Warrington chief Tony Smith has shrugged off “unreliable” Chris Sandow’s dramatic Wolves exit.
Sandow quit the Super League club on Monday, after allegedly texting his agent to say he would not be returning to the UK.
It is understood the halfback gave no explanation for not returning to the club, with Smith claiming he was informed Sandow wouldn’t be returning via a phone call from his agent.
Despite the undoubted talents of the 27-year-old, Smith insists he is not disappointed Sandow will not be heading back to the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
“In terms of off-field, there will be a few less grey hairs around the place, that’s for sure,” Smith told TotalRL.
“He was OK for most of it, and at sometimes he was a pain in the proverbial. He was a fair mix, he was certainly a character, as everyone had worked out.
“He brightened us up at different stages and was exciting to watch for a while, but he became a bit unreliable. For him to ring, well not ring, to inform the club, none of it is surprising to us.
“We knew there was risk involved when we recruited him in the first place. On his day he’s capable of doing some really special things, as we saw in the first couple of months of the year.
“We saw glimpses of what he is capable of after that, I don’t think he was as near as comprehensive as he was in the first half of the season.
“If you ask me if I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed in the manner of which we found out rather than the news itself. The other disappointment is timing, but we’ll be fine. It gives us some time to look around, but we’d have liked to have known more directly at the end of the season. To leave it to the last minute before pre-season training started is pretty ordinary. Surprised? No. Disappointed? No. I’m ready to move on and recruit where we can.
“I can honestly say because of what he overall contributed to our squad and our team, I’m not too bothered. I think we can get, hopefully not similar, but we think we can get improvement in an all-round player who could be a bit steadier in some ways on and off the field. I’m not just being cool and calm here, I’m just genuinely not that disappointed.”
