Playing the WCC in Oz could have backfired in so many ways...

Have you not stumbled across the internet and international communication yet? Players and agents will be looking for opportunities all the time!!! It will be happening now!!!

I spotted Mario Gotze, I sent an email to Manchester United and they told me to jog on, the same with Lionel Messi.

Everyones an expert in hindsight, all you have to do is recommend Wigan youngsters and your on to a winner. It's probably just a way of trying to get some work form Koukash if he's daft enough.

I'm not sure what's worse, all this speculation or the fact Charnley himself has just posted a Justin Bieber song on Instagram? My word!

Our track record in dealing with these type of issues speak for their self more recently Gleeson,Longy and Carroll i know them 3 was different issues but they all got dealt with the same way

It was only 4-5 years ago Josh was loaned out but when he comeback he was brilliant it seems to me the enthusiasm isn't there anymore when players get like this i'm more than happy to show them the door when we have players like Burgess and Manfredi there yes i know they aren't quite there but they want to play in the top it means something to them

This has been going on for years and will for years to come the amount of talent we have in Wigan grass routs is unreal

Please can people stop with this constant wanting to replace every player we have with someone from our academy!

It's great having an excellent set of young guns waiting in the wings but they need to be drip fed into the side. We also need to make sure we supplement these guys with quality players who have come via different systems as well.

Replacing a full international, top try scorer and arguably the 2nd best winger in the comp with a novice from the academy isn't good for anyone.

There has to come a time when if we lose enough top guys like Sam, HH, Mossop, Charnely, Pat etc that we need to go out and sign a like for like player of equal quality.

loan him to rovers for a month again, he will beg wane to bring him back

I imagine a tearful reunion and please dont send me there again ill be good i promise

ala Joel Tomkins to Widnes

A report in this evenings Manchester Evening News says that Josh is on the England RU wanted list, but Wigan insist the Winger is staying put.
An approach for Josh is on the cards according to sources close to Twickenham, also identified as other potential targets are Danny Brough and Ryan Hall.

This

Jinkin Jimmy is it really you ?My hero .



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nailed on for hull kr who seem to believe its a certainty viewtopic.php?f=59&t=565643&tsmp=1394047208 https://twitter.com/hkrhfcbanter

nailed on for hull kr who seem to believe its a certainty viewtopic.php?f=59&t=565643&tsmp=1394047208 https://twitter.com/hkrhfcbanter

Not read anything before the last two pages so my apologies if it's already been posted but I was told today that Charnley and his agent talking to Union clubs.

I think Wane will be fired if this is true

So ... to punish us, he's doing what he was doing to get dropped in the first place?

Would not suprise me as James Grant website said "identifying players with the potential to switch to rugby union."

Is Charnley likely to play this weekend? Does anyone know. Debating whether to keep him in my dream team or not haha.

I'm finally getting to the stage where I'm so fed up with players and their agents using Wigan Warriors as the springboard for a well paid easy life in RU (whilst at the same time pretending they are athletes), or for a quick NRL payday, after which they will then take the early retirement package in RU with indecent haste (good luck with Sam T, you NZW fans - you may need it!), that I'd rather sacrifice the transfer fee and see them rot on the reserve bench for their entirety of their contracts.

It may sound peevish, but we are not just any old RL club and I personally am sick of seeing us regarded as a soft touch. It may be that we have brought this on ourselves through our traditional gentlemanly approach of allowing players to move on if they wish to, but is it so unreasonable of us to expect gentlemanly conduct in return (in other words, the players perhaps fulfilling their Wigan obligations first)?

The salary cap is not going to change any time soon, so we've no choice IMO but to adopt our own, much tougher approach. We produce more real talent than all the English RU clubs put together, and more than most of SL, and yet never seem to get the full benefit of this. It's high time we sent the message out that we are not going to produce an RU World Cup winning side for Andy Farrell and his wealthy but equally clueless chums down at Twickenham without a big fight - so big that the players themselves will become casualties.

And if this is what's happening with Josh Charnley, it's excellent news. He would be a very, very good place to start.

good post

Agree with this, but can't help wonder why we are suffering in this respect more than other clubs such as Leeds. If RU are looking at Charnley, surely they must have looked at Ryan Hall? Either the attitude from the club makes us an easy target because we are too nice or sustain links with old boys like Farrell or the chairman has a reputation in player/agent circles as being very pragmatic when it comes to early release from contracts. Or this is a culture at the club that is coming from players and their agents because we're unlucky enough to have our players managed/advised by certain agents with strong links to RU.

Whatever the cause, it's bloody annoying.

The disadvantages of this in RL compared to football are the salary cap, Charnley sits in the reserve grade for 5 years eating up a chunk of your salary cap that would be more beneficial on the younger harder working players, I agree with your sentiment but any player on a good contract can make the salary cap work for him as a bargaining tool in more way than one.
Maybe a more workable scenario is tell union 'yes he's available for a fee' then make it a ridiculous number minimum 6 figures, the option is there and yyou're playing hardball. It also means the player can't accuse you of not allowing him to go, you can then turn round and say 'if someone meets the fee we'll let you go'.

Without the salary cap I think I could get behind what you said.

Very well said!

I think there's probably a bit of everything you say.

Certainly the links with the likes of Farrell must be cut. One-time favoured son maybe, but he quite evidently takes the view now that RU must benefit at our expense, and for that reason should no longer be allowed into our inner circle.

IL is clearly very pragmatic, but for an outfit like the ERU, who seem hell-bent on buying themselves a World Cup winning team with money no object, that just look likes a weakness they can exploit.

I suspect a lot of the agents have feet in both camps. I don't think there's anything we can do about that, except refuse to talk to them until their players' contracts are nearly over. Or, as Wire Yed says, agree to a transfer but ask a telephone number for the fee. That could work too.

I too am frustrated by Leeds's near inviolability in this regard, but there is a new rumour that Hall is now being strongly tapped up as well. If you remember, we used to say this about St Helens - that RU never seemed interested in their star players, only ours. But in the end, they lost Eastmond who had superstar written all over him, and Graham went off to the NRL, from where he will never likely return until he's a veteran, while Cunningham only stayed by taking extra wages from Club Great Britain (for whom he virtually never played - which made his loyalty very costly).

I suspect Leeds will also lose out at some point. That's not something I want to see, but maybe, if it looks as though the RU are genuinely after everyone we've got who's any good - not just Wiganers - it might create some kind of fightback.

That only works if all top clubs adopt the same approach. Otherwise any player with NRL aspirations will choose Leeds, Wire or Saints over us in the meantime. Instead of having Tomkins, Charnley etc for 5 years or so we may end up getting them for 2 or not at all

Do you not think that's a small problem compared with the rate we are losing players over the last few years? Really it amounts to saying if you sign for Wigan, you're expected to see out your contract - if a player can't live with that when he signs, I'd rather see him at another club.