing Brett Finch.

Bateman is a class act at only 18 years old, his best postion seems to be 2nd row where he makes space for himself and his centre and winger, he also has a very good offload. Bateman isn't the biggest player but he hurts people in defence and has aggression in his game. He gets likened to Andy Farrell and Paul Sculthorpe and deserves to be, he is going to be a machine in a few years time.

Reminds me of a young Danny Tickle.

Whether Bateman is or is not a class act, the same cannot be said for Hood. What a piece of work.

We should be careful we don't get stung here.

Why go in waving our big wads, when we might be able to wait for the Bulls to just crumble, then we can get Bateman as a free agent?

Similar to when Everton paid Rangers £5.5 million for Jelavic, only for the Scottish club to go t!ts up weeks later, when Jelavic could have walked off on a free and saved any buying club the large transfer fee.

I don't think Bradford crumbling is in the best interests of the game. They have a strong following and the last thing we need in RL is a reduction in the overall fan base that the sport generates. If the club does go to the wall it will be more difficult to get sponsors and advertisers for all clubs (because if one club can go belly up, so can any others). Sky will also have less belief in SL and we may not get a good deal when we renegotiate the contract. So if Bradford disappear, it damages all of the RL cubs, not just Bradford.


Finally the Bradford supporters have put their hands in their pockets to save the club. It is not their fault that the Board have mismanaged the club.

What if there are other clubs interested who will swoop in under our noses and pick him up?

If Jelavic was available on a free transfer do you think he would have gone to Everton...? No chance, he would have ended up with his pick of clubs and there were a few big clubs that wanted strikers and would have been willing to pay wages Everton can't.

Know it's been said before but Bateman needs to ditch that silly rats tail. He reminds me of Rodney from Only fools & horses

But they won't......Nobody else in the British game at this time has more financial clout than us - Maybe the equal, but not more.

Why waste cash on an unproven entity, when we could have him for free in a few weeks time?.....If somebody else does steal in before us then so be it, but it would save us a few quid.

So if nobody else in the British game has more financial clout than us then whats the point in saving money and missing out.

Wigan saved money by not signing Adrian Morley when we signed him on a bumper four year deal.

Hull saved money by not matching our bid for Michael Monaghan.

Warrington have been first at the table for these players going back to Gleeson (even Westwood maybe?) putting the money down and saying we want this guy and we are going to do what it takes, if that means we pay a bit over the odds so what if we can afford it? Let Bradford have a few bob.

There's a time and place for being a tight fist watching the pennies, but when we're in a competitive market trying to jump ahead of our rivals to win the title now is not it.