All comes down to money recently. Selling for a profit and signing inferior talent for the best part.
There's an irony to it, unless IL invests heavily back into the squad he'll end up losing even more money as fans will be unwilling to spend their hard earned cash on watching a poor product.

lets get a world class 7 and play him with Harry Smith

How much have you seen of Harry Smith?

It seems to me a lot of stock is being put on this young lad he’s a talent but a long way from being ready for the SL

saw a good few games last year and the internationals at the end. Looked as good as Williams at the same age and if we get him with a classy experienced scrum half he may kick on to be great.

No way can we expect to go in with Harry Smith as first choice next year. It’s kids like him I fear for with all this experience walking through the door. Ideally you want to drip feed him in to a confident, winning side busting with experience and leaders, in the same way many young lads in the last decade have been but we’re running the risk of these young stars like Smith, Smithies, Havard and co being asked at some point to come in to a side devoid of quality and still being expected to perform.

If thats the case there is no point having an academy, we may aswell just sign youngsters once fully developed

You don’t usually develop kids by just throwing them in as first choice at the start of a year. If Smith were to be ready to start 2020 at scrum half then we’d need to get him at least 10/15 games in the first team this year. I’d say realistically we need to sign two halfbacks for 2020 and maybe use Smith in the odd game here and there, either starting or from the bench, to help him develop and become a starter maybe in the following year.

Shame, I want to see the best players in our competition even if it is playing for Wigan. Always liked Williams, he is a talent.

some you do...Did with Williams and Burgess. We need to start planning for next year now

Another frustrating display from him.

Anonymous for most of the match but seemed to spark up at about the hour mark and showed some real quality all be it for a fairly brief spell.

I know our pack was bettered for most of the match but marquee players have to be able to deal with that and mix it up and he just doesn’t seem willing or able to step up at times.

I look forward to watching him for the rest of the year as I am sure his quality will shine through but I think the expected move to the NRL will be a good move for both player and club.

Burgess yes (only 2 appearances before being given the 5 shirt) but we certainly didn’t with Williams. He took the 6 shirt in 2015 after making 24 appearances in 2014 (plus 2 in 2013)with a mixture of starts and bench appearances. That’s an ideal scenario for a young pivot IMO. It’s a bit different for a winger as well, I think you can expect them to settle in a bit quicker in a position with much less responsibility.

I’d be all for Smith being our scrum half in 2020 alongside a top stand off but to do that we need to get him in to the side at points this season for some experience. That’s a tough thing to do considering our form at the moment.

so he was played in most games in 2014 after a very small cameo in 2013 of 2 games.

11 starts and 13 bench appearances with a lot of them at hooker to ease him in to the side.

That would be an ideal scenario for Smith in 2020 of course but I don’t think we can afford to think we say ‘there’s the seven shirt’ and expect him to boss the team round for 30 games.

we can afford not too