The marquee signing sounds OK but if some teams are not at the cap they will fall further behind, is it fair that some teams have to wait for others that may never catch up, dammed if they do dammed if they don't scenario, if it's within reason bring it in so long as full funding is maintained for junior development, is Patton Warrington born? if so and makes his debut on Saturday he will be a Warrington born half to play for the Wire in a long time, I would like to see that continue.

First Warrington born HB to play for Wire in a long time? Think O'Brien might take umbrage with that notion....

And he will come out with the usual dross...I could have gone elswehere for more money blah blah blah but my heart was set on Wigan and playing with my two brothers!

Apologies I believed he was from Halton/Widnes way I stand corrected, a feather in his and the academy's cap no less.

Phil Clarke bigging us up as a possibility, however, I just can't see it.

Surely Wigan will struggle under the cap though.

The salary cap won't be an issue. The vote on a marquee player looks set to go through. All 5 of the defeated yes votes are from teams still in SL. Now that's reduced from 14 to 12, 2 votes and its through.

I even think St's will back it now as they are beginning to make a profit with their new stadium.

have you seen the details of the proposed marquee player suggestion and what it actually entails?

No FMC but it was said at the last vote that things need to be clarified and retabled.
I'm guessing that is the case and I wouldn't expect the 5 yes voters without a structure to vote no with it.

There is a little bit of me that thinks we may just pull this one off. We are due a big signing....I know we signed Clarke but was a promising young talent rather than an established star of the game.

If we signed Tomkins it would easily be a bigger signing than Gleeson, Morley and King.

It would solve our full back problem for a start (watching Ratchford not reading the plays and wrapping round too slowly last week was painful.) It would also solve our captaincy issue out as well.

we should be chucking serious money at him.

that said, and despite reading that a friend of Tomkins on Twitter has said "Looks like I'm going to have to start supporting Warrington then

" , I'm still convinced he'll be pie eater by the time the Wigan Wires game comes around.


I hope twitter isn't full of poop

It might pain you to know I agree.

Marquee player rulings. viewtopic.php?f=21&t=581138

Marquee player rulings. viewtopic.php?f=21&t=581138

The 'first option' thing is slightly misleading - In reality, its a bargaining tool for the player involved and his agent, especially if that player is sought after the way Tomkins is.

What will have happened in the last week or so is that Tomkins's agent will have contacted ALL the SL clubs informing them of Tomkins's availability and, with it, invited any interested parties to make a bid, thus, creating an auction.

Now, and I'm making up figures here just as an example, if Salford top the bidding with an offer of £150k a year, then Tomkins's agent goes to Wigan and tells them to match that offer - If Wigan can't, or choose not to, then Tomkins becomes a free agent... He is then able to sift through all the offers and pick the one he fancies.

He could very well end up back at Wigan on less money than the (imaginary) Salford one, but that wouldn't be through any 'first option' clause, it would simply be because that's where he wants to go.

Put simply, from Wigan's point of view, its very much a game of poker and hoping that Tomkins is bluffing when he suggests that Wigan isn't necessarily, his only possible destination.