NickyKiss wrote:
As much as i've given my backing to Chase I really can't see it coming off and thats because I can't see Ian Lenagan splashing out 250k+ on him and i'm not sure i'd want him to tbh.
Chase is a classy player but the only players i'd back us spending money on would be young English talent (no jokes about Chase) who'll potentially be at the club for 10 years + like Daryl Clark, John Bateman, Larne Patrick, Lee Gaskell etc.
I still can't believe Chase signed that new deal at Castleford tbh. He's a good player that must have trophy winning ambitions and he can never have seriously believed Cas could match those? He really seemed down in the dumps about Cas in his interview on the Sky website but it didn't take a genius to work out that Cas will always be a club thats fighting the odds with little chance of beating them.
I think the potential size of the transfer fee it would require to get Chase is the major stumbling block, especially if Wire have had 300k rejected.
On your other point, I think Patrick, Clarke and Bateman are excellent and probably 3 of the best youngsters in the country but at this stage I don't think we should be paying transfer fees for any of them. Over the past few years our academy has been churning out plenty of SL quality backrowers, front rowers and outside backs. We have enough cover in these positions IMO (even with losing Carmont and Lima) to not worry about bringing players in over the next couple of years. Our problems lie at cover in the halves (as does a lot of SL teams). Due to injuries/form it doesn't look like either Mellor or Powell are going to be ready for regular 1st team rugby at Wigan.
Therefore we are going to have to bring in a replacement for both Finch and Leuluai for 2012 (I don't think Tomkins back to 6 is the answer). Matty Smith is apparently a done deal and is OOC so no transfer fee is required and I can't imagine he'll be on megabucks. For me then it seems we are going to need to spend the majority of what's left on a top class 6. With the NRL salary cap going up the only way we are going to get someone like Soward is to offer him a huge salary, probably the 2nd highest paid at the club behind Sam. We should have a lot of cap to play with, and I think bringing in Smith at 7 with a top class 6 is the only recruitment we will see. The unforseen departure of Lima could also mean a cheapish prop may come in but I think Wane will stick with Crosby, Spencer etc.
