Maybe JJ has stuff going on in his private life and needs a move.
The move has nothing to do with JJ, it's between the Club & Cas. It's only a loan as Cas are desperate with McShane breaking his arm & Wakey now on their tails. There's nothing sinister going on in his private life, Widnes will be using it as a money saving exercise. It appears the Board have given up on reaching the Play-Offs. It's sad, especially for fans who pledged their money upfront to see the Squad that was announced pre-season. 4 of which have departed, none have been replaced (apart from 2/4 week loanees).
As the Who once sang "We won't get fooled again."
Paulie won't xx.
@pauliewalnuts If the Board have given up on reaching the play-offs, how can they expect fans to turn up for games for the rest of the season?
Could well be the fans could show their concerns by just not bothering to turn up at the Bradford game, where our points difference could take a big hit.
@johnno 🤣
Maybe JJ has stuff going on in his private life and needs a move.
The move has nothing to do with JJ, it's between the Club & Cas. It's only a loan as Cas are desperate with McShane breaking his arm & Wakey now on their tails. There's nothing sinister going on in his private life, Widnes will be using it as a money saving exercise. It appears the Board have given up on reaching the Play-Offs. It's sad, especially for fans who pledged their money upfront to see the Squad that was announced pre-season. 4 of which have departed, none have been replaced (apart from 2/4 week loanees).
As the Who once sang "We won't get fooled again."
Paulie won't xx.
I agree with this - looks like we know we will not reach the play-offs and Cas likely to pay the contract of JJ for the loan period, which I am sure we would prefer not to be doing at this stage of the season and under the circumstances! I have been disapponted with him at both LF and hooker, if I am honest, and Foz has lightning pace from AHB where JJ doesn't. As a senior player in the squad, along with Craven, Amor, Owens and a couple of others, I think it is fair to say that most of the seniors have all been disappointing this season. Whatever has been going on behind the scenes to decimate the squad and apparent morale of the squad has left everybody in tatters. But now is the time for those who remain to show how good they CAN be and keep us afloat in this division in the remaining 9 games.......we just probably need 3 wins and then lets get the show on the road again next season in whatever form that takes and hope for better!! COYV
This post was modified 10 months ago by Erik The Red
@frankg - To be honest I think most fans (myself included) have given up on us reaching the playoffs. The concern now is that we are risking relegation by weakening the squad in order to save money going forward.
Why are we looking at saving money? We have saved on 4 wages through players retiring/leaving
now if the club came out with a statement explaining we are cutting costs this season so as to have a bigger salary next then ok but I’m hearing rumors of us cutting costs even more next season!
the club has to be smarter than they have been and the appointment of CH is questionable, we don’t have a lot of money everyone knows that so bringing in CH is a risk because why waste money on him when that money could be spent on 1-2 players we desperately need
What’s this abut Gilmore and Fev?
Well I really hope this is not true, we will be struggling to put a team out next week
If JJ has the SL clause in his contract as I understand it there isn't a great deal that the club can do, if JJ wants to go. At least we get some payment if he is loaned.
From JJ's point of view he gets a late shot at SL and isn't missing much at Widnes tbh! I like JJ but he is second choice hooker atm with Fozzie playing well.
Agree that the club's lack of information is very poor public relations and certainly doesn't help their cause or ours.
Would a SL release clause count for what appears to be a short term loan deal?
The detail is undoubtedly in the contract. The likelihood is there's nothing we can do about it if he wants to go. The contentious issue is if he's not replaced.
Point completely taken that if he has that clause it is out of the hands of the club. However it’s unlikely Tom Gilmore had a Featherstone release clause yet we appear to have allowed them to make him an offer. Arguably more concerning.
Cas play Leigh on Friday so we should find out tomorrow when Cas name the 21 man squad. Its on the Cas forum about him but nothing official from either us or Cas.
The key question with Gilmore is if he would have accepted Featherstone's offer would he have been allowed to leave? For us a headline signing along with JJ and Amor. Local lad, organiser and a key play maker that are hard to come by. With Craven out injured and us desperate for a half back, Gilmore under contract with us, I can't believe we would have allowed Featherstone to sign him??
From Gilmore's point of view he's late 20's and from Widnes I also think he owns a local business? Part time probably suits him and Featherstone is a long trek. Plus after the season he had at Batley getting to the GF I've no doubt he's on a good contract by Championship standards.
No smoke without fire in RL, this is done.
I agree that the club seem to expect fans to have blind faith and keep giving to the club when they show persistent lack of ambition and investment. The club are giving nothing back to the fans except a fan zone under the stands which is in place to yes you guessed it, put money back into the club. Show a lack of investment in the team and the fans will stop turning up (as is happening) - it's that simple.
We've made a mess of the playing budget this year and overspent on the wrong players. I don't mind JJ leaving as I don't think he's played very well for us but it's essential we get in a replacement. We didn't strengthen the squad when Gilmore was injured, or Craven, or when Amor retired, or when Evans left, and we won't now. Probably bring in a back rower who we don't need on 2 week loan and put Lawton on the bench.
It's another slippery slope in the wrong direction. I said as soon as the dual reg with Rochdale was announced it will hurt us not partnering with a SL club, and it has. Why we don't have a dual reg with Warrington I'll never know, 15 mins down the road and they've a ton of reserve players with SL experience who only play every other week.
If we continue to be happy being a mid-table Championship club it will eventually come down to bite us in the backside and we'll find ourselves in League 1, playing in front of 500 people. The recent history of this club is starting to become very sad.