Feka Palea'asina joins Salford

Quote: ABP' "But why aren't any of those being replaced by players in your U20's for next year? As it stands, you'll have just two regular first team players who will have come through your youth system in Stefan Ratchford and Adam Sidlow (Ratchford a Wiganer, is Sidlow from Widnes?)

Next year we'll have Sam Tomkins, Joel Tomkins, Harrison Hansen, Paul Prescott, Eamon O'Carroll, Darryl Goulding, Micky McIlorum, Sean O'Loughlin, Liam Farrell, Chris Tuson, Lee Mossop not to mention the likes of Shaun Ainscough, Josh Charnley, Stefan Marsh, Ben Davies and Joe Mellor who have all dabbled with Super League appearances and loan moves.

Wigan came under criticism for signing three overseas players that will presumably replace four despite developing the above list of players. It sometimes feels as though the future of British Rugby League is mounted on the shoulders of bigger, successful clubs such as Wigan, Leeds and Saints and they are the ones open to criticism if people are under the opinion that signing overseas players are stunting home grown talent. These Salford signings are good for a club of that stature but it totally highlights how poor they are at developing British talent and I just wish it was taken into consideration next time Wigan decide to invest in a foreign player & when it comes to the franchise applications.'"

Sidlow came from Widnes. Adamson, however, did come through our youth system. We also had Turner come through the academy who is obviously at Hull now.

As I've said previously, we're losing experienced players at the end of this season and they need to be replaced with players at with a level of similar experience. Simply promoting players from the academy alongside our already fairly young squad would be suicide.

Echoing what 'talulah' has already said, it's a lot easier for the likes of Wigan, Leeds, Saints etc to attract youngsters, given the fact that they're bigger clubs with more success. I'd also hazard a guess that the difference in size of the pool of local players to choose from with these clubs is monumental when comparing to Salford due to the difference in popularity of the game and participation levels in the areas. Obviously it's something that needs to be rectified but it's difficult to compare the two because it's hardly a level playing field.