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The Dragons are in big trouble at the moment, considering that they have no guarantee that Will Rowlands and several other players will stay. The situation in Wels is currently difficult, and the players whose contracts are expiring will probably go to England or somewhere else.
"Will's in the same bracket as every player in our club who is out of contract and we're in the same bracket as the other regions," said Flanagan, as quoted by walesonline.co.uk "I'm surprised you're just saying English clubs, surprised it's not French clubs, Japanese clubs and clubs in Super Rugby because he's one of the best second-rows in the world so I'm pretty sure if there are clubs out there, they'd all be into Will.
I can only be a transparent and honest person at heart and I'm going to be as honest as I can. At the moment, we don't know our budget. We can't speak to players. If one player is out of contract, another 20 are in the same boat.
I'm trying to be as transparent as I can."
Dai Flanagan on the players
Dragons boss Dai Flanagan has highlighted the problem his team is in. "It's challenging because like every other region, we don't know our budget for next year," he added.
"We're in a process as the WRU to try to make sure we're in a stable game moving forward, so I'm sure there's reasons behind but that's above me. My job is to coach and prepare this team. I speak to individuals as often as possible to reassure them and make sure they know they're important to us.
Hopefully we can get some proper conversations going as soon as possible. When I first came in and was speaking to people, it was about what we wanted to be. We wanted to be the place in Welsh rugby, if not British rugby, where we do things right all the time.
If you do things right, it's a place people want to be around. That's what we want to build here." The players are showing patience, but they know that the situation is very difficult. The solution is in sight, and they need money.
"I've been a player myself and you get to this time of year and you get nervous. You've got families and bills to pay. It's not nice. I have a lot of empathy for these players. Hopefully we get it sorted sooner rather than later.
"The players have been superb. They stick together and they're an extremely tight unit. They're one in, all in and it's very easy for me to manage the group then. They're very protective of each other and rightly so. As a players' union, they have to protect each other."