Re: Toby King : Tue May 11, 2021 10:05 am  

Lord Tony Smith wrote:

How come he hasn’t signed a new deal at Saints yet or has he?

I've no idea. I think in 2020 Saints wanted to give him 4 years, but he wouldn't accept anything longer than 1, hence his contract being up at the end of the season. I think it's common now for younger players to accept short term deals so they're more attractive options for NRL clubs. The same has just happened with Regan Grace, signed a 1 year deal when Saints were begging him to take a longer one. The NRL cap is now at a level where the average NRL salary is three times the average for SL.

Re: Toby King : Tue May 11, 2021 10:06 am  

Saddened! wrote:

Controversial opinion, but he's better than Bateman. Nearly 70 tackles in the Grand Final last year with two broken ribs. Played the full 80 and yet he was the only one chasing the ball at the end other than Welsby. He gets in every starting 13 in Super League. I'm amazed the NRL clubs weren't circling for him. His injury has come at a bad time for him as I think he'd have had a long list of offers and a nice pay rise coming his way and a World Cup spot.

Almost all fair points but does he offer anything creative to the team?

Re: Toby King : Tue May 11, 2021 10:18 am  

Fantastic Mr Catpiss wrote:

the knives are already out for Fitzy on twitter over this

"why hasn't this been sorted, why have we allowed it to get last 12 months"

I'm gonna guess Covid has knackered revenue, the reduction in Sky money this year, and the uncertainty of a TV deal going forward probably played a big part, that may be why we've got so many players coming off contract this year, we may have had one eye on this .

There is also the likely possibility that King has wanted to wait till he got to the end of his deal to test the market, most likely way of getting best value for himself, whether he intends to leave or not, it's not always in the clubs hands to get a deal done early.

Re: Toby King : Tue May 11, 2021 10:30 am  

Gutted if he leaves, if we are trying to win the big time we need all of our stars. - Unless they want to leave that is.

Re: Toby King : Tue May 11, 2021 10:44 am  

Fantastic Mr Catpiss wrote:

It's surprising that saints are in for him at all, considering how we keep getting told how they have an academy and bring players through, like lomax, makinson, roby(2004) bentley, walmsley and regan grace.

And Percival, Welsby, Lees, Knowles, etc.

Re: Toby King : Tue May 11, 2021 10:50 am  

Briers'Boot wrote:

Gutted if he leaves, if we are trying to win the big time we need all of our stars. - Unless they want to leave that is.

If he leaves I would only imagine its because he doesn't believe we can challenge for the trophies on offer, which is really damning of the club in my eyes, i would be concerned about our other top players wanting out and also even more bitterly dissapointed that price was kept for so long. I would hope that Darryl Powell will be chatting to him and selling his vision though and hopefully he does a good job, I think King is the exact sort of player that Powell would want to be keeping, we have some big earners likely to leave at the end of this season so just give him what he wants!

I will be desperately dissapointed in the club if he leaves to a rival team, especially saints or Wigan. I'd be dissapointed in King if he left for Hull KR as I thought he would have more ambition than that, no disrespect intended and maybe in a few years they could challenge but it would be hard for them. Catalans would be good for the weather I suppose but again I think it would be a poor career move for him. If the NRL were sniffing that would be a lot more understandable.

Re: Toby King : Tue May 11, 2021 11:06 am  

The Yellow Giraffe wrote:

And Percival, Welsby, Lees, Knowles, etc.

I thought Percy was a Widnes boy, and Knowles was Cumbrian born, apologies if I’m mistaken.

Re: Toby King : Tue May 11, 2021 12:42 pm  

It's quite funny looking on some of the social media - where I think the contributors are numerous in number but not necessarily with a good understanding of how our sport works and/or the desires of players.
This applies to many threads including the ones about Toby King.

Here - with a few exceptions ! - it can be more informative and give one pause of thought. (On Twitbook or whatever, getting people who can string a sentence together is often a challenge).

So - ref Toby King - I can imagine we would match or come close to matching a bid from another UK club. Once that's out of the way, then it's down to the desire of the player. Does really see us winning the GF / CC and him being in a position to show his best form so that he can play for England? Doubt we could compete with Australia given their salary cap plus the opportunity to experience a different lifestyle (but it doesn't always work out).
Regardless of what happens with SP, I think Powell coming in would be a good move for him. I think Powell will get more out of him.

Like many jobs money talks though - especially in one with a limited timescale such as RL. He's right to look after his future.
And for those that say he should show loyalty, how many of us have stayed loyal to one employer for a big part of our careers? (Average employee has 7-10 jobs in their lifetime allegedly).

I don't want him to leave - he's on form at the moment at left centre - and trust we'll make (or have made) a decent offer - and be prepared to go the extra mile - but if his heart is set on a move then so be it.

Re: Toby King : Tue May 11, 2021 12:46 pm  

CW8 wrote:

If he leaves I would only imagine its because he doesn't believe we can challenge for the trophies on offer, which is really damning of the club in my eyes, i would be concerned about our other top players wanting out and also even more bitterly dissapointed that price was kept for so long. I would hope that Darryl Powell will be chatting to him and selling his vision though and hopefully he does a good job, I think King is the exact sort of player that Powell would want to be keeping, we have some big earners likely to leave at the end of this season so just give him what he wants!

I will be desperately dissapointed in the club if he leaves to a rival team, especially saints or Wigan. I'd be dissapointed in King if he left for Hull KR as I thought he would have more ambition than that, no disrespect intended and maybe in a few years they could challenge but it would be hard for them. Catalans would be good for the weather I suppose but again I think it would be a poor career move for him. If the NRL were sniffing that would be a lot more understandable.

I'd be absolutely amazed if it's anything other than his agent drumming up noise to get the best offer he can. I think you'll see King and Clark sign new deals in the coming weeks.

Re: Toby King : Tue May 11, 2021 1:03 pm  

fez1 wrote:

It's quite funny looking on some of the social media - where I think the contributors are numerous in number but not necessarily with a good understanding of how our sport works and/or the desires of players.
This applies to many threads including the ones about Toby King.

Here - with a few exceptions ! - it can be more informative and give one pause of thought. (On Twitbook or whatever, getting people who can string a sentence together is often a challenge).

So - ref Toby King - I can imagine we would match or come close to matching a bid from another UK club. Once that's out of the way, then it's down to the desire of the player. Does really see us winning the GF / CC and him being in a position to show his best form so that he can play for England? Doubt we could compete with Australia given their salary cap plus the opportunity to experience a different lifestyle (but it doesn't always work out).
Regardless of what happens with SP, I think Powell coming in would be a good move for him. I think Powell will get more out of him.

Like many jobs money talks though - especially in one with a limited timescale such as RL. He's right to look after his future.
And for those that say he should show loyalty, how many of us have stayed loyal to one employer for a big part of our careers? (Average employee has 7-10 jobs in their lifetime allegedly).

I don't want him to leave - he's on form at the moment at left centre - and trust we'll make (or have made) a decent offer - and be prepared to go the extra mile - but if his heart is set on a move then so be it.

"loyalty" = if they are any good they should stay with us no matter what other offers they get BUT if they are out of form we should be allowed to rip up their contract and bin them off!