I think that's right, the Bulls would most likely have not wanted to take on the salary from any player exchanged. Any Wigan player worth swapping would be on decent money and the funds may be needed elsewhere.

Gutted we no longer we have an environment where young players want to be!

Kopout, Whitehead, Bateman, Naughton, Burgess', Wardle plus more....



Hope this hasn't got more underlying money or cashflow problems.



Quote from to T&A:

“The agreed fee is an undisclosed sum but will benefit the squad in the long run and allow Head Coach, Francis Cummins to add to the dynamics of the group if he feels he needs to."



But you never know with the Bulls, when did we last get the full truth about anything!

Except in Bateman's case the impression given was that he WAS 'a fan'. We've been sold the 'he's a local lad who only ever wanted to play for us' line for years.



That's why this seems more disappointing than either Kopczak or Whitehead



Difficult to see this as anything more than a 'fire sale' to bridge the gap between the 'projected' and 'actual' season ticket sales

Ferguson

Winterstein

Addy



Bateman

Whitehead

Addy



Which looks better to you guys?

This has been on the cards since his mate left for France only think that stopped it happening earlier was his injury. John is like any sportsman tells any fan what he knows what they want to hear.

Everyone is aware of the issues. Ask yourself this, if Bateman was not a prized asset would the Bulls have held onto him? It is a two way street in Professional sport. If he was just another young fringe squad player then he would not have lasted as long because of his behaviour. He was a top prospect so the Bulls made exceptions. That's how it works.

Very Infrequent poster - tends to be when i get really down, but this week is one of them. Less than 3,000 season tickets sold, bringing in a player Widnes didn't want, now a potentially great player leaving because he does not see a future. I lived through the crap of the late 80's, with Seabourne and Hobbs coaching, with a team of cast offs from others, overhyped own talent and promising talent looking to put themselves in the shop window for more ambitious clubs, seems to me we are there again. Does the new regime have the vision to do a Caisley in 95 and revolutionise the club, I'm not sure, but they'd better start soon!

Not too sure I'm too down hearted about this. He didn't have a positive influence on any game I saw last year. He appears to be very immature with a poor attitude and a lot of injuries. I am however very worried about season ticket sales.

i'm becoming a little disillusioned with this, the club would have known this was coming and decided to hold a fans forum before they announced it.



The club wants the fans to buy into the future, I'm afraid we won't do that whilst this type of thing continues. I appreciate not announcing it before the season ticket deadline, however thats viewed, but at least give the fans the chance to ask questions in the appropriate forum.



I thought this was a joke when i saw people saying it'd happened.



He's been a bit part player for the last year through injury but even so we're stronger with him than not.

The offer only arrived late yesterday afternoon.

Im sorry but this must have been in the works for sometime, perhaps the agreeable offer came in yesterday afternoon but he was on his way out before the fans forum.



When was his latest transfer request, that's the interesting question.

I don't believe that for a second!



Timing of the forum and season ticket deadline is a little too convenient for me.