Doesn't mean we aren't still operating within our budget.

Don't forget that we've had a salary cap for 20+ years so until the marquee rule there wouldn't be that many 'huge' deals. It could literally be £1 more than Hastings (or whoever)

I am not talking about the salary cap and the details around marquee, home grown dispensation etc.

I just think its a contradiction to say our Squad will take a hit financially because of Covid but then offer Williams the biggest contract the club has ever given.

I appreciate signing Williams may have resulted in not signing other players (And there be an overall salary saving), but that would be at the expense of the squad, which I am sure we all agree has lots of holes for next year.

Budget and salary cap are two totally different things.

Due to the salary cap though, I would say that ""the biggest contract in our history" isn't actually as big as people are thinking.

I'm struggling to understand why he was allowed to walk away from a legally binding agreement and join our closest rivals to challenging Saints for nothing. We should have received a "settlement" from either GW or Warrington Wolves. Going forward, this makes any future first option agreements worthless as the precedent has been set.

I would imagine the legally binding bit would’ve been on the basis that we would have to at least match financially what he was being offered elsewhere. Then, and only then, should he still have chosen not to sign back would we have basis to push a “settlement”.

I don’t get what the uproar is about, nor the pelters that GW is getting from some of our bitter fans. It didn’t work for us, it didn’t work for him…so realistically it’s best all round that he didn’t come back and play here. Great player, gutted as anyone else that he’s not with us. Yes, he may be getting paid more, but I don’t believe that to be the sole reason for him not being here, nor the sole reason for him choosing Warrington…I would think he’s getting paid marginally more by Warrington on the back of a) them being able to afford it, and b) for the reason detailed in the first bit of my post.

Fully agree

How do you propose that happens?

We had a legally binding contract for him to sign with us. We decided not to use this option as IL/KR didn’t want a player who didn’t want to sign for us.

Ignoring the legal and contractual challenges of this, in simple terms if Warrington said they aren’t paying a fee then we end up with a player who doesn’t want to be here and who has the biggest contract in the clubs history (only taking up £75k on the cap, a marquee spot but costing the club a lot)

Whilst there may be an element of truth to the new challenge, of course it is and he will go down in their history if he helps them to win the grand final.

But you have to accept money played a part, how much in % terms I am unsure.

He was offered Wigan’s biggest ever contract, there are also rumours Warrington are paying him £60k per year more than we offered and also rumours he’s the highest paid in super league.

Money defo played a part.

But when you think of it, other than him being from Wigan, why else would he come back? Warrington are in a far better position than us currently across all areas other than academy. Also has the benefit of being very close to him.

Or he sits in limbo and doesn't get paid by anyone, until a fee is paid. Whilst it's not the same situation, in sure Leeds did something like that with Segeyaro.

OT, but I'm not sure how GW manages to function with so many Wigan fans inserted up his rectum. The love-in from our fans is sickening. There are players (like Smith) who actually play for the club and get more stick from our fans, than a guy who sacked us off and signed for one of our biggest rivals.

I’m tired of the whole GW to Warrington rage TBH. Whether he signed for money or something else or money and something else - why does it matter now? It’s happened, it’s been and gone and it’s high time some of us stopped banging on about it. I loved GW when he was here, I criticised him as well at times granted but as soon as he left that ‘love in’ ended. He stopped being of relevance as he wasn’t a Wigan player.

We should be concentrating on the players we have here and now rather than ones who went elsewhere.

Agreed he’s not on my radar anymore good luck to him

I'm sure some of those were helping his arms up to cup his ears as he celebrated scoring the winning try for his new love against the club who developed him. No doubt we'll see an act of badge kissing next time he scores against us.

I agree with the first point - let him sit out the season if neither GW nor WW were prepared to pay a release fee - thats a lot of £ he'd have lost between July and December.

Sometimes the Daniel Levy approach to player contracts is needed - this was one time where I believe it was.

How on earth would that happen.

Doesn’t officially sign for us but we block a move unless Wire pay a fee.

He either signs for us (via his choice or enforcing legal contract) OR he can leave for another club.

Maybe the club should have inserted transfer fee into the legal part of his obligation to return / first refusal. But you cannot just chuck it in now.

ATEOTD, none of us know what was in the legal document and what it entailed so it's a pointless conversation.

I've said that Segeyaro was an example of Leeds refusing him to sign for another side until they came to an agreement. Granted they are different circumstances, but if a club wants to they can be very difficult.

I don't know all the details of each individual case or specific contract details so I'm not going to say the club should have done x, y or z in any given scenario. However I do feel that the club has become something of a 'soft touch' over recent years. We rarely seem to get the better end of being the nice guys. In fact I'm struggling to think of a single example of where that's worked in our favour.