Paul Wellens discusses St Helens future and shares recruitment plans for 2025
St Helens head coach Paul Wellens
Paul Wellens insists he is yet to hold talks over his future as coach of St Helens beyond this season – but stresses that he is ‘comfortable’ about waiting to find out whether he will be in charge in 2025.
Wellens signed a two-year contract with the Saints to become head coach at the start of last season. That deal, however, has an option in the club’s favour for an extra year in 2025.
No talks have taken place yet, but Wellens insists he is relaxed about the prospect of waiting until later in the year before holding talks with the club’s hierarchy about a new deal.
“I haven’t held talks as yet,” Wellens said.
“We’ll have to have that conversation and sit down at some point and have some stability moving forward but I’m very comfortable leaving those discussions for now.”
Wellens also offered an update on the club’s plans for recruitment beyond this year, insisting that any turnover in players is likely to be ‘minimal’.
The Saints are set to lose Lewis Dodd to the NRL, while rumours have suggested Tommy Makinson could join Catalans in 2025. But when asked about how big a turnover they expect to go through next year, Wellens stressed: “I think it’ll be minimal.
“We’re going to have a couple that move on but that happens.”
When asked in particular about the plans to potentially replace Dodd at scrum-half, Wellens appeared to suggest nothing had been ruled out.
He said: “Our recruitment model is that we always want to retain our better players. We’ve had a lot of success in doing that, and had a number of players who’ve been here a long time.
“We always try to retain but should we have players that move on, which has happened in the past, and we have an adequate and suitable replacement in our club, great.
“Will Roberts has returned from a similar injury to Agnatius Paasi and George Whitby in the academy will come full-time with us during the summer. So there are options.”
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