Well you should stop trying to think as it obviously is affecting you.
I do believe Paul Newlove was a world record at the time which didnt help you as you was second best.
You bought players we did but we was more successful at it than you.
Our home grown players were better than yours-Farrell,Edwards,Radders,Clark,Gildart and so on,accept that we are more successful and your little life will be sweet and we can all move on.

WarringtonWolves69……

Who do you support and where do you live?

Paul Newlove didn't cost the club all that much as it was the offset of internationals Loughlin, Dwyer and Nickle as part of the deal and private business funding. That was pale in comparision compared to that world record cash deal to buy Martin Offiah. We believe the Wigoons offered a cash deal for Newlove, but Bradford thought cash + 3 players was better for them.

The more I look back you could also say they bought out of relegation as well under controversial circumstances by signing Fielden and Dobson on record deals and going over the salary cap by the greatest historical amount of £220k. The Dobson deal was very dodgy was this a brown envelope scenario, he wasn't allowed under English law to have a work permit and hence played for Catalans. The Wigoons were on the way to relegation and suddenly Dobson got a work permit,

Don't think the Castleford were too happy with the RFL allowing overspending and work permit tinkering at their relegated expense, that was a kick in the teeth for Cas fans.

Don't know why you are mentioning your home grown talent as though its some form of deek measuring contest, they were great players but most of those again money grabbing went over to the dark side the likes of Farrell, Edwards, Ford, Lydon etc deserting rugby league and went to rugby union.

Why cant I mention the home grown talent we do supply rugby League with a fair few -Long,Makinson,Lomax,Welsby, just to name a few.
The more I look back with Stains buying players like-Sculthorpe,Long,Meninga,Lyons,Walmsley, etc you must have bought success aswell. The thing we did was buy better players and have great home grown talent in the 80s and 90s,also getting players like Ged Byrne,Ian Potter,Sam Panapa etc was shrewd buys where as your team didnt so you really shouldnt be jealous just be glad that we showed you the way to compete.
So you got rid of 3 internationals + cash to get Newlove If that isnt trying to buy success I dont know what is.
Did Stains not pay some of your players by offshore accounts (sure I heard that somewhere).
No one is squeaky clean and Stains certainly are not.
Faz,Edwards ,Ford went at the end of their careers and I for one cannot blame them for a big payout.

In conclusion,I do wonder if the Wigoon Club by hindsight would go down the same "buy success" path again knowing they would be asset stripped and potentially going bust. Saints didn't buy success anywhere near the level of the Wigoon club,

The Saints club now have an asset of a 25+ million pound stadium and community hub, whilst Wigoon rent a football stadium and sometimes couldn't open a stand because there is a wedding on.

If you're playing that game, Wigan when signed Hanley his fee was offset by Phil Ford and Steve Donlan going to Bradford.
When we sold Hanley to Leeds in Sept 91 we got more from them than we paid for him - £250k, neat work.
We used that money in part to sign Offiah from Widnes only three months later.

Nothing wrong with that like you say you say neat work, but how come you almost went bust and had to sell your ground. Surely that outcome is bad buisness work.

The new stand exceeded all expectations regarding cost and Whelan needed Wigan rugby as to build the JJB he needed 2 different sports at the same stadium so he could get funding from ukgov,wigan council and European union and like all good (ruthless) he got wigan for 7milion to clear the debts and central park and he got the pathetics for £1.
And the Whelan owned both teams and a stadium and later he sold Wigan rugby to Ian Lenaghan of which last year he tried to buy the stadium but was stopped by the administrators for the football/stadium as they wanted someone to buy both which Ian didnt want.

You are normally a decent poster but on this thread you’ve dipped way below your usual standards. Time for a bit of fact checking.

1: In what way was it not a level playing field before 1996, I don’t ever recall a rule which prohibited some clubs spending more than others. In fact, it was probably more level than it is now as evert club had the opportunity to spend what they like and are not restricted or held back.

2: Why do you refer to 1996 as it becoming a ‘level playing field’ when the Salary cap was introduced in 1998?

3: Wigan did not break the salary cap to stay up. Wigan re-negotiated existing contract to free up SC space in order to sign Fielden and Dobson. There was no rule prohibiting that at the time therefore due to the faux outrage and the media fanning the flames the RFL invented a charge of breaching the ‘spirit’ of the cap and subsequently changed the rules.

Well put and didnt other clubs break the spirit as well at some point.