Quote ="morrisseyisawire"Personally, I hope we [idon't[/i sign Williams. Not because I don't rate him, because I do - he is probably the best (only) naturally skilled British stand-off in the game.
The reason is I feel a slight sense of unease that every time we hit a bump, the answer is to whip out Simon's cheque book, start to write very large numbers on it and wave it under the noses of clubs who have done the donkey work in nurturing the talent. It all smacks a bit of Wigan in the 80's when every club lived in fear of Uncle Maurice turning up on the doorstep with a bin bag full of cash and his eyes on the family silver.
Personally, I'd rather us take a punt on a championship player, or better still devote every semblance of coaching and guidance we can towards developing the likes of Patton.'"
Instead of cornering the market in established players, for some years now Wigan have been cornering the market in talented junior players as is evidenced by the number of established Super League players that have come through the Wigan Junior ranks.
Wire were amongst the leaders in the days of Sculthorpe et al but lack of funds meant that the Wire junior system fell behind and, instead of selling players surplus to requirements we sold our best juniors.
I hope SM continues to invest heavily in our junior systems as, in my experience, most successful sides usually have a nucleus of home reared players.
With regard to Patton, I personally thought that the side looked better with him in it rather than the post injury Sandow.
Most of the Wigan stars looked a bit flakey when introduced into the first team. I think Patton and Toby King have more than held their own and have a big future ahead of them.
Having said that, nobody in their right mind would turn their nose up to Williams if the price is right.
