Quote: Cruncher "I totally agree that's a risk.
So IF it happens, I'll be interested to hear what safeguards the club has built into the contract. As long as we can kick him out at no cost to ourselves if he fouls up again, I don't see too much to worry about on that front. It's not like we've shed players of great value in order to bring him him. FPN and Gells? Personally, I'm not bothered about either of those two.'"
Gells money presumably spent on Sarginson, I'm guessing if we had much money left under the cap, then we would have retained McIlorum. Granted FPN has left since then, but doubt that he was on a similar wage to what Hardaker would command (bloody hope not anyway!).
You know how it is with a salary capped sport, you can only afford a few big names, and can't generally have quality experienced players sat in reserve waiting to step up. My guess would be that Escare+1 would have to go, Tomkins would play in the halves, and Hardaker ballsing up would mean someone having to step up to play halfback, so that Tomkins could go to Full Back. Of course that's speculation and loads can change in two years or so, but what we can be sure of, is that there will be a salary cap in place, and he would take a chunk of it, meaning we would need to be able to rely upon him.