[quote="WWste":1svvbf2o]Hopefully soon it will sink in when Latics gets to the end of a season and it isn’t all panic stations that the club might go under. I’m not a Latics fan but keep an eye on them. I’m not sure what any arguments you can have with the player leaving as he went to Luton didn’t he? A club that was in the prem last year. It does look like some money is being invested into Latics, few players signing. Hopefully you can get to the Championship as imagine this would generate decent money to be invested into both clubs. Although im not an Latics fan, I am interested in seeing what’s going to happen with the both clubs working together.[/quote:1svvbf2o] Yeah it was Luton and for a rumoured £3.5m. They've brought in that fee now and a fee for Charlie Hughes higher than that and have said that they've ridden themselves of the last of the legacy from the Bahraini's and can move forward and have a higher budget next season. To me they've played it pretty much perfectly so far and stabilised the finances and the side, to then try and progress. Some of the empty heads aren't buying it though.

Be interesting what Danson does when the field and french era is over. Could he attract a top NRL player with a huge salary?

[quote="NSW":2tevqggu]Be interesting what Danson does when the field and french era is over. Could he attract a top NRL player with a huge salary?[/quote:2tevqggu] It's a good question - in a way I almost hope that we wouldn't go down that route. If a top NRL player in his prime comes here then sadly it will all be driven by money. I think we'd be better off using the marquee spots to keep the best Wigan produced players here for the bulk of their careers, or to keep any future Australian gems that we've managed to polish at the club for more than a few years.

The level of bitterness between rugby and Latics fans has been on the slide for a decade or more, thankfully. The 2 sets of fans holding grudges and antagonising each other did neither team any favours, so hopefully it will soon be a thing of the past. If you go on the Latics forums you'll get some headbangers who are convinced anyone who supports Wigan RL is evil personified and is out to get them. I'm pretty sure after a few years of sensible stewardship from Danson most of them will accept he's moving them in the right direction and he is an improvement on anything they've had since Whelan

It might well be that a large salary will be required to get an NRL player over here. With the NRL expanding to PNG, NZ and Perth possibly in the next few years then those clubs are going to be looking for top quality players to add to their locally produced squad. If they are looking at squads of 25 players each then that is a lot of players who can further their careers in the NRL without having to leave the comp. The RFL/SL are going to have a look again at the criteria for SL status. Surely each SL club is going to have to prove they can produced their own squad. A move I'd have thought is that within two years of attaining SL status a club must have a scholarship, academy and reserves to complement the first team. That way each club will be capable of producing the required number for their first team squad. That would leave us less vulnerable to the need for overseas players to make up the SL quality squad which is the case now. How Mike Danson would look at quality overseas players and the salaries required remains to be seen. He will know better than us how much Latics soccer players earn for League One and Championship competitions. Compare than to the Wigan RL players who play in front of 15k each game then he might look quite favourably on Rugby League.