Quote ="ABP'"Even it is the reserves league, the lads in the team have been playing to win the league and you need your best players to do that. Winning the reserves league speaks volumes for your youth structure too so good on IL for keeping hold of Thornley. Also, should we have a few more injuries he might need to be called up.
Contracts are contracts & with certain overseas players departing early already, we don't want it to become a trend and an option for players before they sign contracts for Wigan.'"
Agree with this 100%.
It's not really about being vindictive or having revenge on a player. A contract is a profesisonal deal and it was conceived and struck for the benefit of BOTH parties. These days, with the salary cap etc, the club fork out good wages because they've calculated that they need this player as part of their playing personnel for a specific period of time, not just at his convenience. The player and his agent must respect this, and be professional about it (especially as, in Thornley's case, there isn't much time on the contract left).
The normal argument is that you ought to let the player go because what use is a player who doesn't want to be there? That's a true to an extent (especially with homesick Aussies who might have years left to serve), but at the end of the day you also have to send a message - particularly to the likes of Sale RU, who, whenever they have a crisis (and trust me, they're in one now), kneejerk react by going out and making 'glamour signings' - that there's an extra price-tag if the RL club are to ignore the deal they constructed to protect their own interests.
RU sniffing around our young players is a major problem at present. RU clubs don't respect 'non-tampering windows', etc, and neither are they hindered by having a stringent cap of their own. At present, thanks mainly to the intransigence of the RFL, they hold all the cards. The very least we can do is ensure they realise they must pay every single penny necessary for our carefully and expensively nurtured talent, or they won't get it.
There is one other thing as well. IL may be conscious of how this saga is going down with the Wigan fans. The last thing he wants is the kind of negativity that resulted from Chris Ashton's famous pose in his new RU shirt, even though he was supposedly a Wigan player for several more months. If Thornley has been advised that he is a Wigan player, and nothing else, until the very last second of his contract, then it's fine by me.
