We will soon also feel the negatives of producing the recent great new crop of academy talent and young talent we’ve signed.
They’ll all be pretty cheap now but in five years we’ll never be able to keep all of west, Oghre, Barbeary, Willis x2, umaga, Atkinson, Odogwu, Spink, Crossdale + Simonds, Frost, Porter, Wolstenholme, Hartley if they’re all around the 23 each week. Players will really have to adjust their wage expectations now.
If Fifita goes we have to sign Meihuizen as we’ll be short there with Gaskell probably in the twilight of his career with us. Although realistically would Meihuizen come any cheaper and if he can play for Scotland, he’ll be away more than Fifita would have been for Tonga. Very strange (also strange if we only signed him on a 1+1, very risky for him signing if he could be dumped after a year having moved his family around the world, but maybe this is good business sense after our recent return on our Sopoaga investment.
I imagine any Gopperth movement would be because of a two year deal and a coaching option afterwards - if that’s his future we should be spending whatever it takes to keep him I think, but do we have an opening for him?