I don't think we should be too concerned with the players that we have released in the past.It is more important that the club retains and continues to develop the current crop of Wigan youngsters.

Already we have seen the impact that Sam Tomkins and Shaun Ainscough have made.Hopefully the likes of Ben Davies,Liam Farrell,Lee Mossop and Josh Veivers can push on and also challenge for first team opportunities in the near future.

If most of those players that have left had left any other club than Wigan, nobody would bat an eye lid.

Its funny how Wigan get slated for doing it yet Leeds allow Raynor, Carvell and Dowes to slip through there fingers pretty much all superior players to lads we have allowed to leave and it hardly gets a mention.

If you invest in youth and have a good youth system in place it will always happen. It is impossible to retain all your young talent if you aim to be a successfull team, if you do retain them you will forever be in a period of transition.

And Calderwood and Mathers.

And that just proves the point! Sometimes You get it Wrong and Sometimes you get it RIGHT!

We now have Eamon O'carroll, Michael McIlorum, Paul Prescott, Joel Tomkins, Sam Tomkins, Sean Ainscough, Darrell Goulding that are either regulars in the first team or there abouts.

Not to mention Gareth Hock and Sean O'loughlin established England internationals.

Then we have two of the best reserve and academy squads in the league.

Lee Mossop, Chris Tuson, Ben Davies, Mark Flanagan, Liam Farrell and Ian Thornley who will all be pushing for a place some time soon.

Also we've had Harrison Hansen since he was just 17? What ever age it was he has progressed through the Wigan academy.

And recently we have just signed up two really promising young talents to add to the other three we announced at the Castleford game.

[urlhttp://www.wiganwarriors.com/news_full.asp?newsid=4590[/url

I don't think we're doing to bad.

Just for prosperity here's a couple of Dean Bell era successes. (Been resurrecting old academy stuff recently on the site.)

[url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=9692002 Junior Academy GF: Wigan 62 Hull 6[/url
[url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=9542003 Senior Academy GF: Bradford 30 Wigan 36[/url
[url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=2282005 Junior Academy GF: Leeds 22 Wigan 33[/url

Just goes to show!

Your Lucky To get 2 or 3 from each crop over a couple of seasons!

Indeed. Everyone keeps harping on about bringing more younger players through but they have to remember they have to be able to play to super league standard. Some do and some don't. Most either go to NL1/NL2 clubs or look for a career elsewhere.

Wigan however at the moment have the most talent coming through that I have ever known in the super league era in terms of quality.

Reading those team it is clear that very few players (on both sides) make it to the top level - for both teams in each match only 1 or 2 players go on to make 1st team, seems like it is not a uniquely Wigan thing letting young players go.

But that should hardly come as a surprise given that once a player makes it into the 1st team they could be there for several years so effectively blocking anyone below them. And the salalry cap ensure that squads cannot be very large.

Still doens't stop the Wigan bashers from trying to use letting young players go as a stick to try and beat Wigan with.

What many of those who perpetuate this myth conveniently forget is that, a few years ago, Wigan had a team stuffed with kids - and it paid no dividends at all.

I'm not sure if it was the season of the famous 75-0 defeat, or maybe the year we got trounced at Cardiff, but Eddie Hemmings, gleeful as ever at Wigan having problems, asked if we were a club in decline, and Phil Clarke replied something like: "It's not that they're a club in decline, it's just that their current crop of players are not good enough."

To me, that said it all.

Recruitment is a far more complex and sophisticated process than those who wish to 'promote youth at any cost' seem to realise.

Well most came through in 2003 when we had dreadful injuries and the reaching of the Grand Final made all seem rosy. But at the end of 2004 when literally ALL the experience Wigan had left at once, things went downhill and fast!

I sometimes wonder though that things could have been a lot different had Mike Gregory not fallen ill. A Grand Final and a Challenge Cup Final in his short time as coach, albeit both lost, was a remarkable achievement.