Well I doubt they will be using it to pry King from us.

It's to buy out Ratchford's contract, Boxing Day announcement, you heard it here first.

"Nurse, where's my medication?"

So is Drinkwater spending Xmas in France then? I would have thought the sooner he arrived the better, irrespective of whether Williams is back?

There has not been any announcement yet, that we have signed Drinkwater, other than the heads-up on here from Paul (Who is usually correct).

Maybe it is just hearsay and rumour......until we announce we've actually signed Luke Gale on a 1 year deal........can you imagine.
I assume either he doesn't want to come here and wants to stay in France like he said when the rumours first appeared. Or the contract is a minefield and overly complicated. He supposedly signed up to 4 weeks ago according to some, so it makes no sense if we actually have signed him. Which leads me to believe he hasn't signed a contract yet.

From Rugby League Live's Ross Heppenstall, on an update from the Catalans Dragons general manager...

Thanks for that update.

The article certainly throws a lot of doubt about whether Drinkwater will be moving to Wire.

Agree, don’t think I have ever doubted Paul’s posts but the delay in any announcement and now this recent post does make it look very doubtful.

Catalans and there players seem to have a bad habit of signing elsewhere, then completely ignoring the contract and resigning with the club, it`s happened a few times.

If Drinkwater doesn't want to be here, then we should let him stay over there.

Agree, but I don`t want to see Ratchford at halfback and Minikin at centre, if we don`t sign Drinkwater.

Totally agree and hoping that as they are not mutually exclusive, if it's true that he's not coming that we have a better plan.

If he is not coming give Leon Hayes a crack from the start. He looks like he has all the attributes and a player we can build a side around for the future.

Williams started for Wigan when he was 18 as did Lomax for Saints. Hayes will be 19 at the start of next season.

I have wondered for a while whether we would be better spending our spare cap and quota spot on a high-quality centre rather than a half back.

We have Ratchford, Dean & Hayes in the halves, we have very few options in the centre, and it is such a key attacking position.

Yeah with him saying he wanted to stay at Catalans, and Chan saying he's onboard for 2023 i'd say that's dead in the water.......Luke Gale here we come ha ha
Be interesting to see if he does give one of our youngsters ago.
I don't want to see Ratchford at halfback either and think we look weaker with minikin in the squad. If he finds form and fitness again he's a decent player, but looked well off the pace when he came back from injury.