Bok headlines Wasps exodus
TRANSFER NEWS: Wasps are lined up to lose three of their biggest stars by the end of the season.
Rumoured financial difficulties at the Coventry-based club have been circulating for months and that uncertainty around their finances has added to speculation around the future of a number of their biggest players.
The lack of new training facilities has also been rumoured to be a significant source of discontent for Wasps’ senior players. The team currently train at Broadstreet RFC, but a promised state-of-the-art £5 million training facility is yet to materialize.
Chris Foy writing in The Daily Mail has now named three players that look likely to leave the club – Elliot Daly, Nathan Hughes and Willie le Roux.
Rumours around Daly’s future at the club surfaced a number of weeks ago, and while head coach Dai Young has pointed out that he is contracted beyond this season, the Daily Mail report that a clause in his contract could see him exit it early.
Hughes, on the other hand, has been heavily linked with a move to the cash-rich Bristol Bears, although it is likely that deal would only go ahead if the West Country side avoids relegation.
In any case, Wasps may not be able to match the £500,000 the Bears have reportedly put on the table.
Fullback Le Roux is apparently set to move to Japan, and his high salary and his unexpected stint with the Springboks this past November, will mean the club may be eager to spend his salary on a player that won’t be out of action during international windows.
Young told RugbyPass previously that: “This could be Willie’s last season with Wasps, but there is an option for another year and we will have a sit-down and talk about what he wants to do after the World Cup in Japan.”
This week Wasps deputy chairman Nick Eastwood told RugbyPass regarding the club’s financial health: “We are not the sick man of English rugby and we are in phase when we have to invest in the business.
“There is a realistic possibility that in three years the game will look very different financially than it does now.
“Dai is always planning 18 months in advance and we are well ahead in our thinking about how to divvy up the money for players going forward.
“Essentially, you have the salary cap and two marquee players, so if there is an influx of Southern Hemisphere stars post-World Cup then the only way you could get them would be to replace one marquee player with another or get rid of enough salary under the cap to afford whatever the player is asking for. It is as simple as that.
“There are probably half the Premiership clubs who are around the cap figure, two or three relatively close and the others have a got a bit of room.”
Sources: Daily Mail & RugbyPass
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