Jonathan Thurston new contract - 1,000,000 AUS dollars on top of that James Tamou + Matt Scott arguably the best props at the time of renewal. Robert Lui is due a new contract and Bret Tate.

cowboys are not going to say a cult hero for them got pushed out by the salary cap are they? how stupid and disloyal would they look to their fans? not the first time a news paper has report a white lie and wont be the last.

But you keep believing it due to he's knackered knees after he's just had the best season for the last 3 years.

sooner or later you will fess up and say lenegan and wane signed the best possible option for fullback

I think that you are intelligent enough to know what the question was getting at. However, if I'm wrong, I'll spell it out for you - the full back options that are available in this country are of Mathers (of five years ago) like quality. Another example might be Greg Eden. Perhaps you might like to suggest who Wigan should have signed. I for one am happy that we've signed Bowen and look forward to seeing him play.

Jeez some people are easily pleased.

Let's just pause for a moment.

How much money has come in over the last couple of years or so in terms of Transfers?

How much has been spent on new players?

Do the happy clappers really believe this is acceptable for Wigan RLFC?

are you now complaining about the standard of the team? or the amount of money or lack of on transfers? who do you suggest we buy? personally i wouldn't mind ben crooks and adam loughton but they would be overpriced and then i would moan at the money we have spent for them.

I am a big Bowen fan and delighted with the signing but that is not the case. 2012 he was 2nd in the Dally M awards. Last year he struggled until he had his operation but had a good last 2 months of the season, to prove he will still be plenty good enough for Superleague if we manage him sensibly like Wire have done with Hodgson

i might be getting my years mixed up but i thought brett stewart was a amazing in 2012.

let's go back and have a team like we did from 2003-2009..........

some people will moan about ANYTHING

Up until this season I reckon about 250k?
Money spent around 200/250k?

Money in this year I would guess 3/4qtrs million?
Money spent out of that - We'll see.

Your point is?
I'm guessing it will be something like "Splash the cash" and go and sign "X" amount of Big name stars Mr Leneghan?

For god's sake, what's the point of your post?
It's added nothing to the debate, why don't you say nothing if you can't say something positive?
It's posts like these that really wind me up!

splashing the cash is not always the best solution........we did that for Trent Barrett and what did we win with him at the club

I suppose what would be acceptable for Wigan RLFC would be to win the Challenge Cup and Super League GF.

I would have thought that results on the pitch during IL's tenure make your arguements look pretty lame. We can all say would would have done this or that, but are you really suggesting that spending money on transfers is the way to win Super League. Not how Leeds have been doing it is it?

I do wonder how some people on this site cope when something happens despite their best efforts that was out of their control.

Fingers in both ears chanting 'la la la la' springs to mind. . . .

I for one am pleased they aren't in charge if running my team. I imagine billy Boston, Shaun Edwards, Greg and Hanley would still be being forced onto the field. . . .

Still no word from the "critics of IL" who he [ushould have signed instead of Bowen[/u.

The silence is deafening.

I would have thought from all of the accumulated wisdom out there (I mean you all know better than IL how to run a club, better than SW how to coach and select a team and better than the Doc how to run a medical) that someone could have enlightened us "happy clappers"...

we should have made Sam honour his contract

I see your point, but to ask whether it's acceptable for Wigan seems (to me) to betray a pre-SC Lindsay mentality.

Personally what acceptable for me as paying fan of Wigan RLFC is that we are either winning trophies or challenging for trophies. We're not doing too badly on that front at the moment, surely the fact we've been to Wembley and are 80min away from the Grand Final is more important than how many new players have joined the squad.

It is ......but then imagine how good we could be if we had spent the money on players IN ADDITION to what we have now.

Sam has achieved everything he can with Wigan over 5 seasons. It's not like he's buggering off after one or two years is it? Why shouldn't he play in a higher standard and earn more money?

It is unrealistic for fans to expect players to stay with one club all their lives. For them it is a career. The contract suited both parties as Wigan have been able to get a world record fee. If a good enouh player comes available maybe they'll buy him - if not, continue to invest in youth that is the envy of the Rugby League world.

Maybe you can come up with similar situations when the club held a player to their contract. Sam is a once in a generation player. The closest I can think of is Jason Robinson. I suppose you think that he should have been told to stay?

Maybe so...but back in the real world. Who should IL have signed over Bowen?

why keep a player who does not want to play for us.look at his input over the last few months,next to nothing and don't bring up the last minute try in the cup final,it was won a long time before that.he as been carrying an injury or just can't be d,the latter is my guess.

Possibly about to go bust and having to sell our ground to Tesco - if we had one

Unbelievable!!!

Did you not go to Huddersfield then? He caught everything, tackled everything and put Josh's second try on a plate with a brilliant cut-out pass.

in ref to others posters who say this hence the rather sarcastic

I'm a happy clapper and proud of it.

If your not happy with signing one of the best fb in the world call 08457 90 90 90
and they would be happy to listen to your problems.

I think it is the word marquee is the problem with the usual miserable gits. If it was Billy Slater it would be Hall knackered his shoulder, Baba his head is not right, Inglis is a centre not a full back.

This is a separate thread. My gripe with the Matt Bowen signing is the use of the word 'marquee'

Is that easy enough to understand?

Please keep up dear Crunchie.

The only person who had a tantrum yesterday was you because I questioned your beloved Mr Lenegan.

You would be right if it wasn't such a well known thing that his knees are dodgy.

A high profile name this is, a marquee signing it isn't. Trent Barrett was a marquee signing, a great player in his prime.

It comes across like the club hyped this signing up just because of the Tomkins departure hoping fans would see it as a master stroke that they had managed to fight off the whole RL world to get Matt Bowens signature.