Ahhh. You're back. I must have missed your congratulations on the news that the cup tie is to be played at the DW?

It is great news re Thornley. The future is looking very bright indeed.

A lot of faith shown in the young lad once again to give him a three and half year deal. Hopefully this time he repay that faith.

It certainly reads as though the club were bitterly disappointed to lose him, but because of his potential kept an eye on him.

Am I right thinking Leeds RL were also sniffing around for him?

Hope unions not ruined him, Lee Smith only went down for a matter of weeks and still doesnt look anywhere near where he was.

Fair play to you.

I think we would all acknowledge that one of the few clubs that Wigan fans cannot criticise for their abject failure to bring through quality young players is Saints. Admittedly Foster isn't one of them, but you do have an annoying number of others who are good (though not as good as ours!).

So chuffed this guy has come back, I still feel he would have been our centre in 2011 when Gleeson left had he not already gone to RU. He is everything you want from a centre really.

It will be interesting to see how Thornley gets on but am afraid that some people are expecting too much. He was a long way down the pecking order when he left, has never played a SL game and spent most of his last academy season in the second row. It is be no means certain that he will be in a position to take over from Carmont next year. As a centre I always felt his skills let him down, possibly why he was put into the second row, and he struggled once players had caught up to him physically. He certainly has the size and frame to develop though and is still young too so if he could develop his centre play could be a real handful. He could turn out to be a very shred signing if we can develop him.

Don't have any stats to hand, but I don't remember him playing that many games in the second row, the last 4 or 5 games of the season, maybe (and that was when we knew he was leaving). As for being a long way down the pecking order, he was only 18 at the time, but was, I think, ever-present that season. Marsh got a handful of first team games that year, but he's a year older. I do rember Thornley scoring a lot of tries, as did whichever winger was outside him.

Now i have watched thornley come through the ranks with marsh, russell , king and all the other guys, for me he had the pace and the physical presence but to say his winger scored lots of tries is off the mark. Thornley was a very greedy player and always looked to score himself rather than pass to his winger , often taking the tackle when passes were available. As an avid fan of the academy i was glad to see him leave. Now he has re signed we will have to see how he develops his game. Hope it works out for him and Wigan

Correct. He was always greedy and never a wingers centre. As I said earlier he had the size and power but didnt have the centre skills to go with it and this probably explains his greed. This was also why he was pushed into the second row.

Great bit of work by IL & co, we can't stop youungsters going to union, but its always wise to keep a track of their progress and re-sign if they don't settle.

Hopefully he pays us back bigtime for our investment in him.

Smith's attitude problems may have something to do with his deterioration. He went to Wasps expecting to rip it up and couldn't last more than 6 weeks. I know the anti-union brigade will point to him seeing sense or whatever but he obviously went in with the wrong attitude and ended up looking a complete tool IMO.

Hopefully Thornley's inclusion in the Championship dream team shows he is prepared to knuckle down and do the hard yards to succeed, something Smith failed to do.

I think it's how crap Smith is in RL now, rather than during his six-week holiday in RU, that has raised the eyebrows.

How could a player who was so effective previously have lost so much physically in so brief a time? Not sure what they did to him in RU, but it sure wasn't good.

it was clear after the GF Smith was regretting his decision about signing for wasps.

Just saw this quote from Madge from when he left

Wigan coach Michael Maguire'"

I get the impression that many of you are confusing Ian with his older brother Andy. Andy moved into 2nd row from centre while Ian stayed predominantly in the centres, and was generally considered to have the greater potential when he left for union at 18.