I'm all for smashing the bank for Williams. Williams and Patton for 2018 coz Gidley won't be here

Todd Carney's looking for a SL club.
Would Wire be interested?
More talented than any names mentioned up to now.

I'm fairly sure Williams is just using wire interest for a new bumper deal at Wigan.. it seems to be what all good players do now near the end of a contract.

I imagine the interest from us is there.. our recruitment people wouldn't be doing their jobs if they didn't make a move for a good young player near the end of his contract.

You could always try and prise McGuire and Burrow away from the Rhinos.
Both played under Smith and he knows them very well.
Clarkey would do as bait

Isn't Carney due to fight our very own Chris Sandow for something undisputed on a date yet to be arranged ? Should work wonders for his pre season training.

Todd Carney is the personification of the malaise that derailed Catalans season last year.

Undoubtedly talented, but with a work rate that makes Leon Pryce look like Ben Westwood, durability that would make Gary Wheeler blush and a massive chip on his shoulder, by virtue of his, errm, uncivilised exit from the NRL.

Following the Sandow debacle, he is [iexactly[/i the kind of player we should be avoiding from hereon.

I agree that Williams & his agent will use us to negotiate a very lucrative deal with Wigan.

It then depends how much Wigan can offer him.......They already have Sam Tomkins as their Marquis player, they can`t have a 2nd one.

If it came to a bidding war then Wire could probably offer him a lot more money than Wigan could.

A significant transfer fee could tempt Ian Lenagan to sell Williams before his contract expires, & he leaves on a freebie

After last season, a lot of Wigan fans would probably keep George Williams before Tomkins. You just cannot buy talent like his at that age. He should be the Wigan & England stand off for the next ten years!

The arrogance of some of the posters on this forum is mind boggling. "I would look to sign Williams" is somewhat akin to a Stockport County supporter saying I would look to sign Ratchford from Manchester United.

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.

So it's basically karma, payback time

Do you know, that never occurred to me. I must be getting soft in my old age.

You're right, to hell with it we'll have Williams plus Bateman and Farrell into the bargain.

He he. Ian Potter, Brian Case, Billy Maginty, Andy Gregory ...

So how long has Stefan been playing for Man Utd has he told TS I wonder?

It is not arrogance to want to sign a talented player from other clubs its a compliment for the player and the club, plus it fill's the coffers when you are hard up for cash!

No, it's like the list the kids leave for Father Christmas, a triumph of hope over reality.

When did Stefan become a footballer?

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.

So Stef plays for United does he? And Wire are in the seventh division of rugby league?

That's what we should be doing though to drive forward the sport in this country. In sport the clubs with the most money should be encouraged to spend all the money they can afford and that then improves [ievery [/iclub as the money trickles through the system.

The arrogance of some of the posters on this forum is mind boggling. Comparing wigan to Manchester United, and then one of their closest rivals to a Conference North team.

Just a poor attempt of trolling bourne from bitterness. No need to feed.

There's no denying that Wigan's Academy conveyor belt is the best in the English game. But what they don't have is a multi-millionaire owner with bottomless pockets like we do. So when there's a mention of buying one of there top players on here it will create a bit of jealousy.

Id rather we started promoting our youth and reserve teams to answer the questions we have for our first team. Look at Wigan, near enough all Wigan lads. That's why they did as well as they did last season. they've grown up supporting Wigan and know what it means to wear that jersey. When their backs are against the wall, whether you like to admit it or not, they never say die. An attitude Warrington were lacking midway through the season. Id like to see local lads being pushed through and Dec being handed the 7 shirt.

Well said,sir !

Not much use having a bottomless pocket when there is a salary cap in place. As for being jealous of Warrington - you must be having a laugh. Incidentally the owner of our club isn't short of a bob or two but he spends it wisely like investing in bringing players through from junior level. Sadly, because of the salary cap, we can't keep all of them at the club so have to let some go to other clubs such as Warrington.

You can also tell the difference with more of our players being poached by Aussie clubs who are not as prolific at producing players as they used to be. At to that the pull of the Union £ & it is understandable that there is a player shortage. The youth & academy system needs to be encouraged.