The whole squad is currently assembled on the basis of them been Cheshire/Lancashire based but how is this helping?
In 2001 and 2006/7 our best championship squads, we had multiple players from Yorkshire, some from Cumbria and even some Aussies!
Limiting ourselves to local players equates to signing players from a small pool has contains low quality players.
Why do we continue with this policy?
The world was a different place then?
Just a thought.
I suspect lack of money has a lot to do with it.The Yorkshire players do a lot of moving from club to club in the Yorkshire area too in the main.
The whole squad is currently assembled on the basis of them been Cheshire/Lancashire based but how is this helping?
In 2001 and 2006/7 our best championship squads, we had multiple players from Yorkshire, some from Cumbria and even some Aussies!
Limiting ourselves to local players equates to signing players from a small pool has contains low quality players.
Why do we continue with this policy?
We went bust in 2007, and 2018/9 (different circumstances) mainly for paying out more than we could afford. Local players who have full-time jobs are the easiest/cheapest option. Not many would travel from Cumbria or Yorkshire after a days graft, 3 times a week for training, alone. And the days of signing Aussies are long gone, unless we get an exceptional 'Backpacker' on his year out travelling.
Paulie xx
I understand it is different but Yorkshire clubs still have Lancashire players for them.
Even a few Widnes lads have played recently for Yorkshire clubs, most recent been Tom Gilmore, Fozzard, Speakman and others.
Barrow recently had players from PNG and Cook Islands while other Cumbrian clubs attract Lancashire players.
So surely a lot of the responses of “been a different time or costs” are unsubstantiated.
@pauliewalnuts to be fair Whitehaven have signed about 4 Aussies for this season, not sure on the setup there. Sheffield usually have a few Pacific Island players in their squad.
We have singed 2 Leeds based players this season, Reilly and Kirk from Batley and Sheffield.
But if you are training twice in the week, on a Saturday, playing on Sunday and doing a 3 hour round commute plus having a regular Monday to Friday job it must be difficult. Gilmore and Langtree have both gone more local after being at Batley and Barrow.
@dan1 Exactly my point Dan, it seems like Widnes is the only club having this issue.
Presently, we recruit players and coaches based on their distance to Widnes. Coleman I am sure was hired for that reason and also, his low cost.
Since 2019, we appear to only exist to survive and be a sustainable championship side. While other teams who are far smaller than Widnes, show far more ambition.
@.... Coleman I am sure was hired for that reason and also, his low cost...../quote]
You appear to know all about about Coleman's contract, how much does he earn then?
I’d say we are still learning to walk after an almost complete collapse of the club in 2018/19, the board have very limited funds, if any. The coach and half the squad are new so will take time. We haven’t had a consistent leader since Betts and time will tell if Coleman is the right appointment. I believe he will do an honest job and will get the best out of the players he has. I’d like to think that we have found a coach who wants to compete at the top and puts in his all, compared to previous coaches. The pe teacher helped us out when we needed him but I think AC will do a good job
He'll be sacked by June we already can't tackle and his first statement of Widnes are soft will stay the same this season we are too small and will get a good few pastings this season I'm afraid realistically a 9/10 th place finish at best
We’ve not matched the top 6 championship teams recruitment wise but if we gel as a team and AC can the get the best out of them we could make the playoffs. This would be an improvement from previous seasons and then hopefully get more sponsorships next season and have more to recruit. I just watched the Mo Agoro try for oldham, he’d of been a good signing for us