Leicester boss Richard Cockerill has admitted that the club may lose Steve Mafi if the Tonga forward receives offers from overseas.
Mafi has enjoyed a meteoric rise since joining the club as an unknown quantity in 2010. However with his stock rising, Cockerill admits that a good offer may leave the Tigers with no other option but to let him go.
"Steve Mafi is a very different player now to the one who joined us," said Cockerill to the Leicester Mercury.
"If he was English, the fuss people would be making about him would be incredible. To be able to do the things he does at his age would attract huge interest and he would be in the running for a place in the national team.
"Because he is Tongan, the attention he receives is a lot more low-key. As it is, Steve will attract lots of interest from France and especially Japan because that is halfway home for him.
"The money players like Steve could get out there would be considerable.
"Look at Alesana Tuilagi last season. He received an offer from Japan which we didn't even try to compete with because it would have taken up 25 per cent of our salary cap alone.
"It is getting harder and harder to keep the people we have got at this club.
"The salary cap means that, from this year to next year, we could have exactly the same squad. But the players who are out of contract will be 25 per cent more expensive because that is the nature of it. Wages are going up because the market place demands it.
"For each individual, their contract is really important to them and I understand that. But if we add just £5,000 on to each player's contract as a sweetener to try and make them sign again, that adds up to a lot of money.
"The trouble is that the £4.5m salary cap I have to spend stays the same."
Comments
jamesliveinhope says...
@lawynd - "no-one likes us and......oh it turns out we do care a bit" I'll confess to being a little partizan where my own club are concerned but I don't really do the tribal thing.
I absolutely agree that clubs/regions/franchises globally are having trouble keeping up with the money in France but we shouldn't forget that its actually only a fistful of clubs spending at that level and we only need to look at the French clubs in trouble (and the "almost" loss of Wasps earlier this year) to see why the cap exists. So I genuinely don't know the solution.
My complaint about Cockerill's remarks is that they are just spun in an attempt to change the point of attack and when he starts claiming some moral right to players he will lose the argument very quickly.
'Leicester (and the other monied clubs) need to keep it honest - "we can afford to keep up with the Jones's but are hamstrung by the salary cap" will do, then we can have a proper debate.
Posted 22:10 16th December 2012
NHsaints says...
Same old, same old cockers. All the English sides with great academies and player development programmes are the same...look at Northampton, Sale or Newcastle who have developed or revived players for the guiness or aviva premiership like Tonga'uiha, Wilson, Wilkinson, Tait, Downey, Sheridan ect who've all moved on to bigger salaries either abroad or with teams that can afford to pay for them.
Posted 21:19 16th December 2012
lawynd says...
You're clutching at straws, James. Everyone understands that not being able to retain players simply because of money is a global problem, all Cockers is doing is remarking that the same thing is happening to his squad too. Twelvetrees was a different circumstance - he left because he wasn't getting game time.
Honestly, I don't know what your point is apart from to try (and fail) to have a go at Leicester?
Posted 11:41 16th December 2012
jamesliveinhope says...
@lawynd the Cockerill comments relate to his latest hobbyhorse of the loss of players that he (or his club) has nurtured from little babies to the clubs who are paying big salaries.
He made vagueley similar comments when Twelvetrees left, and has commented on Saints' loss of their props.
If he doesn't want Tuilagi to be included in the subject then he shouldn't have mentioned him
Posted 20:14 15th December 2012
Tombomb says...
He's only 22 he looks abouth 35!
Posted 11:51 15th December 2012
lawynd says...
Where on earth does it say that Leicester or Cockerill 'begrudge' Alesana his swansong in Japan? The comments are purely on the economics of the situation, and are bang on the money.
Posted 15:16 14th December 2012
jamesliveinhope says...
sorry I don't buy this - there is clearly not a level playing field between the capped AP and the monied leagues without but that doesn't make the AP model wrong.
Secondly, Mafi has been with them for 2 seasons, he was first team from day 1 and so hasn't come through the academy or any other development system. If he came in chasing the pound then he will leave chasing it there is no way you couldn't argue that he could have developed any differently at any other club.
And I think that they saw the best of Alesana Tuilagi and certainly got their moneys worth, I cannot see that they should begrudge him the opportunity to fluff up his pension in his last couple of seasons.
I think that Cockerill's comments are disingenuous to say the least.
Posted 14:51 14th December 2012
lawynd says...
Cue Peter Tom or Peter Wheeler suggesting the salary cap needs raising again.
Seriously though, looking at the situation that Wales in particular are now finding themselves in, the RFU and AP should re-visit the way that academy credits work and implement something that rewards those players who go on to represent England.
Posted 09:42 14th December 2012