I never realised Watkins played for Latchford. Could somebody explain how our youth system managed to miss out on him? Once in a generation type player.

MONEY I presume, oh and Leeds were successful

How do you think us Salford fans feel?

Born in Salford, played for Folly Lane, signed for Salford Academy then shipped off to Leeds.

I'm sure we'll sign him when he's 34 and both his knees are gone.

he was only at albion about 12 months, on the way to leeds iirc

So we made an offer at least ?

Didn't he sign for Salford first, then Leeds after a trial with them? It was around 2007 he signed for Leeds, before then wasn't we back in the days when no one decent signed for Warrington because your academy only trained twice a week and Leeds/Saints/Wigan were all training more often?

Yeah signed for Salford, he played at Folly Lane in Swinton for a while.

He's from Gorton in Manchester.

Yes it was around 2007. The year we signed Adrian Morley

So we didn't make an offer then. What a miss.

For the latest Academy tour down under, our sole representative Morgan Smith, who we signed from Leeds Academy a couple of years ago was accompanied with 7 youngsters from Wigan. These "Wigan" lads came from Dalton ARLFC, Dalton In Furness, Cumbria; Blackbrook ARL St Helens; Oulton Raiders, Leeds; Stanley Rangers, Wakefield; Seaton Rangers, Workington; Folly Lane, Swinton.
Leeds and St Helens tend to fish in their own ponds.

I wonder how many of the youngsters on the tour Warrington considered, made offers to etc and how many turned down, if any, and if so, why? Perhaps we believe that we have a superior Academy roster than the Wigans, Saints, Leeds and co but my concern is that our recruitment policy seems to be less ambitious and thorough than our competition. Perhaps with more success we will be able to attract more local youngsters to first of all start playing the game and that other young players will want to sign for Warrington. Even though we have been saying that for years, I hope so because this must be the life blood of any team, supported by seasoned UK and a few overseas players.

I had hoped our scouting set up had a national outlook too, or at least could spot and recruit talent at Latchford.

I believe at the time Leeds offered him a better education opportunity. At that time we did not have the facility I believe now we have these thing in place.