The player development seems spot on. If we have to sell the likes of Mossop and Sam to fund it then it's not sustainable IMO and development should not come at the expense of losing players like Sam. In any case I don't think we do sell players in order to fund this aspect of the club. I think transfer fees are a bit of a red herring used to justify unpopular sales of players.

As JJ says re contracts I think we just have to dig our heals in at some point and say you are staying. If they sulk we put up with it to get the message across. In Sam's case I can't see any justification for doing otherwise if it was Sam who broke his "no speaking" clause. (If we actually facilitated a sale well you know what I think about that.)

The top and bottom of this in my opinion is that until we know the exact fact or at least we get a press release concerning the deal much of the debate around Tomkins departure is pointless.

Basically some appear to want to criticise a decision made by our Chairman, without knowing what the decision made is.

I am personally if the opinion/suspect it will be far less black and white than Tomkins leaves Wigan in exchange for a transfer fee.

Whilst it is frustrating to lose Sam, it is not a decision I feel any of us are in a position to judge yet.

The only thing I can form an opinion on IFL on at the moment is his current performance to date, which I believe is outstanding. He has overseen a huge period of transition in the club, put systems and structures in place to ensure we have pathways to the first team from our youth structure on the field and made us a financially viable business off the field.

There always seems to be a plan with IFL and a bigger picture mentality to his decisions, and personally I for one think he is the best Chairman in the league by some distance.

One point I wish to raise about the long term contract issue and how we should force players to honour them is this. Going forward, if we adopt that policy, why would any player consider signing one with us? If for example one of our developing players who spends time in the dressing room around a player who is being forced to stay and is unhappy is offered a 5 year deal, and another team offers him 2 years on similar terms, at which point after 2 years he can look around assess his options and potentially move to the NRL then what would people's reaction be?

The above example is without even considering what effect a player being forced into stating will have on the dressing room and also of course his own performance.

Correctamundo!
And a point I've been trying to get across but not as we'll as yourself.

Well put that man...!! I wish Sam's leaving/staying was a black and white issue, but it won't be, and while i'm sure we would all like to see people to see out a contract, the real world is not like that. Sam's leaving is an inevitability with the current levels of funding in this country, I just hope if he ever comes back, and i doubt he ever will, it's to us.

Some sense at last!

Sam will stay or he will go. If he goes at the end of this season that is IMO reason enough to criticise IL on this particular issue. The fact IL has done well on other things and not so well on others hasn't got anything to do with this particular issue.



We can only go off what we know and that is according to the NZ press it's a done deal. We have also seen in the past what has accompanied the loss of players which is some sort of announcement that is supposed to be a positive counter to the bad news. With Joel it was in fact Sam's contract.

No no no, string him up now!

I am not sure what you mean. Everyone is posting on the assumption he is leaving. I think we have all given up prefacing everything with "If he leaves..." but not because we have decided it's a done deal. It's just got tedious doing so.



Fair enough but my view can be summed up as given the contract he signed he should not be leaving at the end of this season period and if he does, any sweeteners IL can pull out of the hat should be treated with scepticism given Sam's contract was in itself such a sweetener that will have proved worthless. I am also sceptical of deals done re Hock and Mossop returning simply because statements about players futures with Wigan are already to be taken with a large grain of salt IMO.

The wider issues of contracts have been done to death in the past already but if Sam does go at the end of this season because of his special contract IL will have a lot of explaining to do IMO. And I don't mean announcing he's returning in two years or we signed someone else. Rather given you can you say one thing and do another why anyone (players included) should believe anything said again.

You never know he may not leave and 11 pages in this and 17 pages in the Sam thread will have been giving IL a right laugh. We can then argue about poor communication from the club! [sizeand before anyone goes off on ne that is meant as a light hearted comment.[/size

Do fans not find it odd the both Wane (pre-season) and IL (season) have been virtually pushing Sam out the door and alerting anybody / everybody that Sam is available. Sam has been the only one following his agreement and denying any transfer.

Do fans not find it odd that Mrs Wane would accompany Mrs Tomkins Snr to NZ to check out living accommodation?

The deal to the best of my knowledge went through some time ago. Wigan attempted to gag the NZ Warriors until after the CC Final when I presume we will have a stage managed announcement with some positive news to limit adverse reaction to the VERY bad news.

Does anybody seriously still believe Sam is not leaving Wigan at the end of this season? A second Tomkins leaving with Sam has been mentioned this week. It may be Logan or it may be Joel.

I must have been out of the country when this happened.

Not according to the numerous times when you posted since pre season and throughout this season. Get me the details of your six month holiday. Must have been a fantastic offer Use the power of google to get yourself up to speed Andrew.