In today's league weekly it say's that Warrington have signed 17 yeard old Ben Halliwell from Bradford. Any truth in this? Has anybody seen him play?

I bloody hope not!

If it is the player we think it is it, it would be a real shame.

The club need to hold onto youngsters with potential like him and George Burgess rather than lose them to other teams in the league.

Bit of a worry. I wonder what the reasons for leaving would be? Purely financial?

Disaster if true.

I really hope not.

If they HAVE, its bloody moneybags Moran again.

Red will know.

I also read it in Dave Parker's column that that Tony Smith had signed him to be mentored by Brett Hodgson. He looked one of our most exciting backs from the current crop of young players. I was pretty cheesed off when I read this news at lunchtime today.

He looked like a real gem in the footage I have seen of him. Gutted.

Unfortunatly it's true afaik.

I am thoroughly pìssed off by this news.

presumably a case of moran offering a better deal as opposed to us not offering him a new one?

Sadly if it is case that moran has come in and offered a significant amount more than us then I don't see thats its something we can avoid in the future. Presumably we have a wage structure in youth setup and placed a valuation on Ben. We cant break our wage structure when richer clubs come and flash the cash as we just dont have the financial clout to compete on those terms.

Assuming it is purely monetary - I'd be interested to see the differential in salaries offered.

Are we offering £15k v £17k for example or is it more like £10k v £30k?

Extremely frustrating to develop a youngster only to have him lured away by ££££'s

I'd be surprised if he wasn't pretty close to the top of the 'ones to keep list' so it would seem that way.

So are juniors like Wardle/Helliwell etc not included in any sort of cap limit? What is the point of a 1st team cap if teams with rich backers can simply cherry pick the best young talent?

Isnt there something in salary cap rules along lines of were allowed 50k on players who make a first team appearance after th 25 players on 25k or more? Afaik juniors who dont make first team appearances fall outside salary cap as such and its just down to how big a budget club has for its youth setup ( an area where a rich backer really helps I would imagine.
Someone correct me if Ive got that wrong as Im not too sure on exact salary cap rules with regard to juniors.

He probably doesn't see an opportunity for the first team this year (ie even a bench spot in the odd game), given the number of signings and players who would probably be picked in front of him at FB:

Kearney
Halley
Platt
Sykes
Ah Van
Royston

Doesn't shout first team opportunity does it really.....

Who have Wire got?

Hodgson (who has started to miss the odd game)
Riley
The Aussie guy who's name escapes me.....that bloke who plays on the wing generally, and scored a few against the Rhinos at Wembley

Bollocks if true.

The kid's got potential alright. But as BB said there's half a dozen players who would probably get picked ahead of him.

Source?

Generally, when it comes to the academy, RER is a bloody good source.


I was highly disappointed at Wardle leaving. I'm more disappointed at this. From the academy highlights I've watched this year, he looks a hell of a prospect.





Chris Hicks

suppose you have to look at it from bens point of view too and given number of fullbacks in squad he was going to struggle to break through for a year or 2. Given that scenario and likelihood that moran has offered a bigger deal to boot and you can understand him going disappointing as it is.

Just a thought but maybe given delaying tactics orfords agent is employing re compensation maybe we're having to scrabble around a bit to get funds together to pay a transfer fee?. given that we'll get a payment similar to one we got for wardle from wire then it maybe case that club didnt up offer to hellewell in order to give us extra funds to strengthen 1st team. I know its a case of putting short term benefit ahead of longer term but flip side of that is we really do need a decent season next year to ensure the new/returning supporters are retained which will have bigger potential benefits for club than one player.

Has he been here long enough to count as a homegrown player? might be useful in years to come

It'll will be interesting to see what the club have to say regarding this one. Obviously it has yet to be confirmed. You cannot rule out that Dave Parker has got the name wrong, he isn't the most reliable of reporters to be fair.

Two good young players moving to clubs currently above us, not exactly what we need right now. What can be done to help stop this from happening?

How many of the Bradford youngsters are from Bradford?

Less than there would be if our catchment area wasn't utterly stupid.

cr@p.

I'd be crying in my corn flakes if he was a wonderkid, but he isn't so mehh, big deal.

In fairness, the Spice Girls bombed after he left.