Quote: DaveO "Not sure why you think that. As the cap rules tell us for him to be a marquee player he must be being paid at least £175K and I'd guess it is probably more. By paying such a wage to a player who was what, 20 or 21, at the time he first got it we were able to beat off the NRL interest and the reason we could is even with their big salary cap advantage even they don't fling silly money (in their books) at junior players. Even they have their limits and that is why he didn't go, not because of lack of genuine interest in the first place. Doubt they would be interested at the minute.
The trouble is he now has the salary of a player who you would expect to be exerting the influence if an Edwards, an Andy Farrell or a Lockers on games. All of whom were doing so at 23 and he isn't.
As to Warrington and Roberts, who cares if he has not lived up to his status and is off early? Nearly all our former players who went to the NRL came back early. Sometimes it just does not work out but I don't see what Roberts situation has to do with the question of whether Williams is currently good enough and worth the money. At the moment it looks like both Wigan and Warrington backed the wrong players for marquee status.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but using it it looks like we might have been better letting him go to the NRL and it might have been better for him as well. Had he gone he'd have been a junior player over there without the expectation placed on him here because marquee is not just a name to allow a SC dispensation but it is instead supposed to be a way to get a top player in your side, not a work in progress.'"
I say that because there seems to be an assumption that the so called marquee status should be used to sign superstars.
I prefer reality, the top players in the world are on circa £500k per season. A SL club would have to significantly top that to tempt them over here. I used Roberts at Warrington as an example as they had to use the marquee status to sign a bang average Australian half, he’s a good player but never what anyone would define as marquee.
Wigan has a choice, they made the right one imo in keeping GW. To do so and to limit his salary cap value they used the marquee dispensation.
People need to get over this idea that we can sign anyone from the NRL that is genuinely a marquee player unless a club is lucky enough and prepared to take a gamble on players like Barba.
I find it very odd that, as a Wigan fan you seem to think we’d have been better off letting a top (by SL standards) young, home grown half go so we can sign a NRL also ran.