Yes exactly. I made this point recently on another thread. Their recruitment has been excellent for the last 5 years. Not that many duffers in this list which have won 1 or more GFs.

2019 - French
2021 - Field
2022 - Miski
2022 - Ellis
2022 - Mago
2023 - Wardle
2023 - Dupree
2023 - King (loan)
2024 - Keighran
2024 - Thompson
2024 - Leeming

Then you think in the same period we have signed the likes of the following, none of which you could call a success.

2019 - Tasi
2019 - Akauola
2019 - Mamo
2019 - Matt Davies
2019 - Jason Clark
2020 - Gelling
2020 - Brand
2020 - Kibula
2021 - Inglis
2022 - Dudson
2022 - Matautia
2022 - Bullock
2022 - Holmes
2022 - Minikin
2022 - Magoulias
2022 - Mikaele
2023 - McGuire
2023 - Russell
2023 - Kasiano
2024 - Musgrove
2024 - Dwyer
2024 - Bruines

There are a lot of "misses" there but, to be fair, we have made some great signings in Ashton, Dufty, Vaughan, Walker, Williams, Nicholson, Fitzgibbon.

I get your point but you could have picked some better Wire recruits than that so it didn't look quite so bad & I'm sure Wigan must have signed the odd duffer. For example in 2019 Wigan recruited Bullock, Hardaker & Sammut.
French & Field are the two diamonds that I was thinking of.

I listed Ashton, Dufty, Vaughan, Walker, Williams, Nicholson, Fitzgibbon. Who else, signed in the last 5 years, would you add to that list? Have I missed a diamond? Maybe Harrison.

I guess my general point is that our recruitment has been pretty average at best for a while and I missed off Widdop and Luther Burrell. Former was past it, the latter never had it.

You missed our greatest ever signing Roy Asotasi or was it to painful to mention

Ha Ha i just looked at the last 5 years. If we widen it to 10 years big Roy will be on the list alongside a lot of other turkey signings.

I think we need to face facts - our recruitment has not been great.

Yep we have bought some duffers who haven't lasted long. Good idea to look at other clubs' recruitment too. We obviously remember Wire failures but I bet if you looked at Leeds, Hull, Huddersfield & others you'd see a few clangers too.

I didn't pick up these names on original list.

Without a doubt but other clubs could cover it up better than us because we had that buying a win tag on us and everyone including the other clubs fans would pick up on it. That tag was with us for a long time but I like to think that’s going to be in the past now.

Agent: Don’t worry Roy I know a club that will take you and pay you what you want.