THE rugby league rumour mill is heating up with speculation Trent Barrett will hand in his resignation and quit as Manly coach sooner rather than later.

It comes on the back of a horror few months for the northern beaches club, which began with punishments for salary cap breaches and has included the Jackson Hastings drama plus a host of player injuries.

Now Fox Sports’ chief NRL reporter James Hooper has revealed former Sea Eagles players approached Barrett last year and warned him against signing a new contract with the club.

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“There were people up on the northern beaches who have previously played for the Sea Eagles who went to Trent last year, the end of last year, and they told him don’t sign that new contract,” Hooper told NRL 360.

“Because this is all going to go pear shaped and it’s all going to fall into your lap.

“The leadership has been horrible up there. The way he’s been thrown front and centre, forced to front everything until Lyall Gorman decided to step out last Sunday ... that’s not leadership.

“I feel for Trent at the moment. I feel a lot of what has transpired at Manly — certainly the salary cap punishments and the roster that has been assembled — that hasn’t been a lot of his doing but he has been left holding the mug in his arms so to speak.”

Hooper has heard the speculation Barrett is considering quitting the job.

“You could understand if those types of conversations were going on,” he said.

“I spoke to Trent last night, and he didn’t give me any indication at all that he was thinking of walking away.”

Barrett has been criticised for publicly declaring Hastings would not be considered for NRL selection due to a supposed rift with other players.

But a string of injuries could yet force his hand in picking the exiled playmaker.

The coach was visibly upset in his post-match press conference at the weekend when speaking about the dire roster situation.

He’s also been forced to comment on the salary cap scandal, which has put the club in a sticky situation in regards to their roster and recruitment.

Channel Nine has reported Manly is in the process of hiring a recruitment manager to assist Barrett with that side of the business.

But NRL 360 co-host Paul Kent says he would not blame Barrett for wanting to leave the club.

“If Trent Barrett walks away I think full credit to him, because he’s left dealing with the fallout from a lot of decisions that weren’t his doing,” Kent said.

“The problem is if he stays and they continue to lose is we’ll all forget about this, and at the end of the year when his contract is up ... he’ll have three busted years as head coach and everyone will say he can’t coach, and suddenly his reputation is tarnished.

“There’s a lot of one-contract coaches in the game who do not a great job and they don’t come back.

“Trent Barrett doing this is very much like when Wayne Bennett sacked himself at Newcastle. “He said I can’t be around to fix this up, and he knew the damage it was going to cause.”