A few people on here keep asking for the club to sign players, where is the club going to get the money to do this? Our Board are not made of money and are probably putting in what they can afford. We really need a Lottery winner or millionaire to come in and prop us up. With gates of circa 3000 we will probably stay where we are at the moment, in the Championship. There is no chance of us reaching SL with the IMG formulae so I guess we will have to make the most of what we have got. Having watched tham since 1950 I have seen the ups and downs over the years and still prefer to watch my home town club than the glorified SL teams.
There should be some cash available that would have been being paid to the two players who have left the club? And also the club themselves have stated that we are looking to strengthen the squad. I don’t think anyone is realistically expecting us to bring any superstars in but there should be/hopefully is some scope.
Sheffield may as well pack up then with their gates of 800.
Another of our issues we have to contend with is if we have a good youngster, in the past from the academy, going forward from the amateur game the likes of Salford pick them up.
There is not much we can do about that.
As regards strengthening I do not see the point while we can cover from within the squad. JJ can play 7 in the next game with Brown covering Fozard from the bench & and move Lyons to 6. The squad all know each others play strange loanees do not.
Bradford had 3 from Leeds last game against Keighley but did not seem to do them much good. Indeed when we had Patton on loan thd other year he was no better than Lyons in strange surroundings
The next few games are easier ones so with Farnworth back for Swinton & Hatton back this week lets see where we are at the start of May.
@geoffw The players we have aint good enough to cover the pivotal positions, bringing in two players won't be strenghtening it will be getting us back to our original number of players. Other clubs are managing to pick up players yet we cannot that is a concern for me. More transparency needed from the club or the next home game attendence will dwindle once again.
Well we are 2 players down from the original squad, both released, a centre and a prop
our long term injuries are another centre and half back
short term prop, winger - I think that’s it
we need cover at centre and half back at least - we should have money available to pay for 2 positions surely
Geoff - the problem with the approach you are suggesting (as I see it) is that if we pick up 3/4 more injuries in the next couple of games which we all know can happen in this sport then we would be struggling to field a team and scrabbling around to get hold of players at zero notice to fill the team sheet.
Farnworth and Hatton are back for Dewsbury. Kear said Johnstone needs to see the doctor so may not be available. Craven is suspended. Amour went off, not sure what's wrong with him but with Farnworth and Hatton back we have enough cover at prop. Owens went off and Kear said he's hopeful it's soft tissue damage and that he won't miss any games.
So Gilmore and Craven are definitely out and Owens and Johnstone are doubtful. If we end up missing all 4 I think we could struggle against Dewsbury. Flemming to full back, Wilde in the centre and I would probably say Brown at stand off alongside Lyons with Fozzard doing 80 mins at hooker.
We need 3 new signings, centre, half back and prop. I would go for 2 either permanent or season long loans and then one on a monthly loan until Gilmore/Roberts can come back into the side.
@dan1 couldn’t agree more with this statement regarding signings. Why the club don’t communicate with us on a more regular basis is baffling, it’s like just turn up to the game on Sunday and that’s it. No attempt to keep the fans engaged with regards to adding more to the match day experience with a band or food entertainment outside the stadium. The board helped us out in our hour of need but we really need to be looking for an investor to take us back up. The club/players have no desire to win the league/promotion as the board doesn’t have the money and the players would be looking for a new club. I don’t live in widnes anymore so I can’t get to the games but I do listen on radio and buy merchandise so I try and contribute that way to the club
@sinbad they have a backer they have a number of key players on 3 year contracts e.g Cory Aston but he's not the only one
Well it seems teams like Featherstone, Sheffield and Leigh have backers to be competitive. It might be an idea our owners go out looking for backers, as we have a better fan base than these teams. The potential for more coming to watch Widnes, and I feel with big Towns and cities around Widnes we could at least try. Someone might like a project like Backhouse for example.
Who are all these big name players at Sheffield ?Last time I checked they had a 37 years old at half back who was already past his best in 2010.
It's looking quite obvious now that as long as we can muster 17 bodies together in the dressing room at 2pm on a Sunday then no more players will be joining.
@sinbad If Sheffield can only muster 800 or so spectators the IMG would count them out. Like Huddersfield they must be a voice crying in the RL wilderness and dependent on a charitable supporter - not a good image for a would be nationwide sport!
@pascal we're surrounded by St Helens Warrington and Liverpool, two have Rugby League teams already and scousers watch the round ball.
We've been successful in the past and outsiders have never been interested apart from when the Welsh used to venture up on the odd occasion.
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