Silly Season transfer rumours.....

First topic message reminder :

Well its that time of year...pushing for new contracts...the rumour mill starts to fly...

Any you hear...post them here.....

The first two I've heard...

Priestland to Bath
Carl Fearns - Bath to Falcons.

Taking time off from Mission Impossible?

Nick Scott welsh to dragons

Anyone know who Tigers marquee player is?

The Saint wrote:Anyone know who Tigers marquee player is?

For next season prob Ayerza or Cole.

Tigers are quite secretive about their marquee players, generally the players wont know either.

Why/

They've renewed the contracts of the front row so they are likely to be up there. Williams was retained much to the annoyance of the Welsh and Manu is on the books but has a contract due for renewal next season so probably isn't on a contract that takes account of his Lions pedigree.

Other then Nick Evans which is a pretty open secret have any marquee players been named by any clubs?

I would hazard a guess that Burgess was a marquee player, as he had to be bought out of his contract and that fee would have counted as cap otherwise. The season before it would have been Louw I would guess.

North at Saints would be my guess too?

I'd agree with North and Burgess, I guess maybe Louw. But clubs don't actively state it though do they, it's kept a secret.

Interesting to see how many are deemed worth it. Nick Evans is past his prime and often injured, Louw is great but away for SA and often injured, Burgess could be great but has a looong way to go. North has now come good so I think that's a good use of the money by Saints. 1 in 4 that's not really value for money is it?

Saints young fly half Will Hooley to Chiefs

Do we have a marguee signing??

GeordieFalcon wrote:Do we have a marguee signing??

Was it not Phil Godman?

Fluxy wrote:Saints young fly half Will Hooley to Chiefs

Really, I thought he was the Saints next big thing?

RDW_Scotland wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Do we have a marguee signing??

Was it not Phil Godman?

ha ha...your confusing Marquee with keech

I'm guessing PDJ will be the marquee for Gloucester, bit of a surprise you don't think he was yours yappy...

I think you need to be near the salary cap to justify a marquee GF.

Yeah I don't think we're close to that yet...which is not a bad thing to be honest.

I like the way he's doing things....just he needs to realise that sometimes they are cheap...because they are not Prem standard ie a certain Mr Fry....

On a side note, im really quite optimistic about the Vea signing at TH. He could be a very good signing.

GF there's a back log of young fly halfs at Saints with Mallinder Jr and another whose name I can't remember at the minute representing England at age grade.

Given Hanrahan is rocking up I'm not surprised that Hooley is looking to move on. He's not been given many opportunities this season and Chiefs are good at developing young backs.

Bathman_in_London wrote:I'm guessing PDJ will be the marquee for Gloucester, bit of a surprise you don't think he was yours yappy...

PDJ, the superstar of international benchwarming will be replacing Afoa as our marquee player and I believe Jeremy Thrush will be the 2nd marquee player allowed from next season.


I'm presuming Dave Attwools is Bath's marquee player

A little West Country joke there... I'll get my coat

PDJ?? Is he seriously a marquee player, I thought that was just you lot joking on.

GF there is no chance he will be a marquee player as he was signed from another AP club therefore can't be it.

Relax

phew....

That's not true Welly. It has been successfully argued in the High court that PDJ has not been a rugby player at Quins, so is exempt from that ruling

PDJ is a genius, on big bucks for about 5 years now and he's only had to play about 6 games!! I bet he's laughing at all these fools with their weekly rugby matches!

Quade Cooper to Toulon. Well that'll be erm interesting.

Bit of an upgrade on the reported Cipriani links

Considering the form I've seen from Cooper this season I'd rather have Cips. Michelak and Cooper will be a choice of the mecurial or the mecurial for Toulon.

Tikoirotuma to Irish from Quins.

Didn't he only join Quins this season?

Not happy there I believe.

Ah OK - guess he's looking to link up with TC again then ...

Indeed.

Cooper at 10% is a better option than Cipriani for me.

O'shea possibly going to coach Italy.

http://balls.ie/rugby/258146-conor-o-shea-italy/

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Cooper at 10% is a better option than Cipriani for me.

Cooper on song is a force of nature. Cooper out of firm is a liability. I'm liking Cipriani now he's under the tutelage of Diamond. He's reliable and has a well rounded game, he can still slice open the opposition but he's matured into a class player.

Isa Nacewa coming out of retirement to rejoin Leinster on a 1 year deal.

Well fiddler has mentioned the 12 I was talking about being in talks with Leicester not so long ago:


Maxime Mermoz.

Also mentions Le Roux with us.

Surely Le Roux would take the massive French or Japanese cash. He'd be an amazing signing if we could pull it off.

Mermoz is probably being eased out of Toulon with Nonu arriving. He'd be the kind of centre Cockers would go for. Surely he'd get more cash back in France. I'm not the biggest Mermoz fan I'd prefer a 12 with a more play making skill set.

Mermoz would be some coup, he'd make a great partner for Tuilagi.

If either were the marquee player then I guess £250k is not to be sniffed at. That works out as approx 345k in France, so not bad.

He would be an interchangeable option with Allen. Given we've barely seen Allen since he signed his three year deal I wouldn't be massively surprised if he wasn't retained at the end of next season or retired before that point.

Would leave us with first team options of;

12. Mermoz, Allen, Bai
13. Manu, Loamano, Smith

Roberts, Catchpole and Bryant as understudies.

Another thing about Mermoz is he plays 13 @ a high standard.

Rumours of the Tiggers signing Stuart Hogg?!

I'll believe it when I see it. He's under contract next season and we aren't in the financial state to buy him out.

Would be an ideal signing otherwise.

He's under contract until 2017 never mind next season.

Surely a completely unfounded rumour.

after Conrad Smith, Colin Slade has apparently agreed to join the newly promoted Pau next season

RDW_Scotland wrote:He's under contract until 2017 never mind next season.

Surely a completely unfounded rumour.

Unless Hogg is desperate to get out I wouldn't worry.

People will link pretty any 15 to us ATM.

Didn't Maitland leave because he wanted to play 15, and wasn't high in that pecking order? If so it doesn't quite add up why Hogg would leave as well as Maitland!

Welly wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:He's under contract until 2017 never mind next season.

Surely a completely unfounded rumour.

Unless Hogg is desperate to get out I wouldn't worry.

People will link pretty any 15 to us ATM.

Well he signed the contract a few months ago, so would have to have been a very sudden change of heart!