Gary Wheeler Signed

Quote: rubber duckie "I think he is a great player Irishwire.
If he stayed at Sts as a hb, he would likely clash with Walsh's style.
Lance doesn't and thinking about it, neither would Myler if he ever went there.

Wheeler was always well liked at Saints as a youngster, had injury not hampered him, I'm sure he would be up there with the best. I've not known him from what I've seen on TV ever to have a poor game.
I think the Saints fans are just throwing a few knives at him for leaving and joining an enemy.

Although I don't know this, purely a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if his departure had something to do with Cunningham taking over as head. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't get along.'"

Saints fans aren't throwing knives at anyone. Wheeler had many years in the first team and never made himself available for enough games to ever establish himself in the team. He finished this season a good couple of stone overweight. A lot of Saints fans have said it's a shame, he's clearly talented, but no one could justify giving him another deal. We are well aware of the possibility of him joining Wire, playing a good stretch of games and starting to fulfill his potential. It could well come back to bite us, but had we given him another deal questions would have had to be asked.

Wheeler was highly rated as a kid, many rated him higher than Kyle Eastmond. Whilst Kyle came through and established himself and got a big money move to Union, Wheeler has never progressed beyond being a young squad member. In the years I've watched him I can remember 40 minutes at Wigan where he looked superb, one amazing pass one time and one or two jinking runs of note. And that's in about 7 years. I honestly don't know much about him, does he have a kicking game? How fast is he in open space? Can he organise the team when playing in the halves? And when you can't answer questions like that about a player who is 25 and has been with the club all his life, it shows how little he's shown us.

I don't think there is anything in the Cunningham allegation you've made either. Everyone at Saints seems to be of the opinion that he's talented, but that he's had all his chances now. There are undertones that people don't think he is committed enough to the profession and a lot of question marks over his social circle and family. I don't know much about that, but it did always annoy me when he'd play 20 minutes after 3 months out, get injured, then post pictures of himself on the couch with a beer and a big bar of Galaxy on Twitter.

I'd wager a lot that Smith has Ratchford at 6 and O'Brien at 7 and Wheeler is a roll of the dice with the remaining salary cap that he's not relying on a return from.