This is my take on it too



Hes portrayed himself as a bad lad turned a corner etc and specifically mentioned Lam as being an influential person in his life regarding that.



He still has sacks of credibility for the moment as these are all rumours. However if he jibs of Wigan then a lot of the stuff hes previously said counts for very little.



I think the stuff he has created at Salford is fantastic and he has acted like a real credit to the UK game IMO. However that image or legacy should be ripped up if he rescinds on a contract with Wigan.



And that not me saying boo hoo who, hes loves Salford but hates Wigan etc. Whilst i love our Club and i am fairly partisan about it, telling Wigan to eff off in Favour of an NRL clubs is a problem for all of SL.



Many fans will pop on here and take the pee out of Wigan for losing another signing and fair enough if that's your thing....



However the precedence of late across a LOT of UK teams regarding the likes of Denny Solomona, Kalum Watkins, Shaun Edwards and now maybe JH, shows that the UK game is a weakling in comparison to high level RU and NRL so we all really need to be a little more concerned about our sports inability to sell its virtues or to pay a fair salary for high profile stars.



I was fuming at what Cas had to go through with that merchant Solomona, i was embarrassed it what Edwards put us through and now i am dreading that another mid level NRL "Star" could walk out on a contract without playing a single game.



UK game is a mess at the moment and it will take more than SBW signing for a trillion dollars to convince me that we are in good health

He has a deal with Wigan and if he wants to back track on it and join an NRL club then he can only do it once his Wigan contract is cancelled.

He will have to negotiate that and it will may well prove more difficult than he at present imagines.

No NRL will sign him until his contract with Wigan is terminated.

This!

There could be a 'get out' clause in his contract. If so Jackson could activate it and leave his Wigan contract without further issue. Who knows what's in that contract.

The lad is a decent player but if his head has been turned by an NRL club i think youre better off without him, speaking from saints experience with ben barba ,as soon as he announced he was off to the cowboys in june last year he displayed a cant be d attitude and in hindsight we should have sent him on his way. Im not saying hastings will have the same attitude but its always a danger you could end up carrying a passenger on the team

In fairness to Watkins, his departure was if anything pushed by Leeds who were desperate to offload an under-performing high earner.

Agree with your point though; neither do I think too many from over here will take the pi$$ after James Segeyaro, Trent Merrin and that fat kiwi whose name escapes me...

Absolutely nailed it

You raise an excellent point there. I think Wigan are in a lose/lose situation; force him to come he plays poor and effects the whole team, let him go and it’s further evidence of the weakness of SL and RL in the UK as a whole.



For me, and I keep saying IF, IF it’s true we need to cut our losses and seek either a replacement or tune up Harry Smith for a lot more involvement than he, the club and the fans were expecting in 2020.

Surely the club wouldn't have included an 'immediate get out clause' in the contract (assuming we have one, you never know these days).



I'd like to think the NRL clause would only trigger after a first full season with us. Anything less leaves us with our pants pulled down and legs wide open.





Surely not.

Yeah Watkins maybe a tenuous link (speed typing whilst cramming lunch in), however the ones you quote are prime examples of this phenomenon. These guys are just treating SL with contempt. I will also add Chris Sandow to that list as i am sure he was claiming homesickness blah blah



Does my nut in and when i see "fans" on here almost siding with the players / Oz clubs claiming that "you cant blame the lad etc". We should be frothing at the mouth at the thought of loseing the talent pool to the NRL or Rugger bugger

Hopefully not mate! But you never know. I think if he huffs and puffs enough we'll let him go.

That's one perspective; another is that for 2020 SL has acquired arguably the biggest name in world rugby in SBW and the NSW starting half. That's never happened in history. Johns was signed brieflyby Wire, but the Maloney signing is somewhat different. Wire have also signed Gaz Widdop, an NRL starter who play with and against a whole host of top talent from the likes of Blake Austin and George Burgess who has been a regular in the NRL as is still yet to reach his prime in terms of age.

Watkins was/is a spent force, Leeds didn't want Kalum Watkins, that's what kick-started his move.

He only signed for us as Salford told him (at the time) they couldn't afford to keep him next year, Leeds wouldn't pay him as much as he was demanding and no Sydney NRL clubs were interested...we come along and offer him stupid money and a pass to leave after one year! I was reliably told he was absolutely fuming when we announced his signing, apparently part of the deal was that he didn't want anything at all announcing until the absolute end of the season and that is why he is categorically refusing to acknowledge Wigan. Wouldn't surprise me if we never see him in a Wigan shirt. Said all along we should have snapped up Maloney when we had the chance!

I don’t know what to make of this. It has been said publicly that he has a NRL release clause after his first year, not now.



This is a rumour that keeps coming back. Whether there is any substance or whether it is journalists who have nothing to write about I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about it though.



One thing is for sure, if he doesn’t want to be here I don’t want him here. I just wish he would come out and say either way.

If that’s true it’s poor form from IL. He should have respected that.

IL was panicking last year, he had to do something major to keep the fans happy.

Never simple at Wigan at the moment is it? Whether its owners, coaches or players why can't they just say what they mean and mean what they say?

How in a million years do you pin this on IL?



Signings for the next year are always announced when they are completed. If Hastings wants to be a bit of a diva then that's on him, but IL has a business to run and shouldn't be dictated to by things such as this.



Maloney, Widdop, Burgess all got announced when they signed on the dotted line & are all significantly more high profile than Hastings too. Hell Maloney was in the middle of a SOO campaign at the time!



There's simply only one man to blame for this whole situation - Hastings.

Got to agree on this here - despite Hastings' good season last year, G Burgess is a much more impressive signing from a reputation standpoint, yet he doesn't seem to be as much of a diva (if what Richie is saying is true). Although we are in desperate need of a good quality half back, so there lies our problem.



I'm remaining cautiously optimistic here. I previously had the impression that Hardaker didn't really want to be at Wigan either as he never mentioned Wigan or enjoying playing here. After a while he seemed to really warm to the idea and was more publicly enjoying his time at Wigan.



That said, whatever happens, I can't help but feel that we will need to be replacing Hastings by this time next year in the absolute best case scenario.

Think we're getting well ahead of ourselves here. I'm fairly sure we often allow overseas players an extended off season, the club have rubbished the rumours, that's plenty for me. I'm expecting him to do one season then head home.

An interview with Sam Powell on Wigan website says how he’s enjoyed meeting up with Mitch Clark and George Burgess . Says it’s going to be an exciting season but absolutely no mention of looking forward to playing alongside MOS Hastings . Speaks volumes for me , hope I’m wrong

They also rubbished the Edwards rumours!

I agree and I don’t at the same time. Rumours rubbished yes but nothing from Hastings? I’m not in the camp of “he should be tweeting and instafacing his love of all things cherry and white” camp but surely he could publicly say if he is intending on playing for Wigan? Publicly rubbish these rumours. Radio silence about Wigan is fanning the flames

You’d struggle to recruit Phil Mitchell......











In your dreams..... he’s a Saints fan!

Now Moley is reporting Hastings has gone cold on Wigan. Supposedly something in the deal he’s not happy with. Now NRL clubs are circling.



Does anyone now think we’ll see him at Wigan? I maybe negative but I’m 80/20 thinking he’ll never play for us.