An update on the latest Wigan fumble as Chris Asthon’s move to Northampton Saints in a £140,000 deal is confirmed.
Press Association RL correspondent, Ian Laybourne, is reporting that Ashton was offered a new two-year contract to stay in Super League but (that Wigan) admitted they were not prepared to match Northampton’s offer.
We were rocked to learn from Chris’ agent Andrew Clarke that he has been offered £140,000 a year by Northampton,” said Wigan chairman Maurice Lindsay. “For us to beat that would make him our highest paid player – and that’s not right for such a young man still making his way in the game.”
Whatever else they tell you, don’t be fooled that Wigan couldn’t have retained the services of this outstanding prospect.
The bewildering offseason decision to invest in aging Bulls’ fullback, Michael Withers, undoubtedly shook Ashton who was one of the top performers for the Warriors last season and played a major part in helping them retain Super League status.
Anyone who saw him in action will have seen shades of Kris Radlinski when he first broke into that last great Wigan team of over a decade ago now.
That sort of talent ought to have been backed, not undermined. That the club failed to do so is shameful.
Their claims that they could not have been expected to match the Saints’ offer are on the face of it logical.
Yet, would they have had to match them pound for pound? The Warriors still have so much to offer and Ashton would surely have been tempted to stay for less had Wigan not brought in Withers and spent some of that cash on an improved offer to him.
For the sake of short term signings like Withers and Trent Barrett and Shane Millard the Warriors have again mortgaged the future of the club.
How many trophies would they have missed-out on had Maurice Lindsay shown such myopic vision when Radlinski came on stream?
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