It was the one game of the season so far that did matter, but never mind. It's only a game and I'm stuck going to a wedding that Saturday and couldn't have gone to Wembley anyway. And I didn't have to spend my Saturday afternoon being surrounded by 6-toed knuckle-dragging types so everyone was happy

Yes, and I'd remortgage my house for Newlove, Hunte and Judas to go with him, but those players simply don't exist in the British game anymore and we sadly have to make do with what is available instead and that, depressingly, is Shenton, Makinson, Wheeler, Foster, Gardner and maybe Turner. Nothing the signing fantasists rant about is going to change that unpallatable fact.

Of course they exist, they are just not at Saints.

They're not on this continent either!!!

As Top Saint beat me to pointing out, there are lots of players of that quality around, but practically none that wouldn't fill an overseas quota spot, or cost a very large amount of salary cap.

Must try harder. D-

Says a fan of a club with Carmont and Gelling on one side. He's faster than both of those.

I reckon Shenton in a straight line would be quite quick. It's just that no one has ever seen him have a run at Saints as he's never made a break.

One of which is a centre who has never played on the wing and the other is actually a second row by trade and isn't even a first choice winger and is only playing because Richards is injured and Russell and King werent ready when tried there. I thought Saints fans would have had higher standards than comparing their wingers, or potential wingers, to Wigan players that really arent. I would even doubt if Shenton is any quicker than those two anyway.

Shenton is a lot faster than Pat Richards while we're at it too.

And yet you say



If you have no idea how quick Shenton is how can you make such stupid statements. Shenton has been burned for pace time and time again this season and I would seriously doubt he is faster than Richards. I am sure that most SL fans would rather have Richards on the wing than Shenton.

Richards is in Wellens' class. His threat isn't from his speed.

Atkins and Bridge are a decent pair, I reckon those could be comparable to Hunte, not Newlove though.

In maybe now yes, before his injury in the 2010 GF he would have skinned shenton.

Luckily Richards has other qualities than just speed.

Putting Shenton to wing, something does not ring true about this.

That Brown would already have stated this as his intent would seam unlikey. If we are going to push Shenton to wing ahead of Makinson and Swift and Foster et al and we know this, then why continue with him at centre now. Put Josh jones in his centre spot and get him used to the wing.

Turner may have signed.
Shenton may be wanting to leave.
But Shenton to wing just does not sound true.

thats because bits balls, shenton is a centre, and pehaps if he bulks up and gains strength a 2nd row. the pace for wing he has not

It's precisely this kind of attitude which has seen us slide away into mediocrity. [i"There's nothing we can do - so let's just huddle down and accept failure"[/i. You're this site's very own Wallace Hartley - stoically playing "Nearer My God To Thee" on the deck of the Titanic as she slowly slips beneath the waters and into the oily black depths.

Six weeks ago there were simply no possible centres or wingers available that could improve upon Saints first team regulars. Which is odd given that Josh Jones - with a handful of games under his belt - has looked every bit as useful as Gary Wheeler whilst Adam Swift (yet another wet-behind-the-ears rookie) has weighed in with a brace of hat-tricks and shown glimpses of safe hands and excellent footwork.

People were saying there are no centres or wingers we can realistically get now as we cant or wont pay a transfer fee,not there are non around

To stretch your analogy then, do you think it would have made much difference to the Titanic's fate if the putative Mr. Hartley had started frantically bailing with a tea cup instead? I hope to God that the likes of Swift and Jones do develop into top-class players and allow us to bin the likes of Shenton in a year or two, but they are a very long way away from that finished article yet, and show me 20 great teenage players and I'll show you 1 or 2 great SL players 3 or 4 years down the line if you're lucky. I prefer not to bin my proven, experienced class players just because they're on a bit of a down in a badly coached and struggling team until I have found proven quality to be able to replace them with if that's all the same to you? Build a backline around the U20s next season as you are apparently so eager to do and then we really would see a team struggling to make a top 8 finish...

Correct, Wigan tried it around 2003 - 2005 with Briscoe, Hodgson, Aspinwall, Brown and Robinson. We all know what happened next.

Last season we almost had a full backline of u20s at certain times and yet we managed to get to another Grand Final, an achievement we don't look remotely capable of doing this season with almost a full senior team available to us.

Yeah but at the time they were all turd. Most still are.

On the subject of Shenton while he has played the majority of his career at either 3 or 4 centre he played a number of games on the wing at 2 and 5 for Castleford.

Personally think his height, pace and running style are better suited to the wing.
Centres need to be able to create space for the wingers by agility, guile or strength. He imo possesses none of these attributes.

What he does possess is decent pace, he isnt lightening, but is significantly faster than Gardner. He also is a good broken field runner in that once in space he has a good swerve and evasiveness. Unfortunately at centre we dont see this because he doesnt have the space to get going and doesnt have the strength to bust tackles and agility from a standing start to create something.
Shentons height should also prove an advantage dealing with kicks in both defensive and offensive situations. We have already seen Saints utilise this aspect of his physique on occasion. If played on the wing we could use this even more.

The main worry for me would be how Shenton handles the workrate dealing with kick returns.

Who said anything about building an U20s backline? I didn't. But top marks for putting words in my mouth. Your problem is in laying the blame for Shenton's entire Saints career - pre and post injury - [ientirely on the shoulders of others[/i. [iIt's the coach's fault (Simmons and now, presumably, Cunningham and Rush). It's his team-mates' fault. He gets no decent service from others etc. etc. blah. blah. blah[/i. In your do-lally world Shenton is completely free from all personal responsibility. But his TEAM MATES & COACH - they CLEARLY have a responsibility to give him the ball on a silver platter as often as he chooses. Which is entirely ridiculous. All players - no matter how bad their service (debatable in the case of Shenton - anyhow), coaching etc. must do the best with the cards they are dealt. And Shenton hasn't.

On the other hand - kids like Jones & Swift have taken precisely the same measly hand (according to you) and called, bluffed etc. their way to the Oceans XIII table. Perhaps their performances will drop off. Who knows? But until such time I'll pick my FORM over your (sic) "reputation".

Yeah, they lost patience, got rid of them all, signed Moran, Orr, Calderwood, Vaeliki and almost got relegated.

talk about jumping out of the frying pan into the fire......at least we have made that mistake and learned from it.

on their day saints are a match for any team with the current squad as was seen when you beat Wire and Leeds

No... but ocassionally getting it might be nice... Jones has played on the left so sees the ball. Shenton doesn't and hasn't. And is still [iclearly [/iinjured. And Jones, all hyperbole and usual Saints kneejerk supporter BS aside, hasn't exactly set the world on fire yet (not surprising given his age/experience). Shenton towards the end of last season (when he was settling down a bit and pre-injury) was a far better player then Jones has approached being yet.

Saints (rightly or wrongly) spent a large amount of money ordaining Shenton as our #1 centre for the following 3 years and then never bothered passing him the ****ing ball. I'd still love to know how exactly anyone could have expected any different an outcome to his Saints career considering...