This is my take on it too

Hes portrayed himself as a bad lad turned a corner etc and specifically mentioned Lam as being an influential person in his life regarding that.

He still has sacks of credibility for the moment as these are all rumours. However if he jibs of Wigan then a lot of the stuff hes previously said counts for very little.

I think the stuff he has created at Salford is fantastic and he has acted like a real credit to the UK game IMO. However that image or legacy should be ripped up if he rescinds on a contract with Wigan.

And that not me saying boo hoo who, hes loves Salford but hates Wigan etc. Whilst i love our Club and i am fairly partisan about it, telling Wigan to eff off in Favour of an NRL clubs is a problem for all of SL.

Many fans will pop on here and take the pee out of Wigan for losing another signing and fair enough if that's your thing....

However the precedence of late across a LOT of UK teams regarding the likes of Denny Solomona, Kalum Watkins, Shaun Edwards and now maybe JH, shows that the UK game is a weakling in comparison to high level RU and NRL so we all really need to be a little more concerned about our sports inability to sell its virtues or to pay a fair salary for high profile stars.

I was fuming at what Cas had to go through with that merchant Solomona, i was embarrassed it what Edwards put us through and now i am dreading that another mid level NRL "Star" could walk out on a contract without playing a single game.

UK game is a mess at the moment and it will take more than SBW signing for a trillion dollars to convince me that we are in good health

He has a deal with Wigan and if he wants to back track on it and join an NRL club then he can only do it once his Wigan contract is cancelled.
He will have to negotiate that and it will may well prove more difficult than he at present imagines.
No NRL will sign him until his contract with Wigan is terminated.

This!

There could be a 'get out' clause in his contract. If so Jackson could activate it and leave his Wigan contract without further issue. Who knows what's in that contract.

The lad is a decent player but if his head has been turned by an NRL club i think youre better off without him, speaking from saints experience with ben barba ,as soon as he announced he was off to the cowboys in june last year he displayed a cant be d attitude and in hindsight we should have sent him on his way. Im not saying hastings will have the same attitude but its always a danger you could end up carrying a passenger on the team

In fairness to Watkins, his departure was if anything pushed by Leeds who were desperate to offload an under-performing high earner.
Agree with your point though; neither do I think too many from over here will take the pi$$ after James Segeyaro, Trent Merrin and that fat kiwi whose name escapes me...

Absolutely nailed it

You raise an excellent point there. I think Wigan are in a lose/lose situation; force him to come he plays poor and effects the whole team, let him go and it’s further evidence of the weakness of SL and RL in the UK as a whole.

For me, and I keep saying IF, IF it’s true we need to cut our losses and seek either a replacement or tune up Harry Smith for a lot more involvement than he, the club and the fans were expecting in 2020.

Surely the club wouldn't have included an 'immediate get out clause' in the contract (assuming we have one, you never know these days).

I'd like to think the NRL clause would only trigger after a first full season with us. Anything less leaves us with our pants pulled down and legs wide open.

Surely not.

Yeah Watkins maybe a tenuous link (speed typing whilst cramming lunch in), however the ones you quote are prime examples of this phenomenon. These guys are just treating SL with contempt. I will also add Chris Sandow to that list as i am sure he was claiming homesickness blah blah

Does my nut in and when i see "fans" on here almost siding with the players / Oz clubs claiming that "you cant blame the lad etc". We should be frothing at the mouth at the thought of loseing the talent pool to the NRL or Rugger bugger

That's one perspective; another is that for 2020 SL has acquired arguably the biggest name in world rugby in SBW and the NSW starting half. That's never happened in history. Johns was signed brieflyby Wire, but the Maloney signing is somewhat different. Wire have also signed Gaz Widdop, an NRL starter who play with and against a whole host of top talent from the likes of Blake Austin and George Burgess who has been a regular in the NRL as is still yet to reach his prime in terms of age.
Watkins was/is a spent force, Leeds didn't want Kalum Watkins, that's what kick-started his move.

He only signed for us as Salford told him (at the time) they couldn't afford to keep him next year, Leeds wouldn't pay him as much as he was demanding and no Sydney NRL clubs were interested...we come along and offer him stupid money and a pass to leave after one year! I was reliably told he was absolutely fuming when we announced his signing, apparently part of the deal was that he didn't want anything at all announcing until the absolute end of the season and that is why he is categorically refusing to acknowledge Wigan. Wouldn't surprise me if we never see him in a Wigan shirt. Said all along we should have snapped up Maloney when we had the chance!

I don’t know what to make of this. It has been said publicly that he has a NRL release clause after his first year, not now.

This is a rumour that keeps coming back. Whether there is any substance or whether it is journalists who have nothing to write about I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about it though.

One thing is for sure, if he doesn’t want to be here I don’t want him here. I just wish he would come out and say either way.

If that’s true it’s poor form from IL. He should have respected that.