I remember reading an article a few years back interviewing Dean Bell in which the policy at the club was to focus on home grown talent. I don’t think having all Wigan grown talent in the team is realistic but certainly British talent could be the way forward. Imagine 1-17 british players? or even with three overseas players. Brian Foley must be gutted seeing all his hard work and youth development slip away from the club; we don’t need reminding how many former Wigan players are gracing SL today, just look at Huddersfield Giants. The impact during the game on Saturday from some of the youngsters could be seen by all.

Which youngsters should we have kept?

I appreciate the sentiment, but isn't this crying over spilled milk?

The people who released all those youngsters have now left. Noble has been criticised for not promoting youth sufficiently - rightly most of the time - but things seem to have changed recently. All of a sudden there is an entire 'accelerate squad' lining up for first team opportunities, several of whom have at least equal promise, if not more, to the likes of Aspinwall, Briscoe, Robinson, etc.

Personally, I feel we should dwell on the positives, of which there are several this week, rather than agonise over things that happened a couple of years ago.

We should have kept hold of Sean Long, Briscoe, Wild, Robinson, Brown, McDermott, Bobbie Goulding, Aspinwall, Danny Ellison, Ricky Bibey, Paul Johnson, Lee Gilmour, Phil Jones, Simon Houghton, Dave Allen, Mark Smith, Neil Budworth, Chris Melling, John Clarke.

Anymore I've missed?

Aspinwall, Briscoe, Robinson, Wild..........

Apinwall - decent player but nothing special
Briscoe - Was never going to get a game while Radlinski was fit, so moved on.
Robinson - Personal issues
Wild - Probably should have kept.

1 out of 4

I can see it Now!

That Robinson/Long is stopping Tomkins Progressing!
That Aspinwall is crap he's stopping Goulding/Ainscough coming through!
Why we perservering with Budworth/Clarke he'll never be as good as McCollorum and he can't get a game!
Haughton/Johnson/Gilmour are all stopping J Tomkins/Hansen/Mossop etc coming through!

Give it a rest will You (Not You Mini the ones who keep startin these threads!) it's getting boring!

Wigan produce 5-10 Youngsters every Couple of years that are of SL Standard.
They Can't keep them all, Some go on to other clubs and do better some go on and you never hear of them again.
The club will make some mistakes and others they will get right!

If other clubs Like Saints (Sorry to pick on them again but they are the ones we have rammed down our throats every day as a good example) produced half as many players as Wigan did then they would have exactly the same problem and doubtless would make as many mistakes as we are perceived (And that isn't neccessarily the truth!) to have made!

I remember seeing a couple of years ago a table that showed number sof players produced for SL split into Service areas I think???

Wigan prodcued more SL players than anywhere else, we are going to have to make more decisions than most other clubs - I bet they wish they had the chance to make them instead of relying on Wigan's cast offs!

Well said.

Seconded. These threads are like groundhog day at the moment and prove or dis-prove absolutely nothing. We've got a squad now of close to 25 experienced SL players and people are bemoaning the loss of Martin Aspinwall? Move on.