OPINION: Guardian sports editor Mike Parsons reflects on The Wire’s sensational signing of Greg Inglis this week

EVERY now and then a new signing blows you away – and that’s the case with Warrington Wolves’ capture of Greg Inglis for 2021.

Landing the Australian superstar is up there with The Wire catching Les Boyd, Jonathan Davies, Allan Langer, Andrew Johns, Adrian Morley and current half-back Gareth Widdop in terms of making the world stand up and take notice.

Inglis was trending on Twitter on Tuesday when news broke that one of the greatest players the 21st century has seen wants to take his boots off the peg again in order to help Warrington Wolves take the next step as a Super League giant.

Make no mistake, this is a huge statement by Wire chiefs in the relentless pursuit of a championship title that has, this month, eluded them for 65 years.

Throwing this rugby league Collosus, in both stature and his place in the sport, into a Wire backline already lavished with some special international talent is notice of exciting times to come.

It almost makes me want to do a 'goanna crawl', Inglis' trademark try celebration that Wire fans of all ages will fall in love with next year.

He can play anywhere in the backs, which is a further bonus to head coach Steve Price, but I expect the intention will be to play him in the centres where his devastating running game can be exploited to the max in order to provide the kind of dynamism that champion sides need.

It seems GI, as Inglis is commonly known in the game, is realising ‘you are a long time retired’ and it is to the benefit of Warrington Wolves.

When this hulk of a human being hung up his boots at South Sydney Rabbitohs 13 months ago there would have been a few who have had the daunting task of marking him in the NRL that would have breathed a sigh of relief.

Now the back divisions across this side of the world can fear for the rest of the year about how they are going to stop the 6ft 4ins and 18st juggernaut from trampling all over them, or prevent him unleashing the skill set that widely saw him recognised as one of the greatest players of his generation over 14 seasons.

He is a three-times NRL Grand Final winner, a World Club champion, with all the individual accolades – including former world player of the year – to back up that statement.

And now that he has got his appetite back, and is feeling fresh after a succession of recurring niggling injuries, when The Wire unleash the beast in 2021 Super League rivals will have to be on red alert.

He may be a little rusty at first after a long lay-off, or he may come out with all guns blazing, but champion players do not lose their abilities and class which will shine through.

Questions are being asked because he will have been out of the game for nearly two years by the time next season commences, and of course he's not a spring chicken any more in terms of rugby league playing age.

I hope he gets written off by the media and rival fans across the European game as well as back home because the more he feels he has to prove himself again the more devastating he will be.

This all so very much reminds me of the capture of another Queensland legend in 1999, when then head coach Daryl Van de Velde tempted the great Allan Langer out of retirement.

Alfie was an instant hit and certainly didn't look to have been impacted by his 'retirement' break.

He loved it over here in 2000 and 2001, showed he had lost none of his class and – along with the likes of Tawera Nikau and Andrew Gee in the side – gave the town such a buzz about watching The Wire play.

Without any disrespect to the Wire boys of that time, the talent pool that will be surrounding Inglis will be superior to that in the trenches with Langer who joined a club in descent – not one on the rise as it is now.

Watching The Wire with Inglis deserves to be the hottest ticket in Super League, not just Warrington, next year.

To say the Inglis signing came from left of field would be an understatement.

He just wasn't on people's radar with having retired and working in a development role at South Sydney.

The Wire did a first-class job in keeping the negotiations under wraps.

And because of that it gave all Wire fans a ‘wow’ feeling when the details emerged and caught the world on the hop on Tuesday.

In what has been a very difficult period in life, never mind sport, with the global coronavirus pandemic and subsequent UK lockdown, this was just the news the doctor ordered to provide a light at the end of a tunnel and something to feel pumped up about further down the line.

Already talk is being thrown around about whether GI will 'do an Alfie' and make a comeback for Queensland in the State of Origin next year.

Another ex-Wire player Kevin Walters is already quoted in interviews Down Under to say the door will always be open, while Inglis himself has laughed it off.

I will go one step further. What about Inglis playing for Australia in the 2021 Rugby League World Cup taking place on these shores.

The Kangaroos have had a policy of not selecting players from outside of their own NRL competition but if Inglis turns it on for The Wire there will be a clamour from Down Under and will the selectors be able to resist the fairytale ending that such a career deserves?

And we are living in a changing world after all.

Although that's for much later down the line, I like the idea of the carrot being dangled in front of Inglis to further cement his desire to set The Wire alight in the first place so that he has a case for what could be the greatest comeback of all.