Oh, I agree that it's highly unlikely King will ever play for us while Powell is in charge.

Just a matter of how Wire manage to get the best deal for him.

So a coach can only have authority over a squad if he's been previously successful?

Funny to think that the best deal might still be a financial hit for Warrington.

If he’s gone in swinging his d*ck around then yea. I wouldn’t put it past someone saying who are you. I didn’t know you was in the room when they had those conversations so how do you know who’s the wrong.

And if any of that squad did try to say that, then they would rightly get binned. It's not like any of them had done anything to warrant lording it over the coach, whoever they was.

This was a squad that had failed badly for 3 consecutive years.

Could be, but funnily enough, if he continues to do ok for you this year, then it can only make that increasingly unlikely.

Now if he was doing rubbish, then we could indeed make a bad loss

You got rid of them last season and you were saved from relegation by a very poor Toulouse side.

If you mean you'd like to ignore an entire season in order to make your narrative work, then go ahead. The rest of us prefer not to change history.

At what point did Cooper join you and King join Huddersfield?. Also several other players left at various other points, along with players coming in at random moments.

Even you would admit that wouldn't make for an ideal scenario for a side to be producing results?

The point is, that last season was very much the definitive 'transition' that most sensible Wire fans knew was needed after the previous deterioration under Price - if it meant weeding out and upsetting the egos, then so be it. Like I say, the improvement in form is there to see so far, so, for the moment, Powell looks vindicated in how he went about things.

Doubtful we’ll ever find out, but do Wigan need him more than Wire need him off the books? It’ll all play out and may be a game of patience but I’d suggest the club who can look freely at other options (including the ones they have internally) is in the stronger position. Maybe a club comes out of left field but I’m struggling to see who.

You were poor all season; before and after the 2 players you mentioned were gone.

Let's look at this "ego" narrative you're putting forward, shall we? Both King and Cooper have come to a club to play under a coach who is notorious about discipline. Both are thriving. Cooper wasn't deemed a problem for over a decade but suddenly was. King played for a team last year who were desperate to keep him. He has also just played for England under the biggest disciplinarian in the game. One who now has dealings with him on a day to day basis at club and so would have the clearest picture possible of whether his "ego" was a problem. Apparently it wasn't.

You can plough this furrow all you like and claim that results a season later vindicate your view but they don't. All it shows is that Powell fell out with certain players who are not deemed a problem elsewhere. Is that the players or Powell?

Finally the improved results are basically because you've revamped your pack. Nothing to do with "egos". How do you know, for example, that King wouldn't have shown the same improvements behind your new pack? Let's be honest here; we've played you once already and both of our centres were better than either of yours. Not hypothesis but fact*

*Referencing that one game, not as an absolute marker.

Didn't you win the cup in those three years? In which case doing more than Powell has done?

Our best centre hasn't played yet this season to be fair.