We may have had a plan to reduce wage expenses but players of Widdop’s quality don’t become available very often. He’s in the physical prime of his life and in the exact position we need to strengthen most. We need to pull out all the stops and get him in cherry and white.

With players like Johnson and Widdop you speculate to accumulate surely?! As things stand I can’t see season tickets sales going much past last years but with Lam running a backline of Hardaker, Manfredi, Sarginson, Gildart, Burgess, Williams and Widdop/Johnson I’d imagine sales would flood in.

Pipe dream I’m sure but would love for us to be ambitious.

Press conference due at NZ Warriors with speculation suggesting he may leave immediately.

Cronulla according to Moley.

Isa - supply and demand, teams will be more interested in signing him now (a solid second rower who has generally held down a spot in a champion team for years) than when he signed for us (fairly unknown in a rubbish team). I think his market value improved a bit and we paid accordingly.

Ignoring Smith and McIlorum as they're over a season ago, I'm working on the presumption we were at or near the cap last season.

Joel for Greenwood - like for like, Greenwood maybe on slightly more as he's younger and more talented.
Sam for Hardaker - like for like, Sam would earn more but only count for £150k on the cap. I suspect Hardaker isn't far off that cap value.

So basically we have FPN, Bateman and Sutton out - Bullock and Hankinson in (a big difference there I'd assume), but then also improved contracts for Manfredi, Davies, Marshall, Gildart and Isa, which shouldn't be underestimated, particularly given how much Davies and Gildart's stock will have improved (from academy players to knocking on the door of England selection, or achieving it in Gildart's case), Marshall has also gone from academy to being good enough that most SL teams would want him, so his value will have increased a lot.

We must have some to play with if they're talking about bringing in one or two players, but I'd be amazed if we had space for a marquee. Everyone thinks their own team is way under the cap and the rest are leaving brown envelopes. Hope I'm wrong, and do think we should be pursuing him for 2020 when we have a lot more room to manoeuvre.

We offered Hastings 125 a year so only 25 to find the rest would be marquee.... would love to see it... though I stopped believing in Farther Christmas when we signed Moran.

Season ticket sales are higher than at this time last year and have almost reached the overall total in 2018.

Sam accounted for £75k on the cap. Bateman and Greenwood like for like. Not much available.

And they’ll probably surpass last years (as they should) but I doubt it’ll be by much. If the club were to pull out all the stops for a Widdop or Johnson there would be a huge surge in both season ticket sale and match day numbers IMO.

Absolutely.

If the reports are true and Widdop is homesick you would hope the club are all over it. Leuluai and Lockers you think only have 1 year left. We have lost Tomkins and Bateman. Widdop would be a real injection of quality into the side and would be the biggest import (though English) we will have signed since the Melbourne trio. I haven't bought a season ticket however I would definitely consider it with a signing like that.

If we have a marquee spot free (does Hardaker not count as one with Williams?)

We have the marquee spot free by all accounts. It amuses me that Leeds name gets thrown about in that regard. There spots were given to Hurrell and Merrin, so if they pulled Widdop out the bag serious questions would need to be asked.

Widdop now saying he will be going nowhere in 2019.

Looking setting things up for a move in 2020 though.

I now think the likely scinario is Lam on loan for 2019 with Widdop joining in 2020.

I don't. Roosters insisted they wanted the option to recall Lam at any given point. Would cause massive disruption.

...but realistically who else is there at this notice now?

We go with what we have or bring in Lam on the risk he is recalled then how worse off in real terms are we?

Interesting twist in the Johnson saga too, strong rumours he is only available on a 1 year deal as he has signed with the Roosters in 2020 to replace Cronk.

Not exactly what Lam will want to hear.

I saw that regarding Johnson and the Roosters, who ever picks him up can only sign him for 2019, if anything he now becomes more of a target as many clubs could shy away. Currently there was talk of a move to Cronulla who have free space due to Holmes' departure moving Moylan to FB.

Regarding us, don't panic buy. Stick until the right option becomes available. Would we care about Hastings if we signed Widdop? we'd say blessing in disgust. Keep the space free.

Johnson for a year before he signs for the Roosters.

Then Widdop from 2020!


I’m dreaming!!!

Agree about Lam and personally I would be delighted if Widdop was available in 2020 injuries permitting.

They spoke of Lam being back up to Keary and Cronk but the Roosters have also signed Brock Lamb, so he has three players in front of him currently.

I’d say we may as well take our chances with the call back clause if there’s nothing else doing.

Well you can wake up because Johnson has signed a 1 year deal at Cronulla. Does add credence to the rumour that he is heading for the Roosters in 2020 which makes Lachlan Lam's position there a bit iffy.

Got a link? All I can see is rumour.

People do seem to be putting an awful lot of stock in Lam jnr,he's yet to make his senior debut but he seems to be the second coming..I don't know why on earth he's worth a shot,itd take him a good 3 or 4 months to settle down and get used to the weather here again so he's starts playing and ding ding the roosters come a calling for him back its just too much of a risk, its the very essence of a panic buy are Wigan in such dire straits that this would be considered?

Im not so sure and I'll bet that the club go with what's there,Woods and Shorrocks given the chance when and if their time comes.

Would there, though? Did Barba increase Saints' gates by much? I didn't think he did. Not that I wouldn't love to see either at the DW, of course.

It’s really tough to judge Saints attendances last year because crowds across the board were down. Saints were one of a couple of teams to buck the trend and have a 3% increase. That’s really small when simply compared like for like to 2017 but had they not had Barba and the rugby wasn’t as good I guess they’d have felt a pretty big hit from 2017 to 2018, so that 3% increase is probably in addition to staving off a 10%+ drop in crowds (something a few teams felt due to the shambolic league set up and perceived falling standards).

Our average was just over 11,000 last year. I’m confident with the change in league set up and the arrival of Lam we can get that back on an upward curve. Add a star man like Johnson or Widdop and I’m sure it would lead to bigger increases. We haven’t made a headline grabbing signing for a long time and I think there would be an appetite for that. It’s not happening for 2019 anyway so we won’t find out.

We have made an headline grabbing signing, he's called Edwards and I am sure he will increase the crowd numbers. I take your point though an on field signing would be very helpful. We will see an increase in season ticket sales in 2019 compared to 2018 so the club is going in the right direction.

From what I hear season ticket sales are almost identical to last year.