anyone coming this way maybe?

Whilst I think "hang your head in shame" is a bit OTT I do find it ridiculous that other clubs are announcing they have signed our player prior to us making an official statement.

Poor by the club.

Gutted to see him go, he MUST be replaced with an experienced battled hardened prop.

All this we can cope with what we have is a nonsense for mine. Lima is the driving force in our pack is technically in all aspect of his game first class and has provided that aura/intimidation in the front we have lacked since we lost Pongia and Smith.

Is Finch going i haven't read anywhere yet that he is, only the rumours on the boards!

should there not be, or is there a mutual anti-tampering deadline between the nrl and superleague? i think its a disgrace that south sydney have annouced it before wigan have. they should at least given wigan some time to come up with a half decent statement to as why they are allowing him to be released a year early and for for free?

who is in charge of wigan PR? is it beech hill primary school? they really are slow and they do have a nack of ignoring the fans.

back to lima i hope he comes out with a statement and tells us why hes leaving not just "family reasons" and back it up by playing hes best till the very last game.

I may be wrong but I was under the impression that his contract was for 2 years, with a 3rd year as an option. If so, while it's incredibly disappointing to see a player of Jeff's calibre leaving so soon, he is merely implementing that option to not stay for the third year.

No it was a three year deal he signed. Hoffman was the only one with an option. Copied from the official website when the trio signedWigan Warriors today confirm the signings of Melbourne Storm trio Ryan Hoffman, Brett Finch and Jeff Lima.

The three players join for the 2011 season onwards; Second Row Forward Ryan Hoffman has signed a one-year contract (2011) with a second year option, Half-Back Brett Finch has agreed a two-year deal (2011 and 2012) whilst Prop Forward Jeff Lima joins for three years (2011, 2012 and 2013).'"

Initial Contract was for 3 years to end in October 2013.

We need to stop signing foreigners with immediate effect. I'm sick of them signing contracts then trying to get out of them.

In regards to contracts, they are not worth the money they're printed on.

It works like this.

If I do not want to play for a club, i'm not going to.

If the club don't want me to play for a club, i'm not going to.

A piece of paper is never going to change that.

why is it OTT? he is the owner of the club we support and we are damn well entitled to a little bit of respect like telling us he is going before his new employer does? same thing with Hoffman. it is a joke and one area IL needs to sort.

100% agree with you we need quality coming in, we cannot replace all this lost quality with kids.

It's infuriating to see players leave before their contracts are up and the club not taking any sort of 'hard-fist' approach & even allowing the club that have snapped up the player to announce the signing before we've announced his departure/mid-way through our season. People will spout the keeping a player against his will/contracts not worth the paper etc etc but that's total BS. Lima has a contract with the club. We don't have to let him go. He certainly doesn't look like he doesn't enjoy it here. I'd have made it as awkward as possible for Madge to get Lima - demand compensation/player swap/wait till we have a replacement etc

I don't blame Madge for moving for Lima. If you can get a player of that quality why not - we did with Finch and Hoffman along with Lima in the first place.

He's going to take some replacing. He's our pack leader IMO. Statistically I think he's the best prop forward in Super League. He does the basics so well, so consistent, well disciplined and makes over 100+ metres a game & is a big game player too (Lance Todd trophy winner). Replacing a player of that quality with Eric Lauaki or Gil Dudson wont be good enough IMO. Not only would we lose quality, but we would also be losing depth in the side.

So far we could end up having to replace our best prop forward, our two halfbacks and our best centre since Renouf in Carmont.

Ouch.

I'm playing devil's advocate here, so whilst it would nice if the club had've made an announcement it wouldn't have softened the blow in any way. It would also have been a negative announcement and in these days of social media no-one really likes announcing bad news, especially in organisations where the feel good factor is vital to success.
Also - Lets be realistic about our entitlement as fans. We pay our season ticket money and it entitles us to attend 13 home games, a bit of discount in the club shop and first choice of tickets for away games and finals. That't it. the entitlement stops there, so you can shout all you like about being entitled to receiving news like this from the club, but unfortunately thats not the way it is. Maybe, just maybe, Ian Lenegan and the marketing/comunications teams have got better things to do such as looking for a replacement and getting into the community to expand the club.

I too get irritated when I see people demanding to know the ins and outs of the club. But I do feel that this year it's a bit frustrating - playing-wise things are really on the up, but all we seem to hearing on the recruitment front is who is leaving, and it's starting to get a bit scary. The example of St Helens hasn't been lost on us - lost too many good players too quickly and it can torpedo all your plans.

I appreciate that the club can't announce good news if they don't have any - IFL won't prejudge negotiations with players by talking to the press until the contracts are signed - but I can understand fans getting jumpy. We need some good news sooner rather than later.

I do not have an issue with them telling us about players coming in till the end of the season, it keeps us focused on this year, a year that could be great.

I do think the club should have been the first to confirm Lima's exit though rather than the fans fins out via the club he is signing for.

and it is now confirmed on the BBC website........ laughable.