I am unhappy to see Joel leaving our game to go to Union but am hoping the same does not happen to Sam.
I think back to the start of the season just gone when Kyle Eastmond decided to move on from the Saints. Their fans made their feelings known and in a way i did agree with them, once he had signed the contract let him go straight away. I just hope Sam does not drop a bombshell at the start of next season, disrupting our season and our fans acting the same way the Saints fans did.

I'll give my opinion when it is official.

It would not surprise me if Wigan knew all about these threats to take the brothers away so them signing 5 year contracts made sense and give us a potential transfer fee if it ever did happen. And believe me Young Warrior Joel has played his last game for us. Am just hoping Sam decides to stay, not just for us but also our sport that needs class players such as Sam.

I'm not saying he is definitely staying, however I will wait for officail confirmation.

Out of interest - what would be more damaging to RL. Losing young talent to a game willing to pay more money or allowing a team to keep hold of their best players and go over the salary cap.

False dichotomy.

Fixed, low, flat cap (pardon the pun) is a crude instrument that does at least as much harm as good. No club should be banned from spending *what it can afford* provided it is not allowed to scoop up talent and leave it sitting in the reserves (ie. you need tight squad limits). The cap (or rather a more intelligent version of it) should have no other purpose.

We are a game that is holding back the bigger clubs for the benefit of the smaller ones. The smaller clubs will never catch up even with capping the salary. We have narrow minded buffoons running our game who won't listen to the fans. Until that changes, we will continue to decline and lose our best talent.

Lets be realistic.
Wigan have been losing money for years. Last year we made a profit & will do so this year. How do we claw back all that money we have lost?

Keep losing money and we end up like Leigh.

We, as a game can't pay money we don't have.

However, the salary cap discourages investors. Would you put money into a business that doesn't give you a return? Somehow there has to be a sensible medium.

Big red warrior says that the smaller clubs are holding the bigger clubs back. Saints despite their success have lost money for the last twenty years, £1.3 million last year alone.

Saints have had success in SL era but their crowds are generally poor. To be fair to them their losses this could be down to being at Widnes and the cost of the stadium.
My point is that the clubs who could afford to spend more are prevented from doing so for the benefit of those who can't.