I can see Mathers commanding much of a salary, can you? I appreciate whatever he is being paid, eats into the cap, but Gleeson will free up a hell of a chunk.

would you say 40K is a conservative estimate? That could be 40K towards luring a quality player that suddenly becomes available.

I would say that is a fair allowance. Conversely, if we are getting another fullback for half the salary of the one who may be being released. You can follow the logic. This will effectively bring us back to parity with Gleesons salary.

How about this

FB Mathers
Wing - Hicks, Riley
Centre from - Johnson, Grix, Bridge, King

No need to spend on a replacement centre?

Remember two of our four overseas quota are out of contract at the end of the season Hicks and Rauhihi and Rau is leaving and will Hicks be offered a new contract ?

And if Monas is homesick then that it could be three.

Tony Smith knows what he is doing. Mathers showed glimpses of his potential when with us before and at the time people were saying that we should try and keep him. At Leeds under TS he played well. So TS knows what he can do and how to get it out of him.

Have faith. Maybe the other teams are worried that TS will get him to perform. Who knows?

Just think if the Pies had kept all their homegrown talent they would be nearly as good as Huddersfield by now

aye thats logical assuming the rumours are correct

don't be thick, you know what i mean, that whole right channel attack, where 99 times out of as hundred it comes off with a try.

No, you don't be thick. We are not talking about someone who earns £70k a season and scores or assists every game. We are talking about someone who I would guess earns at least £150K a season and (given current performance) will not be missed. Bridge can play just as well if not better for far less wonga.

tony smith only wants people at the club who want to play for the club,i'm happy to see gleeson go as he has never been happy and never done enough on a regular basis.
lets see if he still has his sulky demeanour at wigan,when he gets there he might realise how much this club and simon moran indulged him for not much in return.
before people start firing stats up about how many tries his winger gets,what about how many decent balls he's had to put his winger through or how many kicks we used to put out to his wing for henry.
to be honest you can't even say thanks for the memories because they have been few and far between.

My sentiments too. Completely underwhelmed by the deal. Fair enough get rid if he doesn't want to be here but it's not a great deal. One of the best centres in the league for half what we paid and gaining (if that word should be used) Ritchie mathers. Great deal for the pies crap one for us. I remember a couple of years ago Moran actually phoning the gmr phone in denying Gleeson going to Wigan, laughing at the players that were supposedly being offered in exchange (one being Tickle can't remember the other) but it was a better deal then, i don't know what has happened to our negotiation skills.

You have to remember we paid 200k in 2004 when Gleeson was what, 24/25 and at the peak of his game. He's 29 next month with what 1/2 really good years left. How old was Toa when his step deserted him?

He was going in September anyway but for sod all in addition to the fact that he didn't want to stay here, or the TS didnt want him.

IT'S A GREAT DEAL WIRE FANS!

tony smith has full control over who comes and who goes,he did exactly the same at leeds with connolly and adamson,another two players taking big wages and carrying big egos,it didn't do them much detriment did it.

It is now official

£100K + Mathers, good deal for all

Not really...

Why?

Sounds like a good deal when you put it like that

I think you're the one being thick here. If only it was anything like 99 times out of a hundred.

Gleeson had one great season for us, and then the odd good game in the following years. He's had his moments, but I have been generally underwhelmed by Martin during his Wire career. Yes there is a dearth of good centres in the game, and he is still one of the best in SL but to get rid of him now when he's almost 29 is a good bit of business.

I still think we should have got Goulding as part of the deal, Smith could mould him into a top class centre IMO.

its typical wigan, get rid of there young stars for a superstar player who has a couple of years left in him.

i agree with something wires 74 has posted on the goons board, mathers is gonna have to work his rollocks off on over time to win us wire speccies over, it's not just a case of him being nowadays but obviously the bad feeling still knocking about with the king hit.

Mathers is 25.

I cant be bothered trawling through the archives, but i would bet that the people who are moaning about the deal are the ones who have continually moaned about the drinking culture at the wolves and have blamed Gleeson and Briers all the way through. Now we have got rid of one of the main culprits who was a very talented player, things might start to change. We have got a lot of good kids coming through i for one would prefere a role model that will teach the kids good things off the field as well as on it.
Good deal for me also Mathers hasn't lost his talent in the last year it just needs reigniting and Tony Smith hopefully can be the man!!!!!!!!!

fantastic, so let me get this straight, one of the best wing centre combos over the past 5 years in the league in gleeson and fa'afili, and they were both crap.

Gleeson's leaving, and people are saying he was crap, and when fa'afili left, he was crap and only scored so many tries because of gleeson, who as we're all discovering now, is/was crap.


I wish we had a player combination on the left hand side of our attack that was equally as bobbins, i really do.

I'm really concerned about this deal in the fact that we've not got the best out of it.

Gleeson going is irrelevant now he has gone he never showed up on a regular basis and T.S must have seen something he didn't like ,what worries me is we have no in our squad now we need 2 so when are they coming ?????