Some Interesting reactions to the Final.

[ratsapprentice]

Arscott was let go by the Chiefs - I think he ****ed another players wife... or something along those lines.

I highly doubt he's on anything out of the ordinary.

 

[Peat]

Jonathan Joseph went to Bath as an established Premiership player with a nearly 1 in 3 try scoring ratio and 2 England caps by the age of 22.

Ford had cup medals, had only missed out on an England tour due to his need to bulk up and was also an established Premiership player. He was quite clearly the next big thing in English FH play.

If either of those went cheap, their agents need shooting and so do the rest of the Prem.

Not being funny, but when Bath were explicitly named as a club under investigation in December and Glaws weren't, I don't get why you'd think think it'd be the other way around.

edit: Lets not forget Gavin Henson moving halfway through the season...

 

[Wendigo7]

Arscott was let go by the Chiefs - I think he ****ed another players wife... or something along those lines.

I highly doubt he's on anything out of the ordinary.

Takes 2 to tango being frank. Not acceptable but meh it seems to be the norm these days.

 

[ratsapprentice]

I wasn't making a judgement - I don't know exactly what happened.

The point is that he was pushed, we didn't seek him out.

 

[Wendigo7]

Meh, yeah fair point.

I'm not sure what happens after a certain point though.

If for example, the standard of players coming through keeps hitting (hypothetically) a very high standard, ford, farrell, vunipola like talents coming through, clubs in the top division will struggle to keep ahold of them.

What happens then? Does the salary go up or players go abroad? (Basing it on the idea we actually produce that many quality players...)

 

[goodNumber10]

Jonathan Joseph went to Bath as an established Premiership player with a nearly 1 in 3 try scoring ratio and 2 England caps by the age of 22.

Ford had cup medals, had only missed out on an England tour due to his need to bulk up and was also an established Premiership player. He was quite clearly the next big thing in English FH play.

If either of those went cheap, their agents need shooting and so do the rest of the Prem.

Not being funny, but when Bath were explicitly named as a club under investigation in December and Glaws weren't, I don't get why you'd think think it'd be the other way around.

edit: Lets not forget Gavin Henson moving halfway through the season...

Lets also not forget Ford went because Daddy told him he'd get to play, and Joseph went because of Toby Booth - Money certainly was a factor but i'd imagine playing in and under those coaches also had a big impact. sometimes players just need a change.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Tigers fought tooth and nail to keep Ford so it's reasonable to presume that Bath offered a similar wage, even if he did want to move anyway.

I thought Marquee players were only exempt for one year? And couldn't be re-signings? How does Flouw fit into that?
Unless I'm completely wrong on the rules?

 

[Raggs]

Pay Daddy Ford twice as much, and he can buy his boy a flat, a car, his meals etc etc as a loving father? Pay little Ford less.

 

[j'nuh]

There's still enough names in the Bath side that'd be on wedge to tip them over, i reckon.
Paul james, henry Thomas, kyle Eastmond, louw, Attwood, ford, Joseph.

Agulla will probably be on decent money, as an international, BananaMan too. Arscott was tempted away from Chiefs so probably a decent sum there.
All adds up.

Gloucester definitely could be though - Hibbard and Afoa, according to the press, are on ridiculous salaries (think Afoa is the highest paid in England?).
Marquee takes one of them out of the equation, though.

Gloucester's recruitment strategy is to spend big on a few stars and fill the rest with youth and fairly low standard Premiership players, rather than have good all-round depth.

e.g. we spend lots on Afoa, but our other tightheads are Knight and Puafisi. Spend a lot on two class back three players (May and Sharples), but the rest of the depth is quite cheap (Cook/McColl/Monahan/Purdy/Halaifonua). Spend lots on Hook, but only have one other fly-half in the main squad, Billy Burns. Backrow consists of Morgan and Kvesic, two expensive players, and the rest is filled with guys like Kalamafoni/Rowan (brought in from the Championship) and Evans/Moriarty (players just out of the academy). Last season we had two scrum-halves in the main squad, Laidlaw (expensive) and Robson (on first contract out of the academy), and so on...