True, although a good chunk must go towards upgraded contracts for some of the youngsters. I'd expect McIlorum to be on a much bigger wage this time around, for one.

No, no. You're fine.
You've come with a none-luddite and thought provoking opinion.

Of course, but I would have though that losing four oversees players will leave us in a favourable position on both the cap and the quota regardless of incremental/improved contracts.

If people actually ignored 7 year olds like Spanker etc they'd go away very quickly.

Guilty m'lud...

Stuff like this which brings out the knob element of our(Wire) fans. This is an act of a 7 year old like Andy said. Grow up.

It's a lot of stupidity from both sides but the problem is there are a lot of "new" wire fans coming along that actually direct argument at one person and it's hard to ignore at times because you wanna put these idiots straight. I agree though that year of the wolfs thing should be used only as a joke with wire fans that have a sense of humour.

I've not read through the last 15 pages but could this mean that Tommy is a lot worse off than originally expected? And anyone know what the fee was just out of interest?

Yes - really hope he will play for Wigan again but who knows now.

Makes it sweeter knowing he picked us before you clowns. You know what they say, 'never go back' seems a good phase. Anyway who has heard of Eastmond since he went to Rah-Rah? Nothing. Just shows how good he was

A transfer fee of around £35,000 has been mentioned.

....and the (not always warranted) sterotype of the clueless, pig****-thick knuckle-dragging pie-eater is reinforced again... I guess it's just a phrase you're going through?

Anyone with half a brain would have kept Pryce, Eastmond and Wheeler instead of him 2 years ago (and that fact isn't diminished at all by what has happened to the careers of the 4 of them since). Matty is a decent player, nothing more, nothing less. In the windswept barren wastes of the current British RL talent pool though decent is about as good as it gets, and that makes him a very good signing for you - certainly there's no way you could have gotten anyone any better without spending around 10 times as much cash.

I doubt Saints were seriously interested in bringing him back though as Gaskell has the potential to be a much better player in a year or two (and couldn't play in the same team as Matty for me), Lomax has to play somewhere, Wheeler still has an outside chance of fulfilling his promise and the square peg of Hohaia needs hammering into the round holes of our team somewhere. We frankly just don't have room for him in our current lineup. And the fact that our squad is being loaded up for next year to just smash opposition up the middle without ever bothering with any of that tedious outside passing and backplay stuff makes him even more redundant. Even if we did want him back and put a bid in, your lot needs him a darn sight more than we do and so were always going to outbid us.

Anyway, I reckon he'll look very good and do a decent job in a mostly dominating team, so well done and all that.

In the same paragraph you say this person is pigs**t thick you said its a "phrase" he's going through.

I think you meant phase...

And you did want him back coz you tried to cancel the Salford transfer 2 years ago remember.

There was no transfer. Smith's contract at Saints came to an end in 2010. He was on loan at Salford at the time. We called him back for the playoffs and GF due to being somewhat short-staffed in the halves. He had already signed a deal with Salford by then, which he was free to do as he was off contract.

Neeeeeeeeee...... OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (That's the point whizzing over your head by the way...)







Oh dear me.... You couldn't make it up...

Tell you what: I'll do you a favour. Go back and read his post and my reply again, and bask in the glory of my superior wit and intelligence. It'll be a nice little treat for you. I dare say you don't get many of them





I somehow doubt it - maybe he'dve come in handy as cover until Eastmond took his wallet and sodded off, but there's no way he could have had a place in our first choice lineup plans 2 years ago.

Anyway, ignoring the past (although I know how much you Wiganers love the past

), we could definitely do with him now and next season for me as we're desperately in need of someone who can organise and kick a damn rugby ball, but Gaskell has potentially a much bigger upside to what Smith offers so I'm happy enough to see how he goes over the next season or two instead.

I see what you did

I was quite pleased with it I must admit

Haha my mistake didn't see his error. Well played ha.

Still im sure you tried to buy out the Salford deal at the time but he turned it down because you'd shipped him out on loan all year and he enjoyed it there. Not to mention the fact that you'd picked Eastmond over him even though everyone knew he was off to union even then. Had he done any of the disrespecting fan gestures at that point?

Union was a rumour at that point and other than being injured Eastmond hadn't started his tricks. Smith was recalled from loan basically because he was still a Saints player and we needed him for those games. As mentioned at the time he wouldnt have got into the 17 if everyone was fit so it was best for both parties to part company

The big Saints mistake was letting Smith go and keeping Scott Moore. Smith would have done a far better job and could have covered hooker and half back, similar to what Tommy L did at Wigan.

Have I missed something?

Rumour has it he won't don the cherry and white ever again.

Just rumours mind.

Would be a massive shame if true (if only for us fans to see him leave wearing the shirt one last time and give him a good send off).

He's been an integral part in the change of fortunes for this club!

There's bound to be rumours about Leuluai and they'll stick around until he's back on the field. I think he will come back but you just never know.

All we can do is trust the coaching staff and hope for the best.

funny how this whole notion that 'rugby league is rubbish at the minute' is being peddled by saints fans when their team is in no danger of winning anything. would they still be like this if they were top of the league and in a cc semi?

if their basis for this argument is that our national side is crap, then how is that different than the past 20 years?

their team might be crap but this wigan side would beat any of their sides from the last 5/6 years.