It's an absolute disgrace that he has been allowed to leave at the expense of Toby King on a 1 year deal.

Who is looking after our squad? We have lost James McDonnell, Matty Nicolson, Jack Bibby and Sam Halsall. All future regular first teamers, all quality players. Out of all of them Sam Halsall looked a future England centre, a position us at Wigan have always struggled to produce.

There's not holding on the every player that comes through your academy and there's throwing away your future. If this is because of Bevan French and his cotract I'd have rather lost him and kept all 4.

Let's enjoy the next couple of seasons before fretting about what might be five years down the line, Nicholson is probably the only one who had a short term first team future, probably why Peet was so miffed with him signing for Wire

The fact you've had a "Like" off Saddened just about says it all

I’m not being funny but wow!

Halsall is a lad who clearly had ability but has struggled at first team level at Wigan.

Bibby….cracking prospect good luck to him.

Wardle England level centre.

This is a huge signing for Wigan, I really don’t understand how people do not get that.

Would rather prospects over French….have a word.

To be honest, not surprised (and I've had this feeling for the last 2-3 months).

I like Wardle and I am glad we have signed him but I think we should have retained Sam as well. Time will tell.

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Lets revisit this post in 3 years then eh?

To me Halsall is one of those players who needed to move on,to push on he wasn’t taking the chances albeit not many I’ll grant you.in a way that shouted “I can’t be dropped”,he’s got potential for sure but at the moment that’s all,it is.

I hope King and Wardle can answer the call for Wigan’s pRobles position the centres it’s taken lonenough to sort out.

Except that when you're proved wrong, you just won't mention it again.

Dear Lord, I wish I had a quid for every Wigan fan who claimed the departure of a 50/50 prospect to allow the signing of a genuine star was a disgrace. I also wish I had a quid for every one of those prospects who's gone on to not do very much.

French and Wardle are class acts of a high order. Halsall was okay. Seriously ... wake up and smell the coffee.

Sorry to go against the grain of popular opinion and hyperbole, but he's not saying his problem is with Wardle. Literally the 1st line of the post says:



Now it's a known fact that Hudds wanted King to stay. Watson said so a few weeks back. I can't see why we couldn't just have cleared the way for King to go there and sent them Bibby as part of the deal i.e still one centre and one prop.

On that point, I'm with Post on this. A one year loan deal Vs losing a player who will, imo, be better than King.

You can't help but laugh at certain posters/fans. Ask them 6 months ago their opinions on Halsall Vs King and they'd be completely different to what they are today. What's changed apart from one now plays for Wigan and the other doesn't?

Halsall as yet hasn’t earned the right to be considered a starting centre at Wigan.

He clearly has potential but as yet that is all it is.

Wardle and King are centres that have played at a level fitting of a call up to international rugby league.

We cannot keep chasing rainbows.

We needed 2 first team centres for 23. We now have them.

What happens beyond 23 with King who knows, however if Powell is still at Wire he won’t be going back there.

Our backline is probably the best in the league on paper and more excitingly it has potential to improve.

King is a player who has lost his way a little however he has proven to be able to perform at a higher level than Halsall.

It’s frustrating to lose young lads who do clearly have talent but like I said above we cannot remain in a period of transition constantly waiting for these lads to achieve that potential.

I’m very pleased with the backline for 23 and it has good backup options even without Halsall.

Halsall is going to Giants no doubt on more money but again as a backup player. He may well become a first team player however at the moment he isn’t.

It feels like there may have been a bit of a strategy change here or at least just a re-balancing of the salary spread, to put a bit more cap space in to the first 17 and in turn to maybe not have quite as deep a squad. It’s all well and good carrying 7 or 8 first team ready back up players but you then need an injury crisis to use them all. We’ll still have depth next season and there will be a natural progression now for guys like O’Keefe and Harvie Hill but the balance seems to have been changed a little.

This is the part that surprises me.
Huddersfield have Marsters, Naiquama, Cudjoe and Bibby available for the centre positions, how many games will Halsall get there or will he be pushed out on loan.

I remember when Iain Thornley was a huge loss to international RL.

Wigan will undoubtedly be better served in the short term by the players they have signed than the players they have let go.

Sam Halsall is 21, Wardle only a couple of years older at 23. Its not as if we've replaced him with someone in his early to mid 30s.

Although he's been part of the deal to get Wardle, I think the general feeling is on recent form King hasn't been great so maybe Halsall would have been a better option, and on far less money.

I've been told by 2 people, oen close to Wigan and one very close to Warrington that King was on £150k/£180k and Warrington are paying £30k of that (Whichever of the 150/180 he's on). That's a considerable amount more than what Halsall would have been on.

Obviously the staff see Halsall every day and they obviously didn't fancy him. The writing is on the wall when Isa, Farrell, Bateman, KPP are all being picked at centre ahead of you. When he has played he's not been spectacular and he's also not let anyone down. At 21 years old I would hope he'd have started to nail down that spot though. I do remember the uproar of Hankinson not being played and eventually leaving the club. People were saying then that it's a disgrace and it would come back to haunt us. He's in the Championship with Toulouse.

What's Morgan Escare up to these days?

I think the key issue here is wardle. He clearly wasn’t happy at missing out on the CC and felt he should have played (I don’t agree - he lost the shirt and the player he lost it to did nothing wrong to relinquish it- that to me is how it should be) wardle was given the chance to play on the wing, that would have given him the opportunity to play himself back into the side but he didn’t want to take it and wanted to play at centre. Wardle has a poor injury record, he missed two years of academy rugby as a result of serious knee problems, which caused knock on issues elsewhere and these seem to be a weak spot and he regularly seems to have had shorter lay offs since and that’s why he’s lost his place. It must be terribly frustrating for him as he is an excellent player when he stays fit, but he just couldn’t manage to cement that place. All he needs is an injury free season which seems to have alluded him.
Watson is quite clear to the players he signs what is expected of them in the regard of places and playing for them, and keeping them. Sam will know where he stands and must have accepted that.

That's the crux of the argument and i think it's a solid enough point to be making. It isn't about Wardle, it's about King. We've moved for King, even tho Hudds wanted him and moved on a prospect to Hudds too. Seems a little bizarre.

For me, the backline next year is fairly experienced and we could have either carried Halsall somewhat (something that happens with most young players), or phased him in over the season instead of Thornley. Next year you flip that and Thornley is in his last year and turns into the cover option.

I liked Halsall, but I'd definitely take Wardle/King over him.

Same with Shaun Ainscough. Hell ... same with Mark Cannon. Anyone remember him? We replaced him with Brett Kenny, and quite unbelievably, some people complained about that.

To be fair to Hankinson he’s done well at Tolouse and apparently being looked at by other Superleague clubs. I’d say his stock his higher now than it’s ever been.

If Halsall goes on to ‘make it’ I guarantee he will end up signing for Saints. Better for him to go there from giants than us. His family are huge saints fans. I always felt either way we would have never got the best of him.

One of the most perplexing things about Lam's time at Wigan was his use, or should I say non-use, of Hankinson. At times we had both Isa and Faz at centre and flogged kids half to death in what was already a weak pack. All the while Hankinson was out on loan.

Baffling to say the least.

You are trying to compare apples with oranges and tailoring an example to suit your arguement and the example has no relevance.

The only players I can compare is a ready made Toby King, to an up and coming Sam Halsall.

Halsall on less money, Wigan lad, can be spelled with Thornley, killed it in the reserves this season.

Nothing against King, but losing Sam Halsall in order to get a player on loan for a year does not make sense.

It has been mentioned about not keeping every prospect, we have to let some go. Well we have lost some future first team players in Nicolson, McDonnell, Halsall and Bibby. Add to that Harry Rushton.

I just hope we keep hold of Nsemba and Forber otherwise we may aswell scrap the academy.