Quote: steadygetyerboots-on "As I see it these rules were brought in to protect clubs from having their pockets picked; very noble & worthwhile. It appears that the unintended consequence though is to potentially force young players to accept a contract beneath their value/worth or face being forced out of the game. This isn’t good at the best of times & with the player pool shrinking every year is just plain silly - anyone else remember pre-bosman? I just can’t see this standing up in Court, whether the player(s) can afford to challenge it is a different matter.
I’ve every sympathy with Wakefield, but I just don’t think it’s a good look for them, not any club to effectively say to young players
Yes but who decides that worth, this is the crux and the point I've been making. I suspect they have been given duff advise and over-valued themselves, This I would say is backed up by the lack of apparent offers as let's be honest the comp amounts are not huge.
What this whole story stinks of to me is an Agent who's cocked up and is now feeding the story into the media to gain a sympathy angle, and it's working and thats pure cynical manipulation imo.
On your last point I utterly disagree, that's wanting your cake and eating it. SL is a business not a charitable foundation. When clubs sign youngster they are offering them a chance to pursue their dream, not a promise. No club, certainly in the last 30 years has ever sat a kid down and said we guarantee you a future in the game on a wage that will suit you from the start. Thirty years ago we went full time and with that came huge benefits for some, but for others massive disappointments, that is the very nature of professional sport, every sport not just RL, so there is nothing to re-evaluate IMHO. It's nothing to do with how it looks, it's how it is and pretending otherwise only gives false hope.
Also I'm not sure you can just pick and chose a sport, being good at RL doesn't mean you'd be just as good at football, certainly wasn't the case for me.