Re: Zak Hardaker : Fri Oct 19, 2018 4:32 pm
ratticusfinch wrote:
Indeed, just pointing out the morally dubious decisions your club continues to make (regardless of who is in charge) - but you win the trophies and we don't!
I understand that Wigan are looking after the welfare of the player and the wider community as they did with Bateman. Joel 'nowhere near as good' Tomkins wasn't afforded such a luxury though strangely enough.
I understand that Wigan are looking after the welfare of the player and the wider community as they did with Bateman. Joel 'nowhere near as good' Tomkins wasn't afforded such a luxury though strangely enough.
Well you've hit the nail on the head about Joel Tomkins not being as good. Morality can be flexed a bit depending on how good the player is. We signed Les Boyd when he was banned in Australia for eye gouging. For a lot of players, that would have made them toxic and nobody would touch them, but when it came to the opportunity to sign one of the Invincibles, morals could be compromised.
Wigan are in a difficult position here. They've taken a big gamble, as did Cas before, on Hardaker and have released Sam Tomkins now so if they tear up Hardaker's contract they have a recruitment problem. Plus, Wigan would fear Hardaker turning up somewhere else and having a storming season and then living with regret.
So how many 'last chance saloons' does Hardaker get? The answer probably depends on how long he can still convince people that he is an elite player. If next season he plays and has Man of Steel standard form again, he can probably get away with doing something else bad and even if Wigan's hand is forced to get rid of him he would have offers coming in from top clubs. The moment he starts to slide, he will begin on the spiral of being passed around the lower ranked clubs, like happened to Gareth Hock.