At the time it was reported he went for £140K a year. How many players do we have with one senior season under their belt on that sort of wage? Had Mo matched the offer he would still be being slagged off for paying over the odds.

What rankles most fans isn't that he went for the cash but the manner in which he left. He knew he had done wrong and tried too hard to over compensate and didn't look as good in his last games for us anyway but whatever, he did what he did and so for ever more will be looked on with disdain by some fans.

I tend to view him as any other ex Wigan player which is sort of "Oh he used to play for us <shrugs shoulders>".

Dave

My view too.

I'm not going to get into an argument with anyone about him.

The manner of the departure - the posing in the shirt and all that - was deeply irritating at the time, a real kick in the teeth given all the other crap we were having to deal with back then - but it's over and done with. There's no point crying about spilled milk.

That said, I'd be interested if I ever heard he wanted to come back. But I can't see that happening. Unlike most who've defected to Union, Ashton appears to have fully bought into it, a la Jason Robinson.

That was certainly controversial, but I guess their marketing guys would have put him under quite a bit of pressure to wear the shirt to get that photo. As an 18/19 year old kid surrounded by all the hob-nobs of Northampton RUFC that would have been a difficult position to be put in, and I guess the longer term ramifications of it didn't immediately spring to mind.

It was an error of judgement, but not nearly as large a one as many of our other past-players have made, and I don't personally begrudge him.

Good post! From a ciddy fan as well!!

I tend to agree with DaveO and Cruncher on this. Regarding the point above though, it's not so much that he did it, but that he hasn't (to my knowledge) apologised for it. Anyone can make a mistake but, equally, anyone can apologise for having made it. As far as I know, he did the former but wasn't big enough to do the latter and that's why i have no respect for him. Let's be honest here, he could still make an apology at any time if he so wished; he obviously feels he doesn't need to and that speaks volumes.

I only got a season ticket at Wigan (I was going to say the JJB, but of course it's now the DW Stadium :/ ) two years ago. Before that I watched both codes of the game. However, I tried to watch the Six Nations ties last weekend and I was unbelievably bored. It defies belief that Union is the 2nd or 3rd national sport in the country and League is merely talked about in passing.

As for Ashton, well unless he wears Wigan colours underneath his England jersey I could not care less about his debut. Congratulations are in order of course, anytime you can represent your country it's a great honour, but I certainly won't be watching.

Why is Farrel desserting his home town team for big money alright and Aston doing it a crime. The wearing the shirt was blown up out of all proportion. Good Luck to the lad he earns good money and does not have to put in half the work that he would have to do in league.

You've basically answered your own question.

Faz didn't give any such metaphorical V-sign to the Wigan fans when he left. Plus, he'd done so much for the club already that no-one begrudged him getting his final payday.

I don't think the two cases bare any comparison at all, to be honest.

and the fact that farrell gave everything he had and more for wigan over a sustained period may be another reason why ashton should not be mentioned in the same breath as faz

and I hate using smilies. This has got to go down as the most dumb post of 2010 so far. The reasons shouldnt need explaining. A quite frankly offensive post!!

one positive spin on this, ive just been watching sky sports news and they are describing ashton as the best winger in the premiership. Despite what he did, it shows the world what talent we produce in rugby league and in particular what talent wigan produce. The rfl just need to do something to compete with rugby union in promoting the game and ensuring the clubs have the financial power to keep these youngsters from being lurred away from all the wonga ra ra can throw at them.

Unfortunately that's a vain hope.

The RFL weren't interested in preventing quality players leaving RL for RU when Jason Robinson did it, when Henry Paul did it, when Faz did it, when Ashton did it, and I see no reason why they'd be interested in preventing it in the future.

On a similar subject, here's a potential downside to Ashton making a big success of his RU career. Might it help those cashed-up, ginned-up RU chairman to forget the bad experience they had with Pryce and Walker, and maybe think: "Wow, RL is producing quality kids again. Let's have a look at a few more of them."

In addition to that is he had an agent looking after his interests and the agent should have steered him clear of that. But then again maybe the agent was all for it!

Wasn't his agent one of the Clarke family?

Dave

well done chris.

the guy has got the rugby x factor - superb pace and support play, great in broken field. his defence was lacking but i for one wish he still played at wigan.

Hi Chris how's life in Northampton? Judas

£140,000 a year was mentioned by Maurice when he was trying to think of an excuse of Ashton leaving, the Northampton chairman said it was near that figure based on bonus's and England call ups etc.

rlhttps://www.lep.co.uk/rugby/Ashton-wages-under-spotlight.2183993.jprl

So he went for £60,000 a year? Could have earned that easy in league, so he was on around £20,000 max a year before he went, Wigan would have offered him around the £60,000 and the number 1 shirt and he binned us off posing in the Norhampton shirt before it was announced the scum bag, he shat on this club from a great height.

Would I still like him to be playing for us? Yes

Would I have him back? Not a chance!


To mention him in the same breath as Robinson and Farrell are laughable after both had won everything in league and needed a fresh challenge and pay day, Ashton went at the first opurtunity and did it in a bad way.

Hope he breaks his leg in the warm up and is loses his speed and ends up playing for Swinton.