It's the downside of success. All those players who've won Grand Final's and Challenge Cup then cost more on their next contract because they're in higher demand from other clubs. It's why Leeds implement a strict pay structure dependent on such things like England call ups etc.
Personally I think your biggest recruitment issue has been the halves. Alleviated somewhat by the style of play but it's still a problem that you haven't had settled halves for a while. Plus you need another leader in your team. As much as Sinfield is "the leader" at Leeds and we miss him when he's not there, we then have Peacock, or McGuire, or Burrow to at least partially fill the leadership role.

In my opinion you need to get Matty Smith tied down to a long term contract and either sign another on long term deal or put your faith in a youngster and say you're going to be our halves for the next 4/5 years. Then an astute signing of a forward with leadership qualities and you'll be fine.

I don't see how - I wouldn't trade McIlorum for anyone in Super League.

We have problems in the Props and in the Halves (and at FB as Bowen is awful).

I wouldn't say hooker is the problem either. Wigan play a way that doesn't require the hooker to create havoc out of dummy half, McIlorum's role is to set the tone in defence and he does that brilliantly. I wouldn't swap him either. People are way overreacting with this start to the season. Let's see how we're doing in August/September and if people are still pointing out that Wigan are struggling in the halves, hooker, centre and props (I've seen them all suggested this week).

For me you can look no further than our pack. It's pi$$ poor compared to Warrington/Saints. Lack of recruitment there is having a major impact on they way we play under SW which is to bully teams from the front and kill them for speed on the outside.

I'd also send Gelling packing, I really really don't know what Wane see's in him, he's garbage and comes up with 3/4 errors every game! He should be nowhere near that Wigan shirt.

If Thornley ever gets fit then I would move Sarginson to full back.

Gelling is 3rd in the league for carries and 4th for metres made, all despite not playing full back or wing where you get easy metres with kick returns. He also gets either a try or an assist per game and seldom gives away penalties. His errors are a big problem but take them away and he would be the best centre in the league IMO. Plus he made 0 errors last night for a change

For me Gelling says a lot about the declining quality of Super League. I don't think he's got the intelligence to be a top centre. He's unpredictable. I'm not saying all centres should be predictable, I mean it in the sense that his winger will never know what to expect or whether he'll get the right pass or not. The best centres will create space and give their winger the right pass time and time again, whether it's a straightforward pass, a flick pass, a pass out the back door. It doesn't matter - their winger will know that it's going where they want it. I don't think Gelling is that good and I don't think he'll ever reach that level of consistency.
Gelling's work rate is impressive though and it's obviously very valuable to the team. In some ways he offers something that you wouldn't really consider essential to the role he's playing. You would generally never sign a centre purely because he can make 200 metres in a game when on form, but you'd also think long and hard before taking a player who can make those kind of metres out of the team, no matter what position they play.

I don't think Gelling is an intelligent player. There doesn't seem to be much thought process in what he does, or perhaps he's just playing on instinct. Last night he took the ball from dummy half and launched a kick on the last tackle. That's either incredible stupidity that had a surprisingly positive outcome, or he's actually a quality kicker and intended that to happen and it's just been kept a secret.

Despite all the negatives, I'd still agree that he's one of the better centres in Super League, but I don't think there are many top quality centres in Super League at the moment. He does have good qualities on top of his work rate. His handling skills are good (when he keeps hold of the ball) and he's got good footwork so he can make good ground and be difficult to bring down. His height also offers another target for kicking. I also wouldn't swap Gelling for Turner, Jones or Percival at Saints and they are currently the top dogs.

In short, I haven't a clue what Gelling is or is supposed to be, but having him in the side is both great and terrible at the same time.

Just watching the Sarge interview on Wigan TV.

Taking away their chef? sounds a bit Mean Machine...

Gelling has actually got quite a good short kicking game - he's always trying to put Charnley through with it.

Anyone questioning Gelling's centre potential, watch Charnley's last second try vs Hull KR away last year. It was classic centre play that if Sarginson or Carmont had done, people would be talking about it for years.

He's the scapegoat where I sit - has to pull off a miracle pass to get any semblance of praise.

You can put a suit on a donkey but it's still a donkey.
Sorry about the analogy but people accepting that Gelling is a quality centre is part of the reason for the current situation. We have let our standards slip full stop.

Also while mentioning Carmont... he played for NZ Warriors in the NSW cup this morning... aged 37. Scored a try as well.

Class is permanent!

In the last three months of last season Gelling played as well as I've seen any centre play for Wigan for a long time. He was scoring try's, setting them up, eating up metres and defending well. Fast forward to this year and he's the old accident prone Gelling again. The one that frustrates the life out of you because you can see there's massive potential there. It's even more frustrating now because of that form at the end of last year.

I can fully understand why Wane would keep playing him and why many fans back him. He has a X factor that can make differences in games. At the minute he's doing us as much harm as good but there's a sense of anticipation that the penny may drop.

+1

I normally agree with vast majority of your opinions NK but on this one we will have to disagree.
I'm not anti Gelling just don't rate him at all as a centre. Would like to see him given a go in the second row though

He'll always divide opinion due to that wild inconsistency he shows. It's a shame Thornley is injured at the moment because Gelling's position looks safe and that's never a good thing.

For me, Gelling is a big lad and a real physical handful. Put him in a decent position with some good ball and he'll cause trouble, but being a quality centre is a fine art, one that plenty of supposed good players (including Gelling) fall short at.

its not uncommon. When he played against you the other week, I saw England centre Leroy Cudjoe make a complete hash of putting his winger away when they were 2 on one with your full back. Ryan Atkins is another one who should be a wonderful centre, but will make a complete balls up of any situation requiring a bit of silk. Then there's the positional defence which throws plenty of athletic based centres.

In the past 10/20 years you can count on one hand the amount of real quality British centres that have emerged. Gleeson, Senior, Newlove, Connolly...

It seems to be a real problem for us to produce them. In Australia they seem to have enough for half a dozen teams.

Kallum Watkins

I've not seen much of him this year but certainly in last years internationals he was England's second best centre.

After Sarge?

He was. However overall he's proven to be a better SL centre over his career.

Watkins is the most frustrating English player IMO. He can be world class for a couple of months but then seems to go right in to his shell and has long spells of doing not much.

Players don't really leave Leeds (it's all about the love of course) but if any player should go to the NRL and learn to become more consistent it's him.