Kris Radlinski delivers unique insight into club’s salary cap planning, including marquee players

Super League’s current salary cap is £2.1million, while clubs are able to spend more through dispensations such as the marquee player rulings, which added a homegrown spot ahead of the 2024 season.

Off-season signing Luke Thompson currently holds that position for the Warriors, with superstars Bevan French and Jai Field the other two marquee players at the club.

The transfer window officially opens on May 1, with off-contract players free to negotiate with other clubs beyond this date.

And former full-back Radlinski admits a part of his job is the constant contract negotiations alongside head coach Matt Peet, labelling it as a 365-days-a-year job - not just beyond May 1.

“A part of my job is looking and seeing who’s next. I think May 1 is a bit of a myth. If people are waiting until then to do their business, they’re not doing their jobs,” Radlinski said.

“It’s a 12-month-of-the-year business. You obviously can’t approach people at different clubs, but for me and here, Matt and I start to look around November at contracts. We got Kaide Ellis, Junior Nsemba, Brad O’Neill tied down for long contracts.

“What’s difficult in succession planning to a degree in a salary cap sport, you don’t know what’s going to change in the rules, and you also have to take a gamble on things as well.

“Squad planning and succession planning is no way near May 1, it’s a full-time job in itself.

“One of the things that people don’t realise, I always say when you tie a player down on a long-term contract, someone has to go as well.

“We’ve all seen how well Junior is playing and we knew he’d be a player, so we had to invest in Junior knowing that he might not have an impact originally on the salary cap, but next year he gets a significant improvement.

“So then it’s managing that, it’s falling off the other end somewhere, it’s people who have perhaps reached a certain age and they start gettting less money. It’s a constant cycle.

“And in a salary cap sport, you can’t take one signing in isolation.

“You might sign someone and people question it, but you don’t always know how much we paid, his injury status, the impact he can have on the group, there’s a whole plethora of information that we have to consider before making a decision.

“I think that’s the difference from our sport to others without a salary cap, signings can be taken in isolation, but not in ours.”

Radlinski, who has been in the role as chief executive since January 2023, also believes that the salary cap should be increased in relation to current inflation.

He also stated that Sky Sports’ previous reports of Wigan’s £3.1million salary spend wasn’t accurate.

“The salary cap is there at 2.1m, but with dispensations, you spend more and that becomes the club’s or owner’s decision on how much you want to invest in the squad,” Radlinski explained.

“I don’t like that the salary cap has been static for the last few years. Inflation in that time has seen everything go up, so I think it should be linked to inflation.

“Revenues are going the other way, so there’s not really a strong argument. But with inflation, everything is costing more money, including players. But it’s never been considered and everything is going up.”