Has he had his tea yet !

I would agree from a neutrals point of view it doesnt look very professional, who gave the go ahead for that to be put on and worded like that?

Well if I was Millward I wouldn't waste my time with this club. Millward has promised to visit the amateur clubs and hold training sessions and pass on training tips. Why??? so that Salford can sign them up. He obviously doesn't want to play for Leigh and I assume money and SL has been the deciding factor. If he doesn't want to play for his home town club under one of the best coaches in Rugby League then it is his loss. Very very silly lad. He could have progressed and made his way into Leigh's first team. and then gone to a SL club. Instead he will waste his time in salford's reserves and they will sign some over rated Aussies. Stupid Boy!!!!

Good Luck to the Lad.
Shame about the statement from the club.

Mr Chairman, what has come out in the statement, I feel, is alot of frustration from the Leigh board. On hindsight, would they re-word it? Probably, but at the time I can see how upset they were - we all have feelings don't we?

Leigh have taken alot of criticism over the past with how it has treated local amateur clubs. I was once part of the East set up as a kid and when the leigh tem came on the allweather at the old place, the coaches often 'played with the floodlights' and left the leigh first team in the dark!!!

Leigh don't seem to get things right, but when they do try things, folk are happy to find the negatives.

Obviously I do not know the 'story' of all this, but from an outsider, the Easts' paintbrush is tarnished than Leigh.

So it seems this 'next Mickey Higham' mas you put it will not be pulling on the Leigh shirt - a bit opposite to what YOU posted last week Mr Chairman. Money obviously does talk - proof in the pudding so to speak.

And Mr Chairman, I hope you enjoyed you tea.....but I can see a little 'bit of yellow' round your lips.......must be the egg on your face

Far too much discussion about Sam , I would suggest it all gets left for now , best of luck ' Hoppie ' wherever you end up

its not about the player now....from where I sit, I think Leigh east need to work a little harder at making the relationship WORK with the pro club.

I have a 5 year old who could have worded the statement better, it comes across as bitter and very very unprofessional, and cant believe that a professional club has slated an amateur club publicly, if every club had a dig because something didnt go their way we would read nothing but.

I know if i was an upcoming star at leigh east i wouldnt even want talks with leigh let alone play for them

Well he's an untried amateur player so I'm not going to get carried away with this.

I've never seen him play but he's obviously talented from what people say. I'm sure if he really wants to play for Leigh then he will end up making the decision "on his own" rather than letting someone else decide his future for him.

Representation is fine but at the end of the day it has to be Sam's decision.

Good luck to him whatever he decides.

mick fishwick who by his own admission was inexperienced in these kind of deals .



well the question as to be asked,

why oh why was mick let/given this opportunity to negotiate a young talented players career path?????

not having a go at you keith, but maybe someone else should of dealt with it.

ah well good luck to hoppy for the future, i would not imagine leigh are in a position to completely close the door on talented local players( well i hope not)

Keith FFS use the fullstop key !!!!!

You could apply the same train of thought to Paul Rowleys appointment

To be honest i was hoping Sam would sign for his hometown pro club
but it looks like Leigh have had second thoughts which is a shame because it was good business for both parties at this early stage in Sams career
K.L ( Mr Chairman ) is Leyth thro n thro and tried his best to set up the deal to bring Sam to Leigh Keith L has a lot of experience of the pro game as well as amt and everything he as done so far was for the good of Sam H future
its a great pity its come to this and Leigh has well as Leigh East should get there act together to move both clubs forward instead of conducting business
in my opinion unprofessional.. Lets hope all is not lost and the best deal for this young lad can be sorted out asap... Salford in my opinion are on a backward spiral Leigh on the other hand are a club on the up ( i hope !!!)

Hear hear!

If the club wanted to keep the fans informed what about -

"Due to a number of points on which the parties could not agree Leigh Centurions have decided to withdraw from discussions to sign Sam Hopkins.
The club wish him well in his future career."

Fans informed - respect maintained - professionalism exemplified!!!!!

Take a bow toadstool

The question then have to be asked

1. Why hasn't there been a deal done?
2. Why didn't Leigh strive to meet Sam's needs, ie, complete the contract as soon as they knew Sam wanted to play for Leigh.
3. Why did the Leigh East member invite Salford down and why where Leigh East still holding talks with Salford if he wanted to sign for Leigh?

All this is a prime example of why there should be a RFL/BARLA liason person at every Pro club.

Surely a deal can be salvaged out of this whole mess! There are no winners from the situation but the biggest loser seems to be the player who seemingly wanted to play for his home town club but this has been ruined by others. Without knowing the full details it seems to be everybody's fault but his so all the other parties in this debacle owe it to this lad to swallow their pride and make the deal happen!

Washing dirty laundry in public in a vat of sour grapes.
Petulant, amateurish, childish, knee-jerk statement.

A perfect example of why the RFL hates Leigh and why the amateur clubs can never and should never be expected to work with the pro club.

Got Rowley with a capital R written all over it. As if his clan hasn't done enough damage.

Someone with a PR background needs to get into Leigh and very very quickly, its a PR disaster zone - what a press release

.

I'm all for speaking the truth (backed AR completley when he did it about the RFL) but this press release is about a untied youngster, potential to prove, put bluntly he isn't of that quality just yet.
A "unfortuantly it appears Salford nipped in at the last hour to sign him, we wish him well with the future" press release would have sufficed IMO.

However as the club are knocking the press releases out , how about releasing how much it will cost to watch Leigh Centurions next season


It was promised to be released some weeks ago - hope we've not gone back on our word

I would like to know who at the club issued this statement.

It's amateurish and petulant and that person should be removed from their post for a grave error of judgement.

Nobody comes out of this one looking good, especially the Leigh Centurions.

A statement needed to be made, but that was not it.

Interesting call that one

the statement from Leigh was quite a 'bitter' one. Just like the one when we didn't get a Super League franchise (horrible word), same author this time round ?

whats your view of the statement Starbug?