Unless the club knew and have registered widdop before the deadline....no way of leaking it if hes not here yet. Cant see it though...

Unbelievable.

There is that possibility but if you've heard nothing (as others in the know haven't) then I can't see it. Just seems a pretty poor trade if it is just Smith.

So we are shipping players out left right and centre, we sign a half back that as seen better days we get told we have signed another winger because we are really short in that department Gelling has been signed forever WTF is going on. I don’t know the ins and outs of what goes on behind the scenes but this is reminding me more and more of the end of Tony Smiths daysat the club.

Got to be something afoot! Big news anytime soon you would think otherwise its totally bamboozling!!

It is a bizzare one in that a club wanted him on loan, it's not weird that we would let him go though. If he is passed fit in the next few weeks then good, but he wouldn't be anywhere near match fit and his timing etc would be way off and he just wouldn't be up to pace. Where as Smith has trained all year and played 7 games so to pick him over Brown is a no Brainer really. The weird thing is why are shifting so many players out now?
Only hope could be that we have signed 1 or 2 players and registered them in time but just not sorted the contracts out 100% or transfer fees etc......could be a complete long shot but i don't understand the sudden movement of our players now rather than the end of the season?

Surely more to this than a simple balancing of books exercise....

I wouldn't of thought any news from the clubs about Gelling would be forthcoming until the 1895 cup run is over for Widnes. Maybe if this rumour is true he will come over for the run in?

The balancing of the books so to speak is quite strange at the minute

This has to be to do with salary cap. I'm guessing both Brown & Atkins won't play much this year but I'd be totally flummoxed if they were suddenly playing.

I'm all for clearing out the 'deadwood' but this is a strange one. IMO, if fit, both Brown and Atkins have enough left in the tank to make a difference in the current squad. I will be watching what happens with Kev with interest. If he is playing for Leigh in the next week or so then that is bad business...unless Widdop appears!

Maybe this kid from Swindon makes the wire flyer look like he is standing still and is commanding a marquee type salary.

This is very hypothetical and I’ve no idea if my logic is correct or not, but maybe we unregistered Brown early doors because we assumed his injury would be a season long thing. During the season, several players have renewed their contracts, so maybe we’ve slowly eaten into the cap space that Kev occupied.

Now it appears Kev has potentially recovered quicker than expected, if we reregister him, we’ll be liable for his full salary on the cap and just can’t afford to do that under the present salary cap restrictions, so we can’t play him.

Thus, as he’s nearing fitness it would only be fair to him go to another club not competing with us so he can get some game time…

That seems logical but it didn't stop them bringing Ben Currie back in straight away, so not sure why the same wouldn't apply here.

It seems very odd, especially the timing of it all with our struggle with injuries currently. 3 players out & 1 in, over the space of a couple weeks is strange to say the least.

I think too much is being read into this. In all probability KB isn't ready to play yet and won't be for sometime. It does allow him the chance to play towards the end of the season but to do this it had to be registered to comply with the deadline.
Alternatively maybe it had to be done to facilitate the Smith loan deal and it was felt he would be able to play straight away even if not match fit. The only match Smith can't play in is Wembley and I cant see we would have risked that as KB's first match back.
Can't see it has anything to do with the Swinton winger as that will be for next season.
Don't panic, DON'T PANIC!