We are not making any signings for next season so we may aswell keep as
much squad depth as possible.

Ian Lenagan has not said that we will not be making any signings for next year.
The last time I heard him speak on the matter he said that "We have not made any signings for next year but that does not mean we will not be making any".
It's five months before the start of next season.

There is that but how long a contract would you give him - just the one season?

He may want longer and then there is the injury to consider.

Also players may become available mid-season and signing him up may mean we would not be able to move for them.

If the club re-sign him it has got to be because they think he fits in with the club plans not as some sort of stop gap or because we may as well IMO.

Dave

FLANAGAN INSPIRED BY AUSSIE OPPORTUNITY

[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/09/09/22/RUGBYL_Column.html[/url


"I probably would have re-signed with Wigan if I had the chance but I wasn't getting a chance at the time and there wasn't much contact from them in terms of a new contract so I started to look elsewhere,"

Prior to his injury a 1 year deal would have been fully deserved, but at his age and our current strength in the backrow i personally think it would be a poor move.

It took Locky 2 years to recover from such an injury fully, Bailey has many more miles on the clock and sadly his age is against him, if we are turning down the chance to go for O'Meley because he has dodgey knees then the same surely applies to re-signing our own.

Personally I would give him a 1 year deal, I doubt he would reject given his injury status IMO.

You do have some very valid points but we could wait and see if a decent player becomes available, but if not and we get hit with lots of injuries mid-season then we would struggle with one less player.

I can't really blame Wigan for not rushing into an extended contract for a backrow forward at the age of 21 that hadn't cracked the first team and hadn't(from what i read) looked anything overly amazing in the u21's(he believe he has been good for the reserves but not a real standout like Sam was).

We also had more options in that backrow at the time with Hock playing and Bailey fit so it's not really something we can blame Wigan for.

He's taken to the first team like a duck to water which has been great to see and hopefully he can take that confidence with him to Australia and have a good dig over there.

His exit should hopefully give Liam Farrell a crack who when i've seen him looks an even better player and a really exciting prospect.

They already did in Isa Soliola

he's supposed to be a replacement for lyon, on field and cap-wise, alledgedly

He said on GMR on friday we wont be signing anyone.

Which makes the choice of coach even more critical.

Next season

Smith
Hock
Bailey (probably)

will be off the cap compared to this season. Even with upgrades for the likes of Sam T and other youngsters I'm struggling to see us not having space, which begs the question - why is Lenagan saying we will not be signing anyone, especially given the obvious gaps in a couple of key positions?