Didn't know much about this fella before he signed for us, but having just had a peruse on a popular video streaming site after searching 'luis johnson rugby' he looks a real handful in attack and defence

I think he will go straight into the U19's (third year) but hopefully will be training with the first team along with Pinder, Robson, Edge and Pilling. He was the England stand out player of the recent French tour. £45k seems an awful lot of money though for an U19 - it's still a long way up to SL standard.

Straight in to the 25 man squad

That's a bit of a surprise then. You think / have heard, that he will be playing for the first team from the word go if we get injuries ?

Well he is in the 25 man squad so that's a good indication. Room for one more player yet?

Well I think we only have 28 players and four of them have not made a SL debut; Jack Johnson, Moran, Prell and now Luis Johnson. That seems like a pretty thin squad if we get a load of injuries, so I was hoping we would pick up a few more, but perhaps we are almost up to cap if we are only looking for one more.

Jack Johnson?

Straight replacement for Benjamin Jullien.

Well they both wear skull caps.

Yes, I forgot about Johnson having played a few SL games last year.

Not a lot of cap left to bring in seasoned pros now.
Clark has gone to that second marquee. I thought he wold have been last year. Was rumoured but apparently he didn't need to be.

This kid looks like he has a massive amount of potential. Jullien was a complete Unknown and he Turned out great, 45k for a 19 year old is a huge amount but the coaches clearly think he'll develop in to a great player.
I'm happy as pie with this from what i've seen so i hope he kicks on and fills his potential.

My boss is big castleford fan.... and he is pretty upset about this. Reckons one of the coaches in the academy told him

'he is one of, if not the best best talent they have seen in the last 10 years'

an absolute steal at £45,000.... be interesting to see how a transfer like this happens. The player is obviously very highly regarded at Cas, has just come off a player of the tournament display for his country... I suppose young players have short contracts.. nature of the beast?

He’s gone well in our under 19s but was hardly stand out. I was a bit surprised he was included in the England U19 squad but he played very well be all accounts.
Of our current youngsters he’s nowhere near the level of Trueman, Mclelland (gone to a Scottish RU) and Turner from the games I saw last season.
45k is a lot of money for someone who hasn’t got anywhere near SL yet.

Hopefully another good addition to our already young squad, will be interesting to see how he compares to our other young players who have come through together

Taylor Prell,Pat Moran & Luis Johnson not yet made SL debuts

Below are stats inc SL sub & wire appearances only since debuts

DEC PATTON - SL debut 2015, aged 20
41 appearances 10 try’s

TOBY KING - SL debut 2014, aged 18
24 appearances 6 try’s

JACK JOHNSON - SL debut 2015, aged 19
13 appearances 6 try’s

JOE PHILBIN - SL debut 2015, aged 20
51 appearances 5 try’s

GEORGE KING - SL debut 2014, aged 19
74 appearances 6 try’s

MORGAN SMITH - SL debut, 2016 aged 18
18 appearances 2 try’s

HARVEY LIVETT - SL debut, 2017 aged 20
14 appearances 5 try’s

£45,000 FOR a under 19 prospect that has rave reviews would be a absolute bargin.

We signed a 18 year old for £65,000 in 1997. He turned out quiet well for us wouldn't you agree.

It will be interesting to see how Mr Johnson & the rest of the young players progress under the Price/Henderson/Briers regime. Under Messrs Smith & Agar we brought in several youngsters from other clubs who never got a look in & were seemingly moved on under cover of darkness.

If Lee Briers thinks that this fellow is worth signing it is good enough for me.

Its not as if we are short of £££. I don't see the issue.

Assuming he's not in the top 25 paid players by the time we finish business, his salary won't count on the cap as he is under 21.

As of this offseason the club were wanting to have a second marquee signing, Clark is not that. We seem to have announced players as marquee when we have signed them - we never did that with Clark?

Well the club don't have to make a public statement about who or who isn't a marquee...
But word to me is Clarke is now put on as a marquee.
Clarke was our biggest earner in 2017 season since he got a top up following Sandow going awol.

Im expecting big things from Clark this season with the introduction of some proper go-forward in the form of BMM and Akaluola (no idea how to spell that!)

I hope we haven't had our trousers pulled down by Darryl Clarke,

we paid Castleford £185k for him,then paid him very well by all accounts, if the above is true he will now be earning in excess of £175k per year and isn't even an International player. ( though the same can be said of our other Marquee player).

Clarke [iwas[/i top quality and has enough attributes to be a consistent top performer (despite having no kicking game) but he's not progressed at all since coming to us.

If he continues like this he will be one of the most disappointing signings we've made,

he shows glimpses of class in a game but doesn't do it game after game which is surely what Marquee players should be doing.

He didn't get a look in for the world cup (rightly so) and was streets behind 49 year old James Roby.

clearly hookers are thin on the ground as we cant replace Brad Dwyer so making sure we keep one of the few decent hookers around is good business, but is Clarke just riding the Wires Gravy train in a comfy chair....??

Some noises from the club that the party animal that is Joe Westerman was a bad influence on the Yorkshire set. He'll have to practice these arts in Canada now so local Tykes should be safe.

Clarke came when he was 22(?). His 3 seasons here '15, '16 & '17 look to have not been great in terms of general squad-in-transition/behind the scenes goings on/dressing room harmony etc.

Coming into that environment as young lad with raw talent, I imagine it was tough going. Unlike players like Sims/Gids who can come into that situation and be left to their own devices to do what they do, players like Clark need a bit of mentoring.

I fully expect him to start dominating games for us in the coming seasons.

As to how he's ended up earning what he's earning - he must still be riding the 2014 wave when he was MOS and standout 4N player when negotiating, as his stock has certainly not risen since then, if anything it's decreased.

But players should earn whatever they can, and as long as it's not to the detriment of the team, good on them.

The most concerning thing about this should it be true, is that it would mean Clark is paid £100k per year more than Ben Currie.