IT’S been a real emotional roller-coaster ride for Giants fans this week - and not just on the field.

Unfortunately, Huddersfield were in the Super League headlines for all the wrong reasons after suffering their shock 38-34 Magic Weekend defeat to Salford City Reds at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium six days ago.

But they’ve also been the centre of attention in terms of the future of two of the club’s biggest and brightest stars.

First, there was the stunning announcement that highly-influential captain Kevin Brown would be joining Widnes next season after signing a four-year contract.

Then three days later, the Giants confirmed full-back Greg Eden – one of the most exciting emerging talents in the game – had signed a contract extension which will keep him at the Galpharm Stadium until the end of the 2015 season.

And it’s more than possible the deals weren’t completely co-incidental.

It’s to be assumed the 21-year-old Eden’s new contract is worth a fair amount more than the one he penned when he signed from Castleford Tigers at the end of 2011.

After admitting he’d set himself a target of making 10 Super League appearances this year, Eden has already played 16 first-team games and scored 11 tries and been hailed as the ‘British Billy Slater’ by head coach Nathan Brown. Praise doesn’t get much greater than that.

As a result, many Giants fans feared Brown would be tempted to take the rising star to St Helens in 2013 to replace the ageing Paul Wellens as Saints’ next No1.

The fact he isn’t has certainly been well received by the claret and gold faithful.

But would a new, enhanced deal for Eden have been possible had Giants loose-forward Brown elected to remain in Huddersfield rather than move to Widnes and nearer to his family?