Whatever the financial situation, with the news that Myall is off, we will definitely see at least 1 new lock arrive.
Of the list of leavers, I wouldn't be surprised if Daly and Simmo were the highest earners leaving, although, having said that, scrum half and outside centre are typically among the lower paid positions in premiership rugby. However, Daly is a Lion and an England regular. He will command a high salary (let's gloss over the saracens contract stuff). Simmo has been with us a long time and was our No1 for a lot of that. I've speculated before that those that followed us to Coventry may have had a bumper contract at one point, so it wouldn't surprise me if Simmo is paid more than a lot of other 9's.
Nathan is great, but at the time of his last contract probably wasn't the international regular that he is now so may not be on top dollar with us.
I expect Myall to be earning a fair salary though. He was fringe England Saxons when he came to us and 2nd row is one of the higher earning positions.
Fekitoa is reportedly on €500k with Toulon - Dai has previously said that no-one moves for less money. If that's true, then Fekitoa will be on a minimum of £450k, probably more.
That's probably more than any player that we have leaving, and probably double a few of them.
(it's a lot of money, but could be money well spent if it helps Lima settle better next season)
I would have thought that Mullan's money is already spent. The ruck.co.uk chart suggests that Looseheads are among the lowest paid positions in the game, so even if there is a bit left over, it might not be a huge amount.
My gut feel is that there is money in the kitty, but not ridiculous amounts of it.
One thing that I keep thinking about is how the salary cap remaining static changes this.
With the CVC money coming in, a lot of clubs are going to be tempted to push right up to the limit of the cap next season.
With no increase in the cap for the next couple of years, they're going to struggle to offer new contracts to their existing players (new contracts are surely always slight increases), or continue to strengthen further.
Is there a benefit to keeping below the cap next year so that we can offer suitable new contracts to our existing players and also be able to continue to strengthen?
The other thing to consider is that it's easy saying we've lost 5 players and have £1million to spend, let's go and get 2 £500k superstars.
However, we also need to be able to replace the numbers to retain some squad depth.... and we've been found lacking there a few times already this season.
Always a Wasp
