You still here?

Well if I'm not someone else has stolen my identity.
What a strange question.

But you know I'm correct.

As I've said before Saints are like Wigan were around 2003 - 2005, when we believed (and I was one of them) that our young players would all come through together and make us a force once again. How wrong we were.

I've warned you before about derailing threads, holiday time me thinks

They'd soon give it back.

Actually, you're far from correct as my response to your ridiculous earlier post shows... you chose to ignore that, though, as is your usual style.

But, you know that.

It makes me laugh the amount of time you spend on this forum, some may say that you are OBSESSED with Saints...

You could say, it was time to pull the trigger...

... and with that, immediately back on topic.

With a link that smooth, I should be on radio...

YAY!!

At long last!!

well he wont be for a while.
Anywho, back onto the squad i think its feasable for us not to have Perry and Wello next year, Lance im not so sure about. Shenton on the wing has been muted, but i think that'd be a waste, we have Ade for next year anyway as well as Makinson, Ashe and others who we are going to have to fit into the team soon or release

We're so hamstrung with Hohaiah it's untrue. One of the worst signings I can remember, not necessarily in terms of quality but in terms of length of deal combined with value to the squad. I'd have him as impact hooker, if we have to keep him, with Roby moving to 13 when he's on.

Shenton to the wing might be an option, but only because it's easier to carry an underperformer on the flanks than it is at centre.

Ade showed some great form this season, it's not a position I'd be panicking about replacing.

I agree about Lance, a terrible panic buy.
But i still think we need a proper half back (i'd put a serious bid in for Finch) and a Prop (or 2 if Perry goes)
Perry wasn't a bad signing, it just hasn't worked for whatever reason, these things happen

An organising half has to be top of the list, Finch would be excellent but we'd need to free up a quota space.

Wow Simon, you canned Rouges... you do know that you should be arranging a new identity right now and you'll have to go in to witness protection.

You're joking?

We're getting a statue for him, right next to KC...

Yeah, i'm worried

Saint Simon, I'm willing to try to make babies with you anytime.

Thats just disturbing

You can terminate a player's career without terminating his contract. It's called - being dropped (indefinitely).

Drop him for long enough and chances are he'll come begging to agree (preferable) exit terms.

only if he is young enough to get a contract elsewhere, otherwise he will stay put and take the money....lol

His defensive positioning has over the years, been second to none and it's still pretty damn good. He appears though to have lost half a yard of pace and his reactions have slowed down a tad. 3/4 years ago, Finch would never have stepped him like he did. Offensively, he still gets in the right position but again maybe speed is letting him down. Having said that, if Sts don't offer at least another year or some sort of coaching role, he'll be snapped up by some other team. Sts current standing just shows how much losing a player as good as the big red whinger can do to a side.

Did he have half a yard of pace to lose to begin with?!

That's a risky strategy when operating under the salary cap. Surely it would be better to try to get that player resource in the first team squad contributing positively rather than risking the unrest of the others by demonstrating a management ethic that is not entwined with the way in which we want the club to operate. If they're not good enough to get in the team then yes don't play them but dropping a player indefinitely in the hope that your actions will force the players hand rankles. You can have the strong management approach without behaving in such a way. No matter what our beliefs are players are still employees and should be afforded the level of respect that goes with working for a world class sporting organisation. After all word spreads and if we play hardball with players who have done nothing wrong, other than not perform to the levels we expect then that will carry stigma. I'm not against what you're saying but it's a gamble that can have long-term repercussions for our external recruitment.

Oh FFS.... What is wrong with you anyway? Noone is arguing that many Saints players are massively underperforming and many have for a long time, while Wigan are all riding the crest of a wave - similar to the reversed Saints/Wigan situation immediately pre-Maggie with many of the same players in situ on both sides in fact. Would you have argued that every single one of Wigan's players were worse than every single Saint back then? Don't be so patently one-eyed and ridiculous.

Many/Most of Saints' current squad would outperform most of Wigan's given the same coaching and tactics. At the moment they're performing like a pile of cack because they aren't and haven't for nearly 4 years now. That does not make them bad players for the rest of eternity...

Whilst Wellens has been the second best FB in the SL era (behind Radlinski), he didnt have more than a yard of pace to begin with and 3/4 years ago a cr@ppy wigan centre with no knees skinned him and went the length of the field at the JJB