Re: Roby.... : Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:19 am  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

What I meant was that if he was going to go at the end of his contract anyway, would you hold him to it or release him a year or two early for a decent fee?

Even if we got a million quid for him what would be the point? There's nobody around we could find to replace him with with that money - just the same as your lot will find when Tomkins is on his way. I'd rather we kept him for as long as humanly possible and then got newt' rather than have a big pile of cash and a weaker team for a few years.

Re: Roby.... : Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:22 am  

I would rather Roby saw out his contract because there are no better options available to us at present. Roby could take Dom Speakman under his wing as a tutor like Keiron Cunningham did with Robes. It would be disastrous if we sold Roby now without a replacement lined up or someone in line at the club to take over.

Re: Roby.... : Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:28 am  

Longy_7 wrote:

I would rather Roby saw out his contract because there are no better options available to us at present. Roby could take Dom Speakman under his wing as a tutor like Keiron Cunningham did with Robes. It would be disastrous if we sold Roby now without a replacement lined up or someone in line at the club to take over.

I suppose the point is, if (and this is purely hypothetical) we knew he was definitely going to leave in a year's time anyway, then we'd be in a much better position to find a replacement if we sold one year early for a fee than if we held on for one last year. We're never going to get a like-for-like replacement, but we might, for example, be able to pick up someone like Daryl Clarke if we had a fee to play with, whereas if we held on for another year we'd be trawling the bargain bucket for a freebie.

As it happens, I think we're lucky in that Roby is a pretty homespun sort of guy whose first instict will be to stay with his hometown club. I may be wrong, of course, but that's the impression I get - he could quite easily have left us last time his contract was up for renewal (and wouldn't we up the creek now if he had).

Re: Roby.... : Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:34 am  

Northampton_Saint wrote:

Even if we got a million quid for him what would be the point? There's nobody around we could find to replace him with with that money - just the same as your lot will find when Tomkins is on his way. I'd rather we kept him for as long as humanly possible and then got newt' rather than have a big pile of cash and a weaker team for a few years.

It just depends on how you spend the money though.
Plough it back into youth development, sports science, scouting systems etc, buy two or more players to strengthen the squad.
We've been having this "discussion" on the Wigan site, and I'm in the get the money in and use it wisely camp. There are others who think that it's better to make the player see out his contract then leave for nothing.

Re: Roby.... : Tue Jul 02, 2013 12:01 pm  

saint at wire wrote:

Why should he want to play for a poor team at the bottom of the NRL when could stay here and play for.....oops

Good one. No more please, chain em, take their passports from em, excommunicate them, but keep them here.

Re: Roby.... : Tue Jul 02, 2013 12:06 pm  

According to Stuart Pyke on Twitter Roby is in talks with Saints over a new contract.

Re: Roby.... : Tue Jul 02, 2013 12:12 pm  

Dux wrote:

According to Stuart Pyke on Twitter Roby is in talks with Saints over a new contract.

Saints?

St George?

Re: Roby.... : Tue Jul 02, 2013 12:43 pm  

Robes is loyal to the club (i reckon).
We should renegotiate a good long contract with a NRL transfer clause.
That would mean he would have the security of a long contract at saints and the knowledge that any reasonable offer from the NRL would be available for him to consider.
From the clubs point of veiw, we know that if he does ever leave, we'll be well compensated.

Re: Roby.... : Tue Jul 02, 2013 12:50 pm  

Micky Higham?????????

Re: Roby.... : Tue Jul 02, 2013 2:13 pm  

Believe me, Robes will be a one club man. It would have to take more than money to get him away from saints.

He's turned down big money moves over and over again. He's a saints lad and will stay a saint. (Unless he has Massive fall out with the club)

However, we do have a player that is being targeted by NRL clubs and from what I hear, he's happy to see what's on offer and already spoke to souths.