I may be against you on the Bowen thread but I agree with you here. We have been misled as far as Sam is concerned.

Competition time !!

whoop whoop

Are Wigan fans on the whole quite positive or quite negative?

Currently we have a

1 - Bowen has signed" thread

and

2 - Sam has departed" thread

I wonder which will run the longest?

I don't think IL has lied or misled us at all.

We all know Dean Bell and another Exec from the NZW were over here earlier in the year. I'm pretty sure they said they had a "shopping list" of players in whom they were interested. Sam was top of their list, the remainder probably weren't wanted if they got their top man.

Sam or his agent couldn't approach the NZW people, NZW couldn't approach Sam without the club's permission. Maybe, I don't know, NZW approached Sam/Agent without the club's permission. An unofficial approach or tapping up!
If, after an unofficial conversation, Sam's head was turned by the prospect of the NRL + Salary and then he told IL he wanted to go and where to and didn't want to play for the club from 2014 on, what could IL do about it?
Two choices, let him go and get the best possible deal he can or, tell Sam he's going nowhere and has to play for Wigan. Nothing like having your most expensive player totally turned off, not wanting to play for you and on your books.
IMO IL had no choice but to get the best possible deal, which he may have, and sign the best replacement available which he appears to have done.

Not ideal, it's pretty awful really but this is a RL Sport problem. We now can't keep our best players.
IL is getting slated for calling Bowen a "marquee" player. That description, I don't think, is meant for us Wigan fans at all. It's meant for the knuckledraggers and deadbeats who've voted down a salary cap exemption for each club's "marquee" player. They are the ones who are prepared to see our presence in the Captial disappear and open Catalans to the possibilty of relegation.

We used to talk about a vision for expansion and a strategy to acheive it.
Now they are going headlong into shrinkage and have voted for the strategy to acheive it.

All in all, a bloody awful day day for British Rugby League.

IL made a point of stressing that there was a cast iron guarantee that Tomkins would not speak to NRL or union clubs until pre 2015. What is disappointing for me is that IL hasn't acknowledged that he has broken his word on that. Its almost as if he's hoping Wigan fans won't remember that.

Wasn't IL one of those who voted in favour of the current CC level?

And I remember laughing to myself when he said this.

As I said, he took the praise (off some people on here) when he came out with this.

I notice those people are either not commenting (probably for the best), or coming out with comments that do not address this issue.

"Well what was he supposed to do?"

"Well he made the best out of a bad situation"

etc etc

NOT the point.

Think we need to stop arguing amongst ourselves here and concentrate our efforts into getting some answers... So IL has a few questions to answer.... 1. Tomkins signed a 5year deal in Nov 2011 that stopped him SPEAKING to ANY club for 3 years. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/15625039 In Sept 2013 he has SIGNED for NZ Warriors. How and why has that happened?? 2. Why have you announced this 4 days before the most important game if the year?? 3. What do you propose to do with the reported £1M the club has made in transfer fees this year?? The excitement of Fridays clash with Leeds has completely left me as I'm more concerned with the state of the club long term rather than short term gains.

Think we need to stop arguing amongst ourselves here and concentrate our efforts into getting some answers... So IL has a few questions to answer.... 1. Tomkins signed a 5year deal in Nov 2011 that stopped him SPEAKING to ANY club for 3 years. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/15625039 In Sept 2013 he has SIGNED for NZ Warriors. How and why has that happened?? 2. Why have you announced this 4 days before the most important game if the year?? 3. What do you propose to do with the reported £1M the club has made in transfer fees this year?? The excitement of Fridays clash with Leeds has completely left me as I'm more concerned with the state of the club long term rather than short term gains.

Very much so. And bragged about it!

According to the Manchester Evening News, he was almost at 'loggerheads' with Marwan Koukash of Salford who vowed to break the salary cap.

+1

The contract Sam signed was a good one. It meant we got three years out of him AND a transfer fee. To only get two years is poor form from all parties.

So, in view of the fact that Sam has broken the terms of his contract, is it not a good thing that the management have taken decisive action, and sold a player who clearly does not wish to play for the club...

Agree with your sentiments .... the trouble is I cannot remember my enthusiasm for RL being so low.

There's little incentive to buy a season ticket as it is today with the league becoming nothing short of a farce but this continual talent drain has to impact on future attendances and the overall profile of the game in the country.

Speaking to one of the clubs higher profile sponsors the other day he said he was not renewing his sponsorship next season ... as far as he's concerned RL is finished in this country. Not necessarily my views but worrying when sponsors have that perception of the sport !

Do you know this as a fact? If not watch out or you could end up in court

What if Sam hasn't broken any contract but NZW approached Mr Lenegan and asked if he would be willing to sell Sam? Who is to say Sam wouldn't of carried on next year and stuck to the contract and it wasn't Mr Lenegan who approached Sam to see if he would be interested in going to NZW and Sam just brought forward his plans a year early?