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Yet how would anyone have known what WADA were going to do?
Too much tin foil hat stuff going on here.
Sam couldn't sort a deal out with Catalans as the deal was in Wigan s favour.
Wigan couldn't sort a deal out with hardaker until they knew the WADA investigation results.
Why offer Sam anything if they wanted him gone? Just don't offer him a contract.
That's a million maybes but the facts are a little different.'"
What WADA were going to do was give him a maximum of a two year ban. So he'd have been available toward the end of Feb / early March 2019 so hardly a big deal compared to September if the club had decided to go for him.
Sam was told the option of his contract was not being taken up at the start of the season (he says so in his two part Wigan Today interview). That being so Wigan were either confident they could secure an equally good or better replacement or thought he'd just fall into line when they eventually offered him a deal.
If you want to dismiss any conspiracy theories about the reason behind the decision not to take up the option for Sam was Hardaker joining Wigan, then you have to accept Wigan dropped the ball with Sam. They clearly told him the option wasn't being taken up at the start of the season but also clearly didn't offer him a four year deal [iat that time[/i, the evidence for this being Radlinski saying Les Cats got in first. Now I know they made an illegal approach but if Wigan wanted him to stay the four year offer should have been on the table at the start of the season the minute they declined the option and before Les Cats got a whiff and before Sam new anything of it. The fact it wasn't makes it look like an afterthought.
Personally I don't believe the decision to sign a player with Hardaker's background will have been taken lightly or simply as a reaction to Sam leaving. You don't decide a player with his record is worth a risk in what amounts to a matter of weeks just because a current player didn't take up a contract offer. I'd certainly hope Wigan would not rush in just because Sam decided he was off. So on balance when you you look at the timeline of what happened it really isn't beyond the realms of possibility what we see is the fruition of a series of conscious decisions made by the club.
