Joe Made his debut late 2013 and he was 19 (I kind of agree with you BTW)
I would say the contract he had at that point and in 2014 his real debut season was a fair reflection of his progress, fitted into Wigan's Wage structure for youth etc.
I think the issue was that people from outside the club as well as ourselves recognised he was potentially a special talent and offers emerged mid 2014 that were in advance of what we could fit in given we had Manfredi/Charnley at the time (Bear in mind Manfredis injury and Charnleys's departure was 18months away).

The club made a pretty good offer (For 19yr old with limited experience etc.) - But the offer from the Roosters was far greater & he wanted to give it a go (For Which I don't blame him 1 bit).

Now if he had stayed (Like George) then my argument is and back to the OP is that the contract offer would have to somehow be close to the offers that other clubs from the outside are offering.
We complain about lack of signings, but the contracts George/Gildart/Sutton & then Budgie when he came back (On a contract similar to the Roosters offer from 3 years earlier) are akin to picking up pretty big name signings as their performance & worth to not only us but what other clubs perceive them to be worth to them demand.
So those resignings are and what I was trying to get at, are like signing/bringing in New players.
The advantage is the players are familiar with the structures, we know them inside out so there's no real risk or if there is we know what were letting ourselves in for and we may be able to get them slightly less than other clubs.

Gildart's took some stick for that interview a couple of weeks ago, a bit like the Wane interview when headlines were he wasn;t worried about losing players to NRL, it was taken a little out of context for me.
He didn't say he wanted to go now, he didn't say he couldn't wait to go etc. he said his contract was expiring and waiting for Wigan to offer along with any other options that come in (Sounds sensible to me) and that "One Day" he would like to give the NRL a shot. Isn't that what we want our players to be and our culture to be , ambitious, to test themselves etc., to be winners.
Lets not look back with glazey eyes, other players did it in the past.
Henry Paul left
Ellery Left
Tuigamala left
Betts left
Barrie Jon Mather left
Clarke left
etc.etc.etc.

And there were may different reasons etc. behind all of them.

But bear in mind we brought a hell of a lot of players in from other clubs and benefitted from winning the Money battle with nearly all the other clubs for many years, unfortunately the shoes on many other Feet now (Other clubs have parity, NRL dwarf us and the dreaded RU).

Gildart needs to make the right decision based on what's best for him, we as a club need to manage our resources as best we can for Wigan.
My OP was that given the way the cards are now (Current salary cap, the RFL issues, lack of media exposure etc. leading to less revenue etc.) I believe the way we were investing in these young lads and the systems that sit behind them is the best way forward and IMO were doing an excellent job of it.
Sitting here and bemoaning Wire signing 2/3 players every year and having varying degrees of success from Dreadful to average isn't something I'm going to do.

I'm going to sit here and smile that Tom Davies, Liam Marshall, Jake Shorrocks, George (And yes I do believe the investment is his contract was a good investment) Higginson, Wells, Sutton have all signed contracts previously and recently that IMO are better "Signings" than what other clubs have made and if Gildart joins that club "BRILLIANT"!

Not sure how you put Flower in the bang average bracket when he's achieved more than plenty of the Leeds players in your list.

For that matter, I'd argue Sarge has had a bigger impact in winning trophys than some of those Leeds names, Ferres, Griffin & Garbutt (so far) to name a few.

Thanks Jeff, I honestly couldn't understand his point as Leeds, to me, as a good mixture of local and signings.

They had the likes of Sinfield, Burrow, Danny Mags, but also brought in the likes of Peacock. Webb, Hardaker, Senior, Kyle to name few.

they aren't signings though (other than Burgess, slight exception as he came back). youth is youth, signings are signings. neither inspired me last year and still have a fair way to go this season to justify what they want or demand.

and again let me point out, i'm not saying our youth isn't good enough, it really is fantastic, but after one or two seasons they seem to think they can take on a team of thurstons and be paid accordingly. so my point remains, I don't think the club is handling them very well.

If only we had the junior set-up that the Aussies have! We see teenagers walk into NRL teams and be star players, whereas their equivalents in SL are undercooked in comparison. And the reason is that those Aussie kids, although only 18 or 19, have been battle-hardened in the tough junior comps there.

And herein lies my point
If gildart has 6 months left on his contract and wire or hull or nrl (slightly different argument) come in and sign him they would see that as a big signing and would pay him accordingly.
Why shouldn't we?
Tom Davies signed a new contract late last year, why shouldn't we see that as a new signing and why shouldn't he get paid in line with his performances and in line with his market value?
Etc.

Now some people can choose not to look at it that way (and tend to be the more critical of posters?).
Some may never have considered that particular view point (I hadn't really up until 4/5 months ago when Someone said it to me). And if they don't agree fair enough, if they do fair enough.

But I wanted to put that argument across so that people consider it when complaining about lack of signings because without a doubt this way of bringing the youth through impacts on what we do with the money at the top end.
Ps. What we then do with the money and who we sign etc from outside (or bring people back) is a different argument.

Not sure why some people would be happy if we signed a Percival and paid him top dollar and would praise the club but we don't seem to appreciate it when the club sign gildart and also want him to be paid less?