Pushing for the better players regardless of their contract situation isn't a bad thing. Circumstances can arise which creates a situation were the player parts ways with the club not seeing out his contract.

i.e Barrett, Carney, and more recently Gleeson. So it happens.

No one (well at least I) don't expect Wigan to be signing up players off their name alone anymore.

So what is your solution to the long term plan of action for the halves at Wigan?

we should match anything any other club has to offer. if we do and he chooses someone else then fair play to the lad

I'm wondering if the lack of 7's around (especially quality English 7s) is upping Myler's worth.

it probably is and its easy to see why

I quite agree Wigan should be pushing for players regardless of contract situation, but we also have to be realistic to think if Wigan are making Salford an offer that is accepted so will other clubs, with as i understand it Wire very well placed and an offer on the table already. Its an open market and who is to say he will automatically come to Wigan, this is of course prior to even knowing if he is available.

A long term strategy is impossible to say, i am unaware of who is available over the next 2-3 years. What i do not think is right is to say Long and Myler are our only chance of forming a long term partnership. You have chosen to back the most obvious option, but who is to say that is the only one? I would be very surprised indeed if there are not a good few quality young halves coming off contract in the next 2-3 years.

I accept Orford is a 2/3 year player at the most but in that time Sam will be better placed and not need nurturing as much as he does at the moment. Bringing 2 halves in, at the current moment does nothing to balance an already lop sided squad. We need 1 half as a priority this year and depending on who that is should be potentially looking to recruit another next year once we have the likes of Fielden off the cap. We still have TL on a 3 year deal to cover the halves should we pick up an injury there if as expected he does move to 9.

You seem to suggest that because we have not signed Long and Myler that there are no other options. I assure you there will be, I for one would be made up if we could bring over Finch he would give us 4-5 good years.

You seem to think it is crucial to pair Tomkins up with another young lad, i do not. Chopping and changing every 2 years is less than ideal but a 3-4 year partnership is perfectly acceptable in my honest opinion, as long as they are the right quality of player.

To claim we are up a certain creak minus 1 paddle because we have not managed to sign Long and Myler is in my opinion very premature maybe 2-3 years premature. We probably will not know if you are right in your thinking till the end of his career never mind speculating about it at the present time.

Lets just wait and see how things pan out prior to crying into our pints, you never know you may just be pleasantly surprised.

Is 200k or more to risky for such a young player ?

I agree with you BTW

It is and Rugby will only begin in 5 years time

It isn't a massive risk. Historically bid transfers have paid off (Fielden being the exception)Sculthorpe,Harris,Newlove all paid off well. I think the lad is the real deal.
As the Lad comes from Widnes, surely he'd rather play for Wigan than Wire?

You could even argue fieldens paid off, purely from the fact he kept us up.

I think if you generally look at spending 200k on a teenage scrum half if would be a risk, but in mylers case he's performed for two years now in the first team, and still looks a class above his teammates. He's got enough first team experience now for it to be a much reduced risk!

good point, it would certanly cost wigan more than £400,000 if they had been relegated