LEICESTER TIGERS 2020/21 SQUAD/TRANSFERS/CONTRACT THREAD Part 2

[westwinds31]

We need a Sky Sports transfer deadline day type thing to happen...."and we're off to Welford Road, where Manu Tuilagi has been spotted driving into the training ground..."

[johnthegriff]

There is a big salary cap reduction to come plus the drop to just one marquee player, so in Tiger's case one of our marquees is from overseas and the other an English international available for only about half the Premiership season plus European games barring injury, absorbing that player at current wage even less 25% is going to have a major affect on the rest of the squad. It maybe that offers from France will exceed club salary plus international payment, and perhaps playing in Bezier, Toulon and Montpellier has attractions that Leicester cannot compete with.
Both Tigers and the players are in difficult situations, some players may have made provision for retirement for others it may come sooner than they thought, everyone has to make decisions that affect their future and for some the gamble is greater than others, I really don't envy them at the moment.

[ay2oh]

Let’s take some of the emotion out of this and look at it logically. The club have had to take a lot of difficult decisions over the past few weeks regarding various employees including members of the board, coaches and office staff. Undoubtedly Steve Borthwick will be involved in these decisions and I cannot believe that he would have sanctioned these salary reductions unless they had no other choices.
Geordie has said how important Ford, Genge and Tuilagi are to the team going forward and he must think that this is the only way to ensure that the club survives.
Although I will be very disappointed if we lose these players no-one is more important than the clubs long time existence. We can all speculate on who has done what but we are not in possession of the facts.

[BengalTiger]

In all this talk of contacts, no one has pointed out that most contacts have a Force Majeure clause, I would assume Tigers will have activated this clause in all the players contracts that is how they can legally change the terms otherwise they are just whistling in the wind.
Tigers would have a very good argument that the current crisis qualifies as a Force Majeure, depending on the contract wording of course but so as long as they offer a reasonable new offer they would probably be in the clear to cancel all the current contracts.

[Scott1]

Scouting around and I still cant see international player x,y,z contemplating leaving team a,b,c. I'll repeat again,why is it happening here and nowhere else,everybody is in the same predicament! Why are we in such dire straits compared to every other club?!

[Mark62]

Let’s take some of the emotion out of this and look at it logically. The club have had to take a lot of difficult decisions over the past few weeks regarding various employees including members of the board, coaches and office staff. Undoubtedly Steve Borthwick will be involved in these decisions and I cannot believe that he would have sanctioned these salary reductions unless they had no other choices.
Geordie has said how important Ford, Genge and Tuilagi are to the team going forward and he must think that this is the only way to ensure that the club survives.
Although I will be very disappointed if we lose these players no-one is more important than the clubs long time existence. We can all speculate on who has done what but we are not in possession of the facts.

Let’s not forget that Borthwick doesn’t start until tomorrow, and whereas I’m sure you’re right that his opinion will have been sort, he is not in the position to sanction, or not, any changes. Even when his contract starts as Head coach he will be reporting to the DOR Murphy.

[Scott1]

Even Wasps seem to be in a better position than us!

[Scuttle]

Scouting around and I still cant see international player x,y,z contemplating leaving team a,b,c. I'll repeat again,why is it happening here and nowhere else,everybody is in the same predicament! Why are we in such dire straits compared to every other club?!

I think it is the club whipping us all into a frenzy, then at 5pm they will announce the signing of MacKenzie, Itoje and Allemano, and if I am being greedy 1 or 2 others linked to Tigers. Confident if wrong.

[sapajo]

Scouting around and I still cant see international player x,y,z contemplating leaving team a,b,c. I'll repeat again,why is it happening here and nowhere else,everybody is in the same predicament! Why are we in such dire straits compared to every other club?!

Covid clearly is a major factor, however that said, I believe having tried and failed to sell the club signals that Peter Toms fiscal investment in the club is at a crossroads. Does he invest shed loads of dosh in order to return the club back to the top of english rugby or invest the minimum just to keep the club ticking along at the bottom of the premiership?

[Coops]

Scouting around and I still cant see international player x,y,z contemplating leaving team a,b,c. I'll repeat again,why is it happening here and nowhere else,everybody is in the same predicament! Why are we in such dire straits compared to every other club?!

They are all in the same situation but clearly someone has leaked some snippet of information out to the press and they've very quickly jumped on the "clickbait bandwagon" with names such as George Ford, Manu and Genge. Easily recognisable England names which every man and his dog will know about.

I take much of what the MSM says with a pinch of salt (especially at the minute) and this is no exception. The Daily Fail article that came out a few weeks back was little more than sensationalist and I suspect this is pretty much the same.

Happy to be proven wrong. And the club don't necessarily need to come out to deny or confirm any of this. It's private business with the individuals concerned; they haven't announced specifics regarding the redundancies at the club and don't need to in this instance either, just that they are dealing with employees of the club.

[Scott1]

Be interesting to see what happens moving along. If the players mentioned do go then the club will most likely have no choice but to drop ST prices moving forward. For every diehard fan like Tigerboy1880 who would probably pay top whack to watch the C team week in week out theres fans who want to watch a Manu,a May,a Genge,a Tafua,a Veainu etc. (Just examples btw and that was a compliment Tigerboy)

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

We are trying to be a self funding club which with a Salary Cap should be possible with the size of our ground, the problem is we cant use that major asset until who knows when.
You need to be very rich to bank roll a sports team, with no real prospect of getting your money back.
The board took the decision (rightly imho) that any potential buyers weren't the right people for the club long term, they are working to a long term goal, we dont know what the "gap" in finances actually is, it millions, you need to be very rich not to miss that.

[RagingBull]

Well Borthwick is coming

https://twitter.com/englandrugby/status ... 48992?s=21

[Scott1]

Well that makes me feel better! Worse case scenario all weve gotta do is scrape 11th next season with a bare bones squad and I'm sure it will be uphill from there!

[ABClub]

Scouting around and I still cant see international player x,y,z contemplating leaving team a,b,c. I'll repeat again,why is it happening here and nowhere else,everybody is in the same predicament! Why are we in such dire straits compared to every other club?!

Mostert, Marais and Marshall have left Gloucester. Quins and Bath had already released/lost a lot of players and only brought in a few. Worcester have lost two of their best players in Taufete'e and Mills, plus they were already below the cap due to budget constraints. The Falcons squad is a train wreck currently to due to financial issues.

Saints have a smaller squad already but are still apparently under pressure for Lawes and Biggar - given that the marquee rules are changing it makes sense both their marquee players are in the rumour mill.

Sale have a small squad and have signed lots of them to long term contracts so will be reaping the benefits of 75% of already signed contracts coming under the reduced noose.

Sarries have already lost a host of names due to relegation but with the cap coming down they will almost certainly need to lose more when they come back up to the Prem.

I'd be very surprised if Wasps aren't under a lot of pressure for Fekitoa, Sopoaga, Gopperth and Toomaga-Allen.

Contracts discussion/disputes are happening across the Premiership. We are just paying much closer attention to Tigers because we support them!