There's no doubt the Ellis deal will have put some constraints on what we can offer to existing players. That in itself may have prompted other clubs to think they could outbid us for Manu's services. You couldn't blame him for wanting what is probably his final deal to be a good one. It's a short career.

I love Willie and I really hope we can keep him, but if I had to choose between the two it's a no brainer.

I agree with the point about trusting PG. He hasn't steered us wrong so far and I expect him to find a way to put all the pieces together to make this an outstanding team.

End of the day money talks and if he wants to go somewhere else for money then its upto him isnt it or he could stay and play his part in the revoloutin that is going on at our club.End of the day...NO player is bigger than the club and look what happend to the last 2 players who legged it for more money.

Would be very disappointing for him to go from the point of view that he should be our number one priority to retain IMO, so keeping him would join the Ellis capture as another signal of intent. Gentle has said several times that recruitment begins from within, and his departure would possibly go against that.

It's strange how the chronology of events affects their reception. If Manu had always been leaving and Ellis was the replacement we bagged, it would have been massively positive. Conversely, with Ellis in the bag and the possibility of them both in the same side it would be a big loss now.

who do you refer to??

what a second row partnership that would be

Briscoe thought he was worth more than what he was and a certain Mr Cooke.

Agree with that. Hopefully Manu will chose to re-sign even if another club offers more money.

Aye, but Carvell hasn't done too badly out of jumping ship for the money.

TBF I think the 2 cases are more than a tad different. Briscoe gambled (or backed himself, depending upon how you look at it) on being picked for GB and then missed out when he probably would have stayed with the original offer after all. You can't really blame the lad for waiting a couple of months with what will have looked like a strong chance of a pay increase on the line.

IMO our old wage structure of rewarding representative honours over the player's value to the team was madness.

You mean less money ?

Cookes career spiralled down and out but Briscoe got a very good 4 years from Rovers. Not entirely bad when you look at how both clubs performed over those 4 years.