The Wigan Observer says Joel has agreed personal terms and Wigan are expected to recieve around 250k with the move possibly being completed in the next couple of days.

They have been saying we'll announce Dudson, Flower, Lauaki and Thomas in 'the next few days' for 2 months now though.

Because there is no point keeping a player who doesn't want to stay. I suppose if your Man City (with near infinite cash) and salary caps didn't exist then you could hold some cards.

I think some of the assumptions being made about Joel's character are incredibly unfair. Rumour has it he is being offered 4 or 5 times his current salary, anyone would be silly to not give it some very serious consideration. It's probably a very difficult decision for him to leave Wigan and people saying stuff like "let him rot in the reserves" or questioning whether if Wigan in some way managed to prevent a transfer he won't give 100% for us are being very unfair imo.

If he does go, the blame isn't with the player or the club, it's with the people at the head or this sport in the UK who have let it get to this situation with very little resistance.

No. You have not got it straight at all. At this point in time no contract of any player who has gone to RU has been proven worthless and that is a fact. Easmond has just effectively sat a year out at Saints. Ashton was out of contract as well. What has not happened is a dispute over a player who is contracted to league who has just gone off mid contract without the agreement of his RL club.

If there were such a dispute it and the player ended up at the RU side for a small amount of compensation agreed by the courts THEN contracts would be worthless (or worth very little). That would set a precident that has as yet not been set and it would not affect just RL either but all sports that offer fixed term contracts to players.

The idea all sporting contracts are a complete waste of time (which is what this would mean) is not credible.

Wigan may well accept a fee for JT but it won't be because they have no choice. If they didn't want to accept the fee on offer I would bet my house Sarries would walk away rather than asking a judge to render sporting contracts truly worthless.

I don't follow your logic. Maybe it would help to break it into chunks.

Are you saying that Sarries have a vested interest in keeping the fee that they would pay Wigan high, in order not to set the precedent that contracts are worthless?

That is simply bonkers! Sarries do not have a monopoly on setting such precedents. All it would take is some other club to accept it and there it is!

I presume you are arguing that Wigan could enforce the contract of JT. To what end?

For a player to sit out eating up a chunk of the CC? Eating into the wage bill of Wigan? How could this possibly benefit Wigan?

Exactly.

Contracts aren't a waste of time but if one party breaches a contract a court will only allow the other party to recover its losses, not hold the party in breach to ransom.

Unfortunately RL doesn't pay its players much (relatively speaking). If its players aren't paid much you can't make out a case that being deprived of a player causes a great loss, because replacements are availlable for a relatively modest cost.

If IL has negotiated a £250k pay-off as suggested then he has done very well indeed. Having said that, it's buttons to a rich RU club; they won't mind shelling out that amount to get their hands on a player much better than his RU counterparts.

City would also have their player's registration. That protection doesn't apply with a cross-code switch.

The nail has well and truly been smacked on the head.

thomas has announced his retirement....so i'll take the rest with a pinch of salt until its officially announced by the club

Yeah that's my point.

There's obviously something going on and he probably will go but I don't think they know anymore then us.

True that, I wonder if pushed would Tomkins or another player from either code take up the legal challenge.

Saracens have just signed and annouced john Smit from south africa there taking there time on joel and also if he is going to be on big money there going have probelm putting him under salary cap

lets get sensible,the lad is off to RU can anyone blame him.the money he will be on will set him up for life.hope he thanks wigan for giving him his first chance.

I think you want get sensible if you think him earning 150k - 200k for 3 years will set him up for life. The 400k is b*llocks. If he dont make it he will be back in RL on less money than he is now and probably never regain any form. Its not football wages they pay in RU