Is Sam 'the Best' though? Hasn't been in contention for MoS since he's been back. Hasn't been picked for England. Hasn't made the dream team. Under what measure is he 'The Best'?

He has the best potential, maybe.

Agree with all of this. Good luck to Sam, hopefully we will follow up with an annnouncement of Hardaker signing as well as Bateman and Gildart.

He’ll certainly be missed. Our style of play totally revolves around him chiming into the line. There are very few Stand off/fullbacks of that quality in SL at the moment and I don’t think Hardaker is the answer, unless we change the way we play.

There’s very little loyalty in sport from clubs and players. It’s a business and it’s every man for himself to a large degree.

Good luck to him. We had his most exciting years in his first stint at the club. I’ve been watching us since ‘85 and he’d probably be fullback in my Wigan dream team.

On the plus side, we can join in with Saints, Leeds and Warrington fans in booing him now.... BOOOOOOOOOOO

In his first spell his attacking play from FB is the best I've seen in FB at Wigan. But his defence is a far cry from that of Rads. I feel sometimes attacking fair seems to blind people of defensive play. Saving a try can just be as important as scoring one.

If Wigan can't remain solvent and pay the going rate for the Sam Tomkins standard of player when other teams can, the long term result of this is an inevitable slide down to mid table mediocrity. So while running it as a business might seem a fine idea on the surface and might prevent IL having to dip into his own pocket if that business is not generating enough revenue to meet the necessary costs of signing and retaining the best players it can (within the context of SL) the business model is not working. So IL either needs to run it better or he needs to co-opt some other wealthy directors onto the board who are prepared to help fund it and/or can bring some expertise to help improve the finances.

As to Sam's rugby he came back injured and the club still chose to pay him the wage they did. That wasn't his fault so why that has any bearing on any deal I have no idea. He then got injured again and he gets blamed for doing that out on the town which even if he did also has absolutely no bearing on how he is playing now and what that means he is worth to a SL club. It's as if people want to punish him for that despite his obvious quality on the pitch now. He can command the salary he commands. If Wigan don't want to pay it then as I said the question is can Wigan afford to pay the going rate for top SL talent?

I am saying there is a going rate for Sam Tomkins. If that is the same or more than when he was at his peak then that just reflects the market for players today. The dearth of talent available to SL will put the value of the few class players knocking about in SL up even if they are no longer at their peak when they can play as well as Sam T still can.

I’d have Henry Paul as a close second.

I agree regarding attack/defence play, and maybe this is a discussion for another time, but a fullback as a supporting runner who can’t beat a man has never floated my boat. The game has changed a lot over the years and I really like the thought of a ball player at 1.

I know it seems almost certain that Hardaker will be the replacement, but would it not be worth looking for a marquee 7 instead? I feel like overall I'd prefer:

1. Escare 7. Marquee 9. Leuluai 14. Powell (coming on at hooker)

to

1. Hardaker 7. Powell 9. Leuluai 14. Escare (coming on at scrum half, with Powell to hooker)

Not having the figures to hand, how do you know that Sam was only asking the market rate?

Would you not at least consider that the French are being silly, probably because they are in desperate straits? Why is it always Wigan who are at fault?

I totally agree in terms of attack. Especially when playing split halves. FB is a second pivot which links in where and when around the 3/4s. For me the one who perfected this is Billy Slater. But attack is only half the game, a truly great FB can also defend, read the play, make the try saving tackle and be in the right place at the right time, as well as being safe as houses under a high ball when challenged (something which Sam has greatly improved on).

I was a big Hampo fan. He also did chime into the line, and was once a golden boot candidate way back in the 80s. His defence and positional play was superb, always rated him higher than his NRL counterpart Gary Jack (who was also considered the best of his time).

We've been blessed. Hampo, Paul, Lydon, Radz and of course Sam. How these rank is debatable.

I think people are being very harsh on the defensive side of his game which has improved exponentially from when he first moved to full back.