We all know the board mean well for the Widnes club, but are they looking for new investment. It just seems they are happy running the club, as an average Championship side. The clubs doing well like Leigh and Featherstone have a money man. Be nice to get a buzz in the Town, and something to talk about again. 🥖🥖🥖
I think if someone was to come in with money it would need to be a full scale buy out with negotiations on rights to the stadium. The council are the main obstacle in this.
- All personnel from top to bottom would have to reapply for their position. IMO this is what’s needed to take this club back up to super league and be a sustainable top tier club, the people in place at the moment aren’t the ones to take the club back up. This is by no means an attack on the effort and loyalty from the current staff but rather from a point of view from a professional sports team standpoint. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to current people at the club but we are a mid championship club and going nowhere without heavy financial investment. The clubs signings and head coach are a clear sign of where the club aims to be and seems to be happy to just make up the numbers for the foreseeable
There is no reason why anybody would invest a serious amount of money in a md-range second tier team in a game that is dying a slow death. Sad but true.
Interesting feedback I might have to visit Monaco to see if can influence an investor with my French flair and passion. The game might go back to part time again if Sky pull the plug with there deals, and might be worth waiting as clubs like Salford, Wakefield and Huddersfield would not survive without sky or money backers to be full-time. Even Leigh are only okay due to a backer.
We already have a backer in Viqi who contributes about £200,000 a year to the funds. The people who bailed us out after admin didn’t invest huge amounts but collectively it was sufficient to bail our club out; they now sit on the board and work for nothing for the good of the club. I’ve always found it strange that with our Viqi, 1500 plus season tickets and about fifteen hundred plus walk ups at turnstiles that we are/were in a position below the likes of Barrow, Batley, Dewsbury, York etc. I have no idea what contracts are paid but last year Batley were the lowest paid team in the championship with contracts of eight thousand pounds average; are ours paid much more for part time.
Martin this is what surprises me, when i see clubs with less than half of our fans competing, or doing better than us. Sometimes i think clubs recruit well and get a decent coach. We have not had a good coach for years and sometimes I think this is a very important recruitment. 🤔👍👌
Do Barrow have an investor ? A massive effort from them today against SL opposition.Just shows what can be achieved with a good coach and a wily half back.Theyll be handing us our arse on a plate again soon.
Sad to see our club not doing better when teams like Barrow, Batley, York and Halifax doing better than us. If we lose to Newcastle then Finnigan has to go. Some of the players he has signed have been bang average.
One thing about Barrow is that they own their ground, remember last year they used it as an outdoor bar when you couldn't get served inside. Whilst HBC are hopeless at fan engagement (although tbf the Rule regime left them £380k short in rent IIRC).
Thing is, Whitehaven and Batley were both far better than us last year, so you don't need mega-bucks to get into the Top 6, just smart recruitment and coaching.
On Sammut/Barrow....Matty Smith over his career has been a far better player. Is he being used correctly or is he just being less effective with a beaten pack, or is he (no offence at all intended) past it?
@mckeeverviking I don’t think they are on full time, well just Owens and Craven as they work for the club. Wilde us a trainee policeman and the others have jobs. I also think our recruitment has been good this year with Olly Davis a star signing but coaching for me is not what I expected especially in defence
Good to see the positivity on here. We have lost two league games and are 4th in the league, yet are already writing off the season, the coach, the team and the club!
I am sure the Board would welcome any local investor who came along to put money into the club, to enable us to compete with Leigh for NRL signings, but realistically this is not going to happen for the reasons stated by others.
Of course, the club have ambitions to get into SL, but first of all we need to get to the play-offs and then win them. Probably easier said than done this year, but a play-off position is the least that I would expect this year.
All the investment at Warrington has not given them the success to match the investment, so there is no guarantee of success. How long will Beaumont hang around at Leigh if they fail to get promotion to SL?
Just a thought, but the much maligned Francis Cummins, seems to be doing OK at Wakefield.
A bit more patience is needed. A win against Newcastle and a good strong showing against Leigh, followed by a win against Batley will bring us back on track for the season.
@frankg if we were playing good rugby and just getting beat by the better team on the day people can accept that. It’s when the lads aren’t moving up to meet the attack in defense or trying different tactics in attack that you think to yourself what’s the f”$&ing point watching this sh!$. I’ve been a widnes fan all my life and I understand the situation we’re in but when you are watching a team not improving year after year with bigger budgets than other teams you have to say when’s this going to get sorted out
also you can form an opinion of a player’s ability after watching games and the players we have are either way off their potential or not good enough to push for promotion. Yes we have some younger players this year who will improve over time but will they stay loyal to the club
@martin I mean full time wages for the championship, 30-50k a year
Surely not, no one at Widnes should be on that much; its not practical for a part time club to pay that much. Maybe Craven and Owens as Full timers but I remember talking to a SL player and he said he was earning a decent teachers salary, which isn't 50,000