Carter: Hands off our stars
Wakefield chairman Michael Carter says his club won’t be selling off its best players to the highest bidders.
In the past Wakefield has been forced to offload some of its stars, including Tim Smith, Kyle Amor and Ben Cockayne for financial reasons.
More recently Trinity has fielded offers for the likes of Tom Johnstone and Jacob Miller.
But Carter said these key individuals won’t be departing.
“It’s been well documented we’ve had plenty of interest in Tom,” he told Love Rugby League.
“I had another conversation with somebody three weeks ago with Tom and to be fair the guy that was asking said I’m asking on behalf of my head coach, I know what the answer’s going to be but I’ve got to ask the question.
“So that message is out there that were not looking to sell our best players.”
Warrington were linked with Miller, who is off-contract at the end of 2017, late last year.
“The thing with Jacob, and in fairness to Warrington I never got an official approach from Warrington even though that was kind of documented, but the answer would have been the same,” Carter explained.
“Jacob’s our player for 2017, we’ve planned our squad that we feel that we’ve got enough depth in all the areas on the field and last year Jacob and Finny virtually played every game and we had no real cover outside of that.
“We’ve brought Sam Williams in with the idea if the guys need a rest we’ve got the opportunity to rest them now.
“We’ve got a couple of Easter Weekends involved with the England situation so we’re going to need every player that we’ve brought into this squad and we’ve brought them in for a reason and we don’t want to let them go.
“Jacob’s out of contract at the end of next year and if he gets a better offer and decides he wants to go at that point I will shake his hand and say we’ve done everything to try and keep you but I understand you want to go and try something else, then that’s fine with me.
“But he certainly isn’t for sale for the time being.”
Miller has resurrected his career at Trinity after leaving Hull FC and was in dynamic form in 2016.
Carter believes the Australian halfback is happy at Belle Vue.
“I’ve got that message across that when he first came to Hull he was a younger man at that time and having been born in Hull I know what the goldfish bowl affect is in Hull on both sides of the river and it obviously didn’t suit him,” he said.
“He’s found a home and he’s playing some of his best rugby and I said to him there will be times where you could undoubtedly earn more money elsewhere than you can here, but what price do you put on happiness and you’ve got to think about that not just for him but for his family.
“They’re settled in the Wakefield area, he’s got young children so I think that all needs to be taken into account at the same time whilst the club does their best to reward the player appropriately.
“But as always here it’s within a budget that we stick to, everything that we can bring in revenue-wise will help to attract and maintain the calibre of players we’ve got within that squad.”