From an outside perspective, not a bad signing. He is a little bit predictable and if you pair him and Gidley in the halves it may be an issue, but he's a solid player with a good rugby brain.

But I'm also disappointed for Patton if this is true, unless of course you plan to use Patton and Brown together in the halves. But I think at the age he is at Patton just needs to be thrown in and given time, he looks like he will be a top player. But if he doesn't start playing regularly he may well not achieve his full potential.

Seeing as pre season is already underway we should expect an announcement soon, tomorrow's Guardian maybe ?

If this is nailed on I can understand it.
A question for those that watch the reserve grade and academy games. Which side do Patton and Morgan Smith play?
Patton slotted in for us quite well on the left edge at the back end of last season and Morgan Smith got a couple of games rotating at No 9.
It looks like we have replaced our left edge Halfback with Brown (think Brown mainly plays left)
Gidley and Brown will only be around for 1-2 years so this gives Patton and Smith to establish themselves and put them in and out of the side as necessary to give them game time and confidence. I have said previously that the experience that Patton gained in the last few weeks of last season was better than playing Wakefield, Hull KR and Salford for 30 games. (Sorry - don't want to dis those fans but compared to grand finals it is a different intensity)
Most Halfbacks have a side that they are more confident in, even JT and Cronk stuck to their favoured edge. So which edge are Patton and Smith most comfortable with.

Diabolical signing if it comes off... Either Patton is good enough or he isn't, but he showed enough lady year that "not ready" is definitely of the table.

I struggle to see what brown adds in the short term that we don't already have in the squad, and he won't be cheap or hapoy as a squad player.

Short sighted and just plain wrong

I'm not running round overjoyed but he is a decent player with a good kicking game. Strange that we are in for him and weirder that apparently he approached us. He'll do a decent job and patton can learn off him so i'm not amazed but not gonna cry about it. And it could literally be a case of he's the best of who is availble to sign. But the supposed 100k for him is a bit much but we may still have a good chunk of money left over incase another player in a different position becomes available, still would have just rather of signed Jorge Taufua and let Patton do a job for the season........Strange times my friends.

Brown is a great signing for me as its ok saying we don't need a half back, get a full back ect ect. I bet if you look back over last season and say that Gidley and Sandow were our first choice how many games did they play together ? Leaving just Patten and Gidley would mean switching players around and out of position again. Yes sign Cronk, Thurston, Johnson, but I don't see any of those knocking on the door asking to play for us. He is a creative player, a leader on the field, a talker and a thinker and comes across as a player who will help develop the likes of Patten and Smith.

I think we have an ideal member of the coaching staff to bring our half backs along in Lee Briers & i think it is a crying sin if Patton is consigned to being a bit part player again. He has done nothing wrong all season & at least he scored in the GF. We will finish up with another disillusioned young player in the quest to make it our year.

Winslade you have brought rationale and reason to the debate.

Warrington's hands were tied, up until last week Sandow was coming back and your half backs were sorted(ish) but he has dropped you in the preverbial and you had to act fast. Personally i don't think it is a very good signing (from a Wigan point of view) but who else could you have got?

Williams, Gale and other top sides' halfs are pretty much off limits this time of the season so although overpriced he is probably the best you could have got. I think Soward for 1 season would have been a better option though if he would have considered it. Gives you a full season to look for a replacement. Could have even gone down the route of taking an NRL rookie on loan for a season. The Roosters and Broncos lads seemed to do very well in recent WCC games.

I know it was a typo but i couldn't help but say that in a Brummie accent and i still came up with what you meant

Lol. I'm hapoy too

Well if true he's only got play 3-4 good games then he'd have matched Sandow's last seasons performances.Agree with some on here that this smacks of a desperate signing but having said that the club I'd guess have had to act quickly + being a man who likes the odd bet I'd put him up as being better than a lot of signings we've had in the last few years.Only time will tell.

This idea that if we sign someone it consigns Patten to the bin is a fallacy in my view. Look how often our halfbacks were injured last season. This season we will start without Ratchford and Patten, a bit of depth will do us no harm whatsoever.

I find the negativity about Brown amusing.
Widnes were top at the start of last season with him and Mellor then injuries got in the way.
Apart from relying on Dec and Gidley with occasional smatterings of Ratch and Smith no-one has suggested a viable (and available) alternative.
Who else from SL ? - given Williams is tied to the goons in 2017.
And a dependable half from NRL? Barba? Carney?

I don't think it's a slap in the face to Dec either. I can easily see him playing half the games in 2017. Given he has an injury - as does Ratch - we'd be short in numbers at the start of the season.
I've no doubt he will develop and has a great long term future at Wire.

100k? Maybe a bit steep but supply and demand.

It does make me seriously question what Widnes have planned without Brown.

Everyone seems to think it's a cert. If it isn't we could see Westerman or Penny in the halves. ??!!