As the only obvious room for manoeuvre (on the salary cap) for MM is from Carmont and Bailey's wages, I would hazard a guess that the reason that both haven't re-signed, is evidence that IL believes that MM may wish to explore other options?

Personally, I like the pair of them as club men, as I did Nobby, but staying faithful to good lads may not be the best route to winning trophies? This is a controversial view in our household, I guess it's only a shame that both are getting on and appear to becoming susceptible to injuries, or we wouldn't be questioning these 2 class servants futures.

I think it's indicative of how much the standards of Wigan fans have been brutalised in recent years that we get senitmental about the 'good lads' in our team. George Carmont is indeed a good lad, but he's also 32 - and as long as he's here, he's going to prevent a younger centre getting a first team place or the club signing an even better centre from somewhere else. Bailey is an even more obvious example, as he's on bigger wages, has been a less effective player and is reportedly struggling with a long-term injury.

The NRL way is to replace players when they are approaching the end of their usefulness. I don't see the logic in hanging onto two guys, however much we may like them, as they progress into their 30s, when we (presumably) have ready-made replacements waiting in the wings.

I see your point, but that policy has been quite effective at Saints recently, although of course it's only a short term policy (and at Saints may have run its course).

It's a delicate balancing act, certainly. And whichever way it's resolved, it'll probably one of those things that will always leave some sections of the fans unhappy.

The problem these days are the overseas quota, the salary cap, etc - which don't reward clubs who want to keep their overseas veterans as part of the furniture.

I'd love George to stay at Wigan, but having him sitting on the bench or popping in and out of the lower grade teams is no longer viable. I doubt he'd be happy that himself, given that he'd be on less money and has five kids to support. This would especially be the case if some other club came along and offered him a better deal.

As I said in another thread, I think we may need to brace ourselves for George's departure. He's definitely been an IL signing that really worked out for us.

Tickle and King from Hull to Celtic

No he didn't. Easing Hansen into the first team is something else Noble can't take credit for

as Hansen played 25 games for the club in 2005 before Noble got here. Raper eased him into the team with 6 appearances in 2004. He was already an established member of the first team squad when Noble arrived.

As to who would Noble come back for I think some of the names mentioned in this thread are rather strange.

Someone said Riddell. I thought Nobby wanted someone else but IL gave him Riddell instread? If so why would he want him and given the form Riddell showed this year I can'#t see why anyone would want him.

McIlorum was another name mentioned. I'd be very surprised if the new regime at the club let such a promising player go.

Goulding was another. Nobby seemed to use him as a bit of a scapegoat and drop him if we lost regardless of how he played and I never thought Noble rated him so why go for him? He's young player who I would have thought the new regime would want to assess before making a judgement one way or the other.

I think SW and MM would be reluctant to let any player go immediately until they have had to work with them for a few months. Clean slate for even the likes of Piggy is how I see them approaching it.

We haven't exactly got a lot of options to replace players in certain positions anyway.

Even Bailey was mentioned as having a new deal by SW on the radio interview the other week and he would have been a player I think Noble respects and who could do a job for a new outfit like Celtic but it seems he is staying.

Dave

IF he was getting paid via an offshore accuont then he wouldn't need to get £200K gross to make him the highest net paid player. His take home pay may end up the equivalent of someone in the UK getting £200K.

It is believed that Warrington do use offshore accounts to pay their overseas players and Wigan don't, so even if Warrington offerred less than Wigan, King wuold still take home more cash.

I assume Morley is the highest paid player at Warrington?

Believe its a mistake to re-sign Bailey. The risk of him coming back as our new DV who had the same injury is to great a risk in the salary cap era for someone his age.

The one thing he offers is experience and is one of the very few players who talk at the club.

But he shouldn’t have been resigned for that reason only. There are players at Wigan who have comparable or equal ability to him and play in the same positions as him and that’s before we look at the major injury he’s had.

I agree, I think Hansen/J Tomkins/Mossop interchanging at SR with Lockers at loose is fine for me. If we have injuries bring young farrell into the team, with Tuson and others looking to step up as well perhaps.

If we kept Bailey we'd have one of HH/JT/LM missing out every week and I think they are all good enough for first team action regularly.

Noble will be wanting experienced players to try and bring stability to Celtic.

I would envisage his signings being similar to his early days at Wigan - Withers, Millard, etc.

Carmont and possibly Bailey would be the only ones to move on a permanent basis.

Season-long loans for some of the younger players seem possible, but I wouldn't worry about losing any of the younger players, such as McIllorum, on a permanent basis