Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Jan 07, 2016 4:59 pm  

I will hold my hands up and say that I miss the excitement of a big name signing. Nothing better than the excitement of those early pre season games and trying to work out if we'd signed a Barrett or Moran.

Sam Tomkins certainly peaked the interest this season. Next year I'd love to see us make a big cross SL club signing as they are special times as well.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:14 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

I will hold my hands up and say that I miss the excitement of a big name signing. Nothing better than the excitement of those early pre season games and trying to work out if we'd signed a Barrett or Moran.

Sam Tomkins certainly peaked the interest this season. Next year I'd love to see us make a big cross SL club signing as they are special times as well.

I suppose they're not as easy to pull off these days, given that most players who emerge as stars are immediately steered by their agents towards the NRL or RU. Time was when Wigan was the place to go if you wanted to cement your reputation as a top player. Long over, that. But I still feel the club could do a bit more in this department. Sam aside, I'm very unexcited by our recruitment for this coming season.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:22 pm  

And 2006 we proved that we can cheat better then anybody else too..

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:39 pm  

Cruncher wrote:

I suppose they're not as easy to pull off these days, given that most players who emerge as stars are immediately steered by their agents towards the NRL or RU. Time was when Wigan was the place to go if you wanted to cement your reputation as a top player. Long over, that. But I still feel the club could do a bit more in this department. Sam aside, I'm very unexcited by our recruitment for this coming season.

Without a shadow of a doubt - we've got the youngsters and we've got some top draw 'Wigan lads' as well.

It reminds me of Leeds a few seasons back when they had a mixture of established stars and home grown talent, but really cemented it all with the signing of Peacock. He probably came for a pretty penny, but he's delivered on everything and really played a pivotal part in what was their golden era.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Jan 07, 2016 7:44 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

I will hold my hands up and say that I miss the excitement of a big name signing. Nothing better than the excitement of those early pre season games and trying to work out if we'd signed a Barrett or Moran.

Sam Tomkins certainly peaked the interest this season. Next year I'd love to see us make a big cross SL club signing as they are special times as well.

It's hard to see us signing anyone from another top SL club that they want to keep though to be honest, other than when Bradford hit financial difficulties I'm struggling to remember it happening between two top clubs. I suppose some Warrington players might start to become open to a move if they have another bad year. Chris Hill would be nice!

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Jan 07, 2016 8:28 pm  

Grimmy wrote:

It's hard to see us signing anyone from another top SL club that they want to keep though to be honest, other than when Bradford hit financial difficulties I'm struggling to remember it happening between two top clubs. I suppose some Warrington players might start to become open to a move if they have another bad year. Chris Hill would be nice!

It still happens, probably Daryl Clark the last major one - he was Man of Steel at the time! And is still a great player. Money talks at the end of the day.

I'm still gutted we didn't notice Hill's talent when he was at Leigh - he was an GB schoolboy and Leigh captain and they're only 5 miles away!

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Jan 07, 2016 9:29 pm  

Clark to Wire came about as a result of financial issues. Cas were minutes away from going under when Wire stepped in and gave them an advance to ensure they survived ensuring they would sign him a couple of seasons later.

I too miss the days of the big name signing. I personally miss the days of us bringing in a big overseas name. Plenty have been on the market and moved to SL but it rarely seems we go for that type of signing anymore. I understand the stance of going for homegrown and a balance/stability to the squad, but I do feel that bit of extra World Class quality would maybe have seen us pick up a trophy in the last 2 years. Hopefully Sam will have that impact this year.

Hoffman, Lima and Finch was a ridiculous spell of quality signings in 1 go, again born out of a club needing to balance it's financial issue (cap) and a coach with the inside line on them. We may see 1 a year come and go eventually but those 3 in 1 go is something I doubt we will ever see again.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:08 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

Without a shadow of a doubt - we've got the youngsters and we've got some top draw 'Wigan lads' as well.

It reminds me of Leeds a few seasons back when they had a mixture of established stars and home grown talent, but really cemented it all with the signing of Peacock. He probably came for a pretty penny, but he's delivered on everything and really played a pivotal part in what was their golden era.

The problem we've got though is we don't even keep what we've got before even considering signing a player to be our Peacock. We've limited the damage this year but losing Joe Burgess is still damage and losses like him never really happened to Leeds (just Gareth Ellus left when they'd have preferred to keep him).

It sounds like Sarginson will soon be off as will Charnley if they don't reach a resolution in his contract talks. I'm sure lads like Bateman and Williams will go and take their opportunities in the NRL over the next 2-3 years as well.

Until that stops signing a Peacock would hold us together and kick us on because we'll be in a constant rebuilding phase.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Jan 07, 2016 11:22 pm  

Wigg'n wrote:

It still happens, probably Daryl Clark the last major one - he was Man of Steel at the time! And is still a great player. Money talks at the end of the day.

I'm still gutted we didn't notice Hill's talent when he was at Leigh - he was an GB schoolboy and Leigh captain and they're only 5 miles away!

Didn't Cas finish 12th the season before Clark left them? I wouldn't count them as a big club anyway to be honest, I'm talking about the teams who win trophies. Currently Leeds/Saints/Wigan/Warrington, where the vast majority of players you would want to sign are. As I said, Warrington are potentially in danger of falling out of that group and having players heads turned if they aren't in the mix for a trophy this season. I think the salary cap makes it difficult for any top club to offer a good player significantly more than a rival of similar calibre. The only times it happens tends to be when there are financial issues (Fielden, Peacock) or disciplinary/off field problems (Ferres if you count Hudds as a big team)

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri Jan 15, 2016 5:27 pm  

According to Leneghan on Wigan tv we came very close to signing Ferres but he wanted to stay in Yorkshire