I agree Matt Peet was annoyed and rightly so, the lad is a star in the making there is no doubt about that in my mind, he just needs good luck with injuries. Are you so sure that you have trebled your outlay? Anyway, do you think Yates is better, as good, or worse?

The transfer fee that Wigan received for a teenager that they neglected to tie down with a contract would have been the absolute minimum under the RFL rules and would have been peanuts.

The fee was associated with the training he had received, playing as an Academy Player.

He was offered a deal at Warrington that was due to start at the end of his Wigan contract.

Wigan chose to release Nicholson early when they realised that they had made a mistake.

There is a report in the Warrington Guardian, that Wire will be entitled to a transfer fee to any NRL club that signs Nicholson.

He is now an established Superleague player, so they will have to pay a lot more for him than Warrington did.

Mate, where have I said that Wire will not get a transfer fee? Back to my original question, do you think Yates is as good as Nicholson?

I would say no, I hope the club can find a way to persuade him to stay. For what it’s worth I’m not a fan of Yates. Since he was linked to us and now confirmed I’ve seen nothing that would get him in to our current starting 17. And that says a lot about our improvement under Burgess because till this season I would not have had Currie or Philbin in the team. Like I said in reply to your comment on King people can change their minds.

Thank you and I too have changed my mind many times. For what it is worth I agree with you. What really worries me is that SL is losing one of its rising stars. Unlike some, I would sooner see players like Nicholson signing for other SL teams than moving to the NRL. The standards of our game continue to decline.

I think with the signings from Super league to the NRL I wonder if its a case of " Because we can", It's the best League with the best players week in week out. He can only get better over there with the right mindset and most likely a future international. good look to the kid.

I wouldn't be surprised if Burgess signed an extension with us from what I've heard.

Most NRL assistant coaches that move to Superleague as Head Coaches rarely stay in the UK for long if they are successful here.

They return to Australia for the money, lifestyle, family commitments etc.

Burgess is different, with both him and his partner being from the North of England, so it's possible he could stay for a while.

There is no doubt he will return to coach in the NRL ultimately though.

When he does go, hopefully we will in a good position for someone else to take over seamlessly.

You would like to think that Warrington will receive more than they initially paid. Again it just assuming off media reports just like yours is an assumption of the original deal.
As for better player. He is certainly out performing Luke Yates at the present moment but the guy his only 18 months into his professional career. Luke Yates as been performing professionally at a consistent level for 10 years.
As I’ve already quoted I think he has the potential to be a top rugby league player but at the moment is not on par with Ben Currie a similar age.
Currie suffered 2 really bad cruciate injuries which derailed him from being a massive player and whose to say it won’t happen to Nicholson so with the potential of it be a short career you take the most money on the table whilst probably having a great lifestyle in Australia.

Makes a change for the NRL to come snooping at our door.
Long time since that happened.
Maybe shows how far we've come as a club.