Don't build Yourself up for a letdown.
The deal is done

Why no announcement then and why is Shaun Wane saying he knows nowt about it when hes just taken over as head coach? I would say hes going but something doesnt add up. Why hasnt it been announced already too?

The length of time its taking suggests to me its not cut and dried yet.

In these situations when no comment is offered or 'its just rumours' 99 times out of 100 it happens. If there was no truth then the situation would be denied.

Indeed. Cast your minds back to the rumours about Madge going back to the NRL. Feels exactly the same.

Yep,

If it's all conjecture and not a bit of truth in it, it'd be laughed off in a second, as easily as someone suggesting we're about to swap Sam for Richie Mathers.

Could be money , Wigan will want compensation and rightly so. Until Wigan are happy there can be no deal.

Because we had a coaching team to set up and announce.
Well done IL for doing so and not letting any negatives overshaddow IMO

But the negatives have overshadowed the announcement, I'm afraid. Not a good few days for Wigan or the sport.

The rumours about Eastmond going to Bath were rife for weeks. They went on so long everybody actually started to wonder if they were true. They were though, and sadly I think your's will be too. I just hope you can keep his brother though. To lose home-grown talent like that just for money is gutting. RL needs its best players, or we will die as a sport.

That's exactly how it is.
You want him, you pay for him or no deal.

In this case Wigan hold a few aces. They want him now, Wigan don't play until February.

Joel Tomkins will be a loss to the game, Sam certainly would be a huge loss. Eastmond has obviously p*ssed about this year, but again he was destined to be a star in SL, and whilst the fuss about his leaving has died down, he is a big loss to the game.

I hope Joel doesn't go, although I'm not sure the salary cap itself is the problem here - you could double it and still have trouble beating off silly money from union.

I do think that a central fund for young British players ought to be established - or simply overtly exempt third-party deals from the cap. The only reason third-party payments are not exempted is because they would benefit a few clubs (those with stars) rather than every team equally. Personally I think that if it benefits Wigan, Sts, Leeds, Wire at the expense of other clubs, sobeit - its already a 4/5 team competition.

One other thing that strikes me is that whilst the grass may look greener in RU, for every Ashton there's a Lee Smith, Chev Walker, Danny Williams. In that respect, if Joel does go to RU I hope he's a massive flop. The more big-money failures there are the less frequent defections will be.

When the last England v Australia game was played at the DW stadium it wasn't even sold out thats not the fault of the RFL is it?
How do you explain the poor Attendance's for the play off games. surely you can't blame that on the RFL can you?

Just a thought, if Wigan are paid a large transfer fee for Tomkins and they use that to go out and buy Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Sonny Bill or similar talent, would that be ok?

Its maybe a fair point about the last international but i cant remember how it was marketed/priced etc so i cant really stick the blame on anybody.

Poor attendance for the playoff games is because the system is utter sh*t. They decide on the system so yes that can be blamed on the RFL.

oh yes that's fine.

Or Manu Tuilagi.

It's all good coming this way, keep up man !