Legal advice shouldn't take that long!

Seriously, we can't ship him off to Oz, we've just outed him as a bigger prick than before and we've loaned one of his few remaining prime years (although injury impaired) to Widnes. The only possible place for him to go next year is Leeds...

At a massive knock-down price.

Absolutely.

The reason it was so detailed was in my opinion because IL felt he had to (or wanted to) justify losing Hock to the fans. IL knows we all know who has left our squad recently and he knows Hock is a bit of a fans favourite as well as being a current International. You can't just let such a player leave with a one line press announcement so this long statement is the result and is an effort to explain it all to the fans.

What this saga also shows once and for all is contracts are not, as we are often, told worthless. Hock has tried to leave Wigan even trying to engineer the sack to do so but Wigan were having none of it. All what Wigan have been able to do here is because Hock has a contract with Wigan.

I did try and tell you all in another thread but was shot down for knowing.

I could explain the whole thing in finite detail to you but i will leave it for now.

The issue is Definately with Mr Hock and not the Wigan club, who have as stated given him 2 large pay rises recently on the threat of him leaving for another local Super League club.

Its definately nothing to do with anything recreational as some may think but purely down to Mr Hock wanting to leave badly enough, starting with him losing his shirt, not being released and not turning up for Pre-season thus leading to a bust up with Wane.

Wigan have known since late December he wouldnt play for them again.

The silver lining??? one or two of the current squad who are rumoured to be leaving this year may just be anouncing contract extensions in the near future after Wigan have just released some salary cap!!

watch this space!

[uJohnny Headline[/u-Bringing you the truth, the hole truth an nothing but the truth!!!!!!

Are you serious?

You've seen what's been said, he wanted to go, Wigan were trying to arrange the move, it fell through.
The Oz club came back with a bigger offer, Wigan were interested, Gaz Hock wasn't.

Xmas comes and goes and he doesnt report back for training/rehab and his Agent & he decide to tell Wigan club they don't want to play for Wigan again.
2/3 weeks to sort out move to Widnes, job done, statement made!

What do you suggest? Should he be Tweeting the ongoing personal disucssions?
Blogging it? Maybe set up a Faecebook page were we can invite Friends etc to join in?

FFS - It's a legal matter between club & player and discussions cannot be held through the media and certainly updates given to the public in the media.

From what I know good on IL for dealing with the issue in the manner he has, it potentially would have been easier to try once again to accomodate him and where would that have left team Morale,standards at the club etc?

No-one at Wigan would want a fully focussed and behaving Gaz Hock at the club and you can bet your life that IL wouldn't want to lose him.
But sometimes it just gets to a situation where enough is enough and to me that time has passed.

It seems pretty clear from IL's statement that Gareth Hock will not be going to any of the clubs perceived to be among our main rivals.

I would say that's about as close to the truth as anyone needs to get and come to the same conclusion that IL did!
PS
Lets hope that the contract extensions with certain individuals goes well as for me those players will be worth far more to Wigan over the next 3 years on/off the field.

Just glad that everything's out in the open now and we can move on. He's an exceptional talent but he lacks class and brains which as been highlighted here. The club and the fans couldn't have done anymore for him over the years and in truth he's never really given anything back. He's shown glimpses of his ability and he looked to be adding some consistency but he's always been a ticking timebomb.

Cold hard facts from Hocks time in Wigans first team is ZERO major trophies in his 7 or so seasons. The only time we've won major honours since he made his debut was whilst he was banned. We won a grand final without him and a challenge cup without him (although his ban had ended) so there's certainly no doom and gloom from me.

I just hope 'all' the players are on the clubs side here.

In the RED corner



And in the Blue corner



Opinions and conjecture.

Love it.

It will be extremely interesting to see how he performs at another club.
He undoubtably has talent and the physical presence, but so much of his game was based around his agressive mental attitude that will have come down to attaining this attitude at a much higher level due to the fact he was playing for his home town club.
He was obviously very proud to play for Wigan and had the attitude to match his ability.

Will he be able to generate that attitude for another club? from his performances in the end of season internationals I would say that is a question that may not be answered in his favour.

If he cannot generate that attitude (and playing against Saints or Wigan(I know he cant) I have no doubt that he will be able to do so) on a consistent basis his career will go even further down the toilet.

He clearly spat his dummy out under madge (as mentioned in the statement) and was accomodated.

Yet some of the ire on here for SW persists. Hope it was Waney himself who told Hock to "f-off to Widnes"

My only frustration, and reading back i seem to have voiced it in different/imaginative/absurd ways, is that we are 10 days from the start of the season and it's a kick in the teeth. Not the clubs fault at all. Just a kick in the teeth. We all guessed this was the case.

Hahaha i get it now.

its a wiganwarriorsfans rumour, probably from the all knowing CP and his loyal followers believe it word by word.

I think an even bigger question is will another club be able to control him? Wigan went far beyond the call of duty in their efforts to keep Hock on the straight and narrow.

Well finally the off season has given everyone something to talk about!

Bad timing for the club, but if what has been released is true:

Goodbye Gareth, and good riddance!

No one person is bigger than the club, so there was only ever going to be one outcome. (assuming the demands reported by the club are correct)

Hock Talented? Yes.
Loose Cannon? Yes.
Bad influence?. Yes (probably)
Grey Matter proficient? No.

We're better off without him, and with that monkey off our backs it's time for the rest of the squad to knuckle down, without distraction, and focus on the task ahead.

Were is that ? Not a clue who they are

And what wiganwarriorsfans rumour is that?

I hope the squad does knuckle down and not dwell on this especially the forwards. One mans loss could be another mans gain here and people like Faz have a huge opportunity to make a statement of intent. Boys like Greg Burke and Rhodri Lloyd also have the opportunity of a lifetime here. They need to go out and grab it by the horns because if they do this whole situation could have played a massive and positive part in their careers.

Just had a look at it. It's the usual suspects giving it the "I know something but can't possibly say" routine.

that its all wigans fault most likely

Before I go on let me say based on the press release Hock doesn't have a leg to stand on.

However there are always two sides to every story and a carefully worded statement to the press from one side won't give it.

He refused to train. Why? He wanted a pay rise? Was he on a pittance before? And so on. Basically were all his demands unreasonable based on the circumstances at the time? We have been told what his demands were but not why he made them.

I mean if IL was able to say "Hock was the highest paid player a the club but demanded a pay rise" then that would sound unreasonable but he could not say that. If on the other hand he was on an absolute pittance using the fact he asked for a pay rise against him in a press release is a bit naughty - even if it is if very astute.

In short the demands all look unreasonable if you assume everything was hunky-dory before he made them.

On balance I think the club is probably in the right but the hatchet job it has done on Hock is a good'un.

One mans Pittance could be another mans fortune?
I'd happily swap his wages for mine!

Go and have a read. The thread is much the same as this one with most now turning on Hock and calling him all the names under the sun, from the safety of a keyboard of course, a few with a more reasoned approach to it all and one or two who say it's not really Hock's fault.

One interesting twist on there is that if Hock or CPWigan tells anyone what happened, it'll put their life in danger.

Some of it has been edited by mods but it's pretty much the same as what 'Last Son of Wigan' has been saying.

While we're talking ifs, buts and maybes ... IF this is true, perhaps he was on less than we'd expect as part of his parole after the drugs episode. In which case, it's still Gareth who's the naughty boy for not being able to take his punishment. Of course, it's still a big IF.

The way the squad seems to have diminished in talent from last season it might not take to long for most S/L teams to be considered as our main rivals.

Just to add. I've heard a 3rd party mentioned in the rumours leading up to this and if it is true then Hock could well do with being a little further away than Widnes. It's also related to the same rumours involving Gleeson and I think Tickle at the time of his departure.