Jon Wilkin slams St Helens’ ‘penny-pinching’ recruitment in huge rant
Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has laid into St Helens' recruitment.
St Helens legend and Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has launched an extraordinary tirade at the club’s recruitment in recent years: dubbing it ‘sub-standard’ and accusing the club of ‘penny-pinching’.
The Saints have gone from arguably the best club in the world to a team struggling to make the Super League play-offs for the second successive season.
A number of greats from that all-conquering side that won four Super League titles in a row have departed, with replacements including Moses Mbye and Tristan Sailor flattering to deceive.
And Wilkin has laid into the club’s recruitment policy in a pre-match discussion on Sky Sports.
He said: “Let me talk people through this. We talk about recruitment and how Saints have got it wrong. Tommy goes out Kyle comes in everyone can see that. Kyle Feldt’s not played, Will Hopoate goes out and Deon Cross has only just come in.
“Lewis Dodd goes out who’s a seven and you bring in Tristan Sailor who is playing on the wing tonight, for me recruitment at St Helens has been poor. It’s been based on penny pinching and making deals with players who are sub-standard and not good enough to be at a club like this.”
Wellens then accused the club of being too reliant on their promising young players – with an ageing squad now struggling to compete at the top end of the competition, coupled with that aforementioned poor recruitment from overseas.
“They’ve brought in overseas players who are simply are cheap in the marketplace,” he said.
“There’s far too much reliance upon youth and bringing young players through. Wow, Harry Robertson of course, I get excited when you see somebody like that. That’s one in 15 players – there’s 35 players in a squad and there’s a huge amount of them are bottom-heavy.
“Plus when you go to the top end of the squad, Alex Walmsley is 35 now, Jonny Lomax is 34.. father time is cruel in sport. We know that’s the case. It’s an inevitability that it’s an ageing squad, over-reliant on young and inexperienced players with overseas players who just aren’t doing it.”
