Initial Contract was for 3 years to end in October 2013.

We need to stop signing foreigners with immediate effect. I'm sick of them signing contracts then trying to get out of them.

In regards to contracts, they are not worth the money they're printed on.

It works like this.

If I do not want to play for a club, i'm not going to.

If the club don't want me to play for a club, i'm not going to.

A piece of paper is never going to change that.

why is it OTT? he is the owner of the club we support and we are damn well entitled to a little bit of respect like telling us he is going before his new employer does? same thing with Hoffman. it is a joke and one area IL needs to sort.

100% agree with you we need quality coming in, we cannot replace all this lost quality with kids.

It's infuriating to see players leave before their contracts are up and the club not taking any sort of 'hard-fist' approach & even allowing the club that have snapped up the player to announce the signing before we've announced his departure/mid-way through our season. People will spout the keeping a player against his will/contracts not worth the paper etc etc but that's total BS. Lima has a contract with the club. We don't have to let him go. He certainly doesn't look like he doesn't enjoy it here. I'd have made it as awkward as possible for Madge to get Lima - demand compensation/player swap/wait till we have a replacement etc

I don't blame Madge for moving for Lima. If you can get a player of that quality why not - we did with Finch and Hoffman along with Lima in the first place.

He's going to take some replacing. He's our pack leader IMO. Statistically I think he's the best prop forward in Super League. He does the basics so well, so consistent, well disciplined and makes over 100+ metres a game & is a big game player too (Lance Todd trophy winner). Replacing a player of that quality with Eric Lauaki or Gil Dudson wont be good enough IMO. Not only would we lose quality, but we would also be losing depth in the side.

So far we could end up having to replace our best prop forward, our two halfbacks and our best centre since Renouf in Carmont.

Ouch.

I'm playing devil's advocate here, so whilst it would nice if the club had've made an announcement it wouldn't have softened the blow in any way. It would also have been a negative announcement and in these days of social media no-one really likes announcing bad news, especially in organisations where the feel good factor is vital to success.
Also - Lets be realistic about our entitlement as fans. We pay our season ticket money and it entitles us to attend 13 home games, a bit of discount in the club shop and first choice of tickets for away games and finals. That't it. the entitlement stops there, so you can shout all you like about being entitled to receiving news like this from the club, but unfortunately thats not the way it is. Maybe, just maybe, Ian Lenegan and the marketing/comunications teams have got better things to do such as looking for a replacement and getting into the community to expand the club.

I too get irritated when I see people demanding to know the ins and outs of the club. But I do feel that this year it's a bit frustrating - playing-wise things are really on the up, but all we seem to hearing on the recruitment front is who is leaving, and it's starting to get a bit scary. The example of St Helens hasn't been lost on us - lost too many good players too quickly and it can torpedo all your plans.

I appreciate that the club can't announce good news if they don't have any - IFL won't prejudge negotiations with players by talking to the press until the contracts are signed - but I can understand fans getting jumpy. We need some good news sooner rather than later.

I do not have an issue with them telling us about players coming in till the end of the season, it keeps us focused on this year, a year that could be great.

I do think the club should have been the first to confirm Lima's exit though rather than the fans fins out via the club he is signing for.

and it is now confirmed on the BBC website........ laughable.

Maybe it was agreed not to release the info but someone has, do we know?!?!?!?!?!?!

I demand to be told all the machinations of the club in a letter, hand delivered each day!!!!

In the world of PR spin it's better if you let someone else report the bad news and just keep to reporting the good news yourself. Why people seem shocked by this is a mystery.

Top of the league, in the semi final of the cup. I suppose the need to have a good moan means the source of news is today's whinge topic.

The Brigantes need a flag to show how we're the best at whinging too. No one can match our whinging history.

Definitely have to sign a prop now in my opinion. Moi Moi on a 2 year deal would be nice.

I would rather a player that wants to leave is allowed to leave but I think they should've got some compensation really. Can you imagine this happening in football?
If a player has a year left in football they will sell them for millions so by rl standards I think 50-100k would've been a fair price. At the end of the day Wigan now need to put a lot of time and money into recruitment. We may have a lot of forwards but we don't have the experienced prop now our most experienced forwards are hock and Hansen now so we need someone else to come in as obviously they arent props. Unless they are intending on moving hock to prop permanently from next year.

This is the thing the club probably have it all under control they don't have to tell us everything the problem here isn't the club it's the fact that all too many players now think contracts aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Its not just foreigners either like most are saying take Joel for example...

do you think that wigan would have let him go without seeking a replacement 1st??

Probably. All depends on when the club became aware he wanted to leave.