We Have Lost Fifita!

[Westy68]

West, where have you seen Wasps saying they have got their sums wrong?

You have a star signing, who immediately plays well for you and six months later its in the paper he is signing for someone else ‘due to the reduction in the salary cap’ which wasps knew about before signing him. Why only sign him for a year especially has we are weak in the 2nd row. Something definitely not right

[Wombles]

I am rather sanguine about Fifita moving on. He has been a solid addition to our team, but not outstanding. It may well be that Lee knew it would be a one year thing with the reduction in the cap coming next term. I will cheer him for the rest of the season and wish him well, but I am not worried that he is going as he is very replaceable.

What surprised me is the location of the move. The state of the game in Wales is abysmal, what is hiding it to the casual eye is their national team constantly punching above its weight. However  unless things change rapidly in regards to the lack of support for the grass routes game and the regions and WRFU sorting out the mess they are in it might not be a sound move at all. I fear a move to France or Ireland would of given Fifita a better standard of play and more chance for success.

[Buttoi]

Maybe Wasps a just predicting the 18month injury that Fifita would undoubtedly get if he stayed!!!!

[Neils]

I am rather sanguine about Fifita moving on. He has been a solid addition to our team, but not outstanding. It may well be that Lee knew it would be a one year thing with the reduction in the cap coming next term. I will cheer him for the rest of the season and wish him well, but I am not worried that he is going as he is very replaceable.

What surprised me is the location of the move. The state of the game in Wales is abysmal, what is hiding it to the casual eye is their national team constantly punching above its weight. However  unless things change rapidly in regards to the lack of support for the grass routes game and the regions and WRFU sorting out the mess they are in it might not be a sound move at all. I fear a move to France or Ireland would of given Fifita a better standard of play and more chance for success.

These are my thoughts as well. We are constantly hearing how cash strapped the Welsh Regions are yet the keep bringing in relatively expensive players plus Fifita isn't a shoe in for the Welsh national side. I find it extremely weird that we bring him over and a few months later he is off - it is not as if the salary cap changes are a surprise. Perhaps he did come over as a back row and feels the promise has been broken - we will probably never get the full story.

[Rossm]

Perhaps he has discovered a Welsh grandmother?

[NellyWellyWaspy]

There is no suggestion we have got our sums wrong, more that we are limited on what we can spend. He must have been on and 1+1 contract, and either he wanted (and was offered by Scarlets) more money, or we offered less than he was already on for next year.

It does explain the David Meihuizen rumour (and that is all it is).

Similarly, Jimmy might be looking around. With offers and contracts long since signed in November and December, those players who have not yet signed for what was on offer will have by now been told we are looking elsewhere and their contract offer is withdrawn/expired. My guess is that most clubs set a deadline of 1 January. I cannot imagine many clubs having any wriggle room.

I am personally surprised we have not seen more departures/rumours.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Some random thoughts:

At least he's not going to play against us in the league.

A salary cap is a maximum set by the league, but the club finances have to be managed soundly. Perhaps Lee has been given a lower wage bill for a while as the club sorts out the financial situation?

At the extreme there are 2 strategies when you have salary caps either a small squad with lots of top class players eg Sale, but that risks player burn out and problems with long term injury or a larger squad with fewer top class players. Given the recent injury problems perhaps Lee is tending towards the latter strategy?

[NellyWellyWaspy]

At least he's not going to play against us in the league.

Agreed.

A salary cap is a maximum set by the league, but the club finances have to be managed soundly. Perhaps Lee has been given a lower wage bill for a while as the club sorts out the financial situation?

I don't think we are underspending the cap, at least not by much, maybe just a safety margin.

[wasps]

It's certainly surprising news
We have launchbury, Gaskell, Stooke, Cardall, Theo as our second row options with cover from Shields.
If we do get meihuizen, then that's 6, plus Shields.
That's probably just about ok if they're all fit at the start of the season (that's a big IF)
... Maybe de Chaves wages to stay/come back too
Any academy prospects ready to come up next season?


however, we have signed Vincent Koch, and he won't have been cheap.
We may be losing Fekitoa, but that doesn't free up any salary cap space because he would have been s marquee player anyway.

So Young and Fifita are off.... They probably offset Koch.

We know we need a couple of centres.
Maybe a top quality centre (or 2) has come available and we've decided to prioritise that rather than Fifita.
Maybe Fekitoa is staying and we need to now fit him inside the salary cap

There's rumours of Anthony Watson. He won't be super cheap either.
Although I'd be looking closely at Minozzi's contract rather than Fifita's for Watson.



I don't think there's anything too nefarious here, just a bit of a shock.
It's no more of a shock to me than Saracens letting Koch go

[NellyWellyWaspy]

BB reports:

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/rugby/rugby-rumours-and-transfer-news-22690572

[HDAWG]

How the hell has he left already?! Dude has been fantastic. And since arriving I was staggered he didn't go to France, I'm even more staggered he's leaving us for a Welsh club. This is as polite I can put it without any profanity. Not a great start to the day.

[HDAWG]

The literal only, and I mean ONLY, saving grace here is potential for marquee signing to be a centre. I mean perhaps we are looking, but frustrated at already using a marquee signing. Fifita wants to leave and it's a happy accident. But it's mighty late into transfer window as is...

I really like Fifita and he's been a lot better than I thought, but really not confident in recruitment given Young, Fekitoa and Fifita leaving (BOTH marquee signings leaving) and only Koch joining. Urgh.

[Rossm]

With the greatest respect to Jimmy, at 39 (next season) I wouldn't think he'd be top of anyone's shopping list.

[Westy68]

I would be pissed if we let Fifita go and bring in Watson. If we get a top quality 12 plus a 2nd 12 and a backup 13 then fine. Let’s just move on.

There are several players we can move on if we need more money

[NellyWellyWaspy]

The literal only, and I mean ONLY, saving grace here is potential for marquee signing to be a centre. I mean perhaps we are looking, but frustrated at already using a marquee signing. Fifita wants to leave and it's a happy accident. But it's mighty late into transfer window as is...

I really like Fifita and he's been a lot better than I thought, but really not confident in recruitment given Young, Fekitoa and Fifita leaving (BOTH marquee signings leaving) and only Koch joining. Urgh.

As I alluded to earlier, Wasps will have known he wasn't staying now for weeks, hence they are looking around.

Launchbury will be our one and only allowed Marquee, so we have no wiggle room there either. OTOH, don't be surprised that when Joe's contract is up, he will be offered a LOT less money, and probably not be our Marquee any longer. We might then see him leave as well. As clubs juggle this smaller cap, we are going to see much more movement than we might like to.