Given his lack of form since returning to SL I'd say if he is on anywhere near that then a) Wigan must be bl00dy crazy and b) the rest of the Wigan squad must look at him and wonder why - perhaps that would explain a little about their attitude??

Perhaps they are crazy, but there's no doubting that when he's on form, he is probably the best FB in SL. I wonder if Wigan are going to find themselves in a bit of financial difficulty now that they're not champions. Finishing top brings better sponsorship and more money, which means you can afford a higher wage bill, without that extra money they could be in difficulty if they don't change their model. They were 600k down when they were champions, it's not going to be any easier this year

Some might say he is not even the best full back at Wigan never mind SL.

As far as England go, Hardaker and Shaul have both had better seasons, but I bet Tomkins gets the shirt.

That was why I couldn't get my head round the figures. Now I know these were only rumours at the time but rumour had it that Rangi Chase in his first stint at Cas was on £165K, I bet Sam Tomkins is on much more than Chase at his best.

Yes, and I hope and am sure he will stick to his words, because I'd rather go down than go bust. We have had enough near misses for extinction for my lifetime

There's one down at Bellevue that hasn't been too shabby either, and would push any of the above mentioned this season.

He plays for Ireland.

More for my information really but can someone please provide a list of each Super League club and how much they spend against the current cap of £1.8m?

As many have said we are £200-£250k short of the current cap? Or is that to the nearest Super League club?

£4.6m for Wigan including staff is astounding! How many back room staff do Wakefield have?

I dont have the salary cap figure.

Out of curiosity though, the Wigan figure quoted, does that include casual staff, such as turnstile operators and catering/hospitality staff.

During my time at the Rhinos, one of my responsibilities included casual payroll. There were about 30 turnstile operators alone, that was without the staff in the Headingley Experience and Headingley Lodge

I'm sure that would not affect the season he's had for Wakefield, or stop him being compared to the two mentioned in the thread title.

So given all your opinions on where you're at with the salary cap. 200k,250k and 300k with the increase on the cap next season. You are probably running very similar to most SL clubs. Certainly not half which has been stated in previous years!

What are you on about? We run about 200-300k less than the next lowest team.

I don't even particularly get why you care to be honest.

The cap is increasing, the funding isn't. If we're not spending the cap now, then as a percentage, we'll be spending less of it next year. I believe in 2015 we were spending half of the cap to try and steady the ship. Several players were released from expensive contracts and cheap replacements were brought in

The biggest cut I believe was for 2014.

Think I remember an interview with MC just after he took over, that to help clear debt, they were cutting cap spend to something like £1.3m.

This was then upped a little in 2015, and then again in 2016.

Banjo is right, funding isn't increaaing, so the shortfall will be bigger.

Next year I think will be a challenge, but we just need to get more people, bring a friend, introduce or re-introduce someone to the club

Also what about those players that have their salaries topped up by the rfl as Ambassadors/ to stop the drain of talent to Aus. But how is it decided which players receive this top up? There's a couple of our players who would certainly be deserving but I can't imagine them ever getting one.