Perhaps Lam is bringing his son to get a year in the limelight and if he does well they can lever a higher profile gig for both of them.

Fantastic news!!!

I think this in itself creates a problem, perfect world; Both Lams are sensational and we win something, Challenge Cup let’s say, both Lams leave at seasons end and Edwards comes in.

Suddenly we have a huge void to fill at #7. We can’t use our marquee spot as it’s spent on Bateman and GW. Who do we then turn to?

I’m chuffed to bits Lam and Edwards are coming in, as baffled as I am by it but all this does for me is gloss over a huge crack with the Bateman deal and the position it puts us in which is a significantly weaker transfer negotiating position for any new #7. Immediately Edwards starts on the back foot looking for a new 7 instead of having a squad he can pick up and run with.

I think any signings will have the approval of Edwards for this season.

Bateman will be a marquee man in 2021 at the earliest and in could be 2022 if he takes up an option at Canberra so the chances are we’ll have a spot open for two years in 2020 and 2021 anyway. That’s before taking in to account that it’s far from certain Williams will be around on his marquee deal until the point Bateman comes back.

I get that and that there’s no guarantee for GW to keep it - on that I hope next season he explodes back on to the scene! But if Wigan approached you and said we can offer you a marquee for at least 1yr, possibly 2 dependant on when John comes back, it’s not very appealing is it?

It also weakens our negotiating position as I’m sure above a certain salary, the player should be on marquee to keep the squad numbers.

For those in doubt; I genuinely am chuffed Edwards is coming back and that Lam is also coming back. Confused about it but chuffed!

It depends who it is for those one or two years though. Yes we wouldn’t be handing an internal player a marquee deal for just one or two years but why not a big Aussie or Kiwi name to get bums on seats for the years we have a spot open?

If I win the lottery at the weekend expect to see Jonathan Thurston in a Wigan shirt in 2019 and 2020

I suppose so, it’s all hypothetical really. Just got to wait and see what happens!

Woah, it’s my turn to win this weekend pal!

Will the marquee player rule be around in the future? With major chances to come in RL, who knows. I think it was the Rugby Leaguer who questioned the longevity of the marquee rule.

Will Wigan now be looking into the RU market for players? I am sure Edwards will know of plenty players that may make the grade in RL. If there are still dispensations for signing RU players it could be well worth a fishing trip or two.

If they get rid of the marquee allowance they would have to take into account any contracts that are already signed and make allowances for them.

If they didn't count on the cap at all, I'd agree that some might be worth a punt. But the dispensation is not so advantageous.

Given that, I reckon even good RU players would be a waste of cap space. It took Inga half a season to get up to speed, which would be a real problem in the cap era.

The other problem is that Union players seem to have a vastly inflated opinion of their own value. I had a chat with an agent last week, who represents both League and Union players, and honestly, in the real world of RL, clubs would fall about laughing at some of the price-tags we could expect to be quoted.