Couple of things:



a) we're not talking about Saints recruiting our young talent; and



b) on tv Sunday morning (Tim Lovejoy general/cooking show) they had on the show an ex-basketball player called Amaechi(sp) who turned down $16m from the LA Lakers to stay for less pay at his current less successful club. He explained for him it wasn't all for money and he felt loyalty towards the club that had given him the chance. Not saying everybody is like this for there are some people (eg bricklayers) who will change employers for the smallest of increments.



You second paragraph exactly indicates what I'm on about. The truth is you will be able to secure your own youngsters for less (eg re-new contracts well before they expire and other clubs come sniffing) than you will be able to buy-in youngsters of an equivalent standard from elsewhere.

That would be the Lee Briers who is SO much trouble he has been at Warrington for over 12 years and has had five (?) different coaches, many of whom saw fit to have him as team captain?



Big old bag of trouble if you ask me.

I thought you had inside knoweldge? How you can possibly comapre Briers to Goulding when it comes to troublemaking is beyond me.

Come on Mark, we all know what he is refering to.



If you wanna keep your head stuck in the sand and ignore it then go for it.



There is no doubt that Briers is a talented rugby player but we all know he aint no saint

But he isn't anywhere near as bad as people like to paint him to be. In fact he is rather aneglic compared to some other high profile players, hence his long career at our club.

I agree with you but the point about loyalty needs to be backed up by the ability to win trophies. Leeds have kept a very good squad together and stay under the salary cap by paying "stars" lower than they would get as the big fish at another club, but the basic unit of lads who have been playing together with their mates for a long time winning trophies, holds together (the odd one slips the net, eg Calderwood). I think this is much easier to achieve when you have a group of players who come through together rather than one shining talent who thinks he can do better elsewhere.



Like you say if you can renew contracts well in advance of their expiry you can save money, this obviously can only happen with your own players as when you are targeting players from other clubs they are 'on the market' and by definition looking for the highest bidder.



Jon Amaechi's from Stockport, he went to my school but was a few years above me, everybody knew him as Big Jon because he was 6ft 11, he played second row for the union team. First British player in the NBA, he used to come back to our school doing talks and basketball sessions. Very principled and intelligent bloke, got a PhD in Psychology, openly gay and left wing politically, he became a controversial personality in the States by being highly critical of US foreign policy, the Yanks didn't like a gay black man talking politics and he got death threats, had all the "if you don't like us, f off home" stuff. In the end he came back and set up a basketball Academy in Moss Side and works with kids in deprived areas. Fantastic guy.

just not very good at basketball.

maybe or maybe not, who knows?



probably only the lad himself.

I wasn't very good at basketball either but the LA Lakers didnt offer me a $17 million contract

You can only dream of having the Tomkin Bro's but it will never happen

Ah well.

You can have fielden though

What a board this is....



After a few moments it has become apparent that Wire are going to take a pivotal player from Leeds, the best young talent at Saints and the best youth coming through at Wigan !



Im not sure who tops the delusional list anymore, yourselves or the Hull KR lot.

We are merely discussing who we would like. Take it as a compliment to your club, nothing else.