Atleast we have a manager who will be able to do what he wants with the squad.
What type of rugby does powell want to play next season will decide on who we keep and who goes.
If powell wants to keep widdop. Let's get him on his last contract and get his apprentice in next year why we keep ratchford In the halfs.
Austin. He can go for me. Austin and widdop can not work together. And widdop for me is controlling the squad more as the preferred half back.
At the end of the day. Let's just see who Powell wants to keep and who Powell wants to get rid of and who Powell wants to bring in.

From a different angle, could we find a centre of King's quality for much cheaper? It would be extremely difficult.

You run the risk of needing to pay even more money to get someone else in, who might not even work out.

If we can fit it within our budget, pay the man.

I'd be shocked if we couldn't. He's a good player, but come on, he's not an Inglis/Meninga/Jonathan Davies gamechanger, is he?.. He isn't even a Keith Senior or Gary Connolly for that matter.

I do like the lad and would prefer he stays, but his status in our team probably highlights how limited & poor our attacking game is, under Price, and it's why he stands out so well.

We can't get better than King without spending a lot more money IMO. It would have to be NRL because I don't think there is significantly better in superleague.

I agree King is playing brilliant and we cant afford to lose him. Maybe thats why were offering up Austin to make way for some salary increase. I think we would be daft to let him go - unless he wants to go.

And there aren't many significantly worse either. Let's face it, our league isn't blessed with many backs who you would get excited about going to see play?

Most SL club's fans would argue they have a centre who can match, or even better, King's abilities.

He's not a superstar, no, but 140k isn't superstar money. It's about whether we can get better value for the money. I don't think we can.

Out of interest, and mainly because I often see figures bandied around on here, but do we actually have any confirmed figures on what individuals at any club are being paid, or is it just guesswork on the part of people who post on here?

I mean, what is 'superstar money' and what's your average SL player earning?

I hope that we can sort something out with King and that he stays but tend to agree with your point. He's a match for most first pick centres and up there with the likes of Naiqama/Percival, Gildart/Hardaker although probably just behind Percival and Gildart for me.

There are two questions IMO,

How far in front is he compared to the likes of say Tuimavave/Griffin, Wardle/Leutele, Tupou/Lyne who are decent Centres across the current SL spectrum and will Powell play to Toby's strengths? I'm not saying he is a one trick pony btw but my impression of Powell's Cas is that it goes through the air a bit less (awaits the correction from any Stato's out there )

Pretty sure none are confirmed.

But the cap is £2.1m. Divided by a squad of, say 25, that equals an average of £84k. Then there are dispensations for marquee and club-trained players.

as mentioned above the expected average salary is about 80k

i would say 140k is top star money.

Once you get above 150(depending on home or overseas) you're in marquee territory, "superstar" wages(with superstar expectation)

You know what the irony here is, we keep getting told that we should invest in youth, because long term its cheaper than buying imports or signing from outside, yet here we've invested in youth, we've got an England international, current dream team player, and probably currently the best centre in the league, and we might be getting priced out of keeping him. and not to the nrl either.

Are we being a bit precious, different positions, but compare current top line king, with 2015/16 ben currie, he probably was on about 120k+ as being one of the best backrowers in the league (ing acl tears ) we wouldn't have begrudged him that contract at the time. Should we now with King?

Marquee Player – Each Super League and Championship Club is permitted to have two Marquee Players whose Salary Cap value is limited to £150,000 (or £75,000 if Club Trained);

Toby isn't a superstar, his defence can sometimes lapse and he could do with a bit more speed, but we all know that the standard of rugby league has dropped significantly over the past few years and that leaves him as one of the best UK centres. So if you wan't to keep him you have to pay up. Since he came through our Academy I would hope we keep him, god knows we have had too few players coming through to the first team without losing any.

I wonder if this rumour of a £140K offer has come from Huddersfield. They always have a bit of cash and it would allow him to return home.

Forgive my ignorance - so do Austin and Widdop take up 300k on our salary cap and then have extra on top of that, which doesn't count on the cap, and, if so, what's the most you can pay on top, or is it unlimited?

Just checked, we also get a mighty 5k dispensation as he's club-trained.

Negotiate him down to 120k, becomes 115k on the cap. Probably on par with our better players.

Job's a good'un.