It did, I agree, but the context in which I made the point was not in regards to the court case.

I am merely stating that us inserting a clause in his contract does not exactly guarantee that we would get him back again.

Pretty under whelmed by this announcement I'm afraid. Pretty much repeating what a few have said but I'd like to think he been retained to fight it out with a few players for a place in the side. I'm still clinging onto the hope that we will still be adding some quality to our backline, but I'm doubting it now.

If we go into next year with Sheriffe/Sykes we will still have the same defensive weaknesses and it won't matter who we have playing at halfback. Also I'd love to see the stats for how many balls he drops with either the line at his mercy or a chance to break. He seems to drop a few too many for a side who are apparently still wanting to compete for trophies.

That's right but if we did improve at halfback and other areas we'd probably do a bit better as that'd cancel out the Sykes/Sheriffe/Deacon/Jeffries defensive drag factor.

not sure what to make of sykes re-signing. As a utility player to cover /fullback/standoff combined with homegrown status,backup kicker and a relatively low wage then its a decent enough signing. If he's being retained as first choice , given his pretty obvious defensive problems then its a poor signing.

Like others have said, not really going to pass judgement until we get to see full picture re player retention/recruitment for next year.

not too worried about the various rumours about sam to manly as most of them seem to start with certain leeds posters. Bit like the rumors we got every year about big les/hape to leeds. And worst case if he did go we'd get a big transfer fee and free up a decent chunk of cap space in an area where we have a lot of players coming through from youth system ( not saying they're in the same bracket as sam at the moment, but from majority of reports theirs a lot of potential coming through).

I read this on another forum but it's a good point, Both Sykes and Rikki Sheriffe were on the verge of England selection playing goood rugby week in week out under Brian Mac, under Steve McNamara they look Championship stndard at most. McNamara needs to go.

I don't agree with that.

I said at the time, if Sheriffe and Sykes got anywhere near selection for England, we were obviously very short of good players.

They weren't very good at Quins and, especially Sykes, were incredibly overrated there. I could never understand why the praise was given so much when I really couldn't see it.

I don't think it's coaching that has made Sykes a worse player. I just don't think he's ever been that good.

Sykes's re-signing really does depend on what the plan is with him, and until the season kicks off, we'll never know.

I would like to think that he has accepted a moderate deal, as he's knocking on and having a pretty dismal season, but is home trained and could be very useful cover for several positions. We have very little cover in the backs.

I would be pretty sure that Crossley will be the starter for much of the season, and most of it if he goes anything like as well as we think he can, and if that happens, then keeping Sykes as cover/temporary relief is a sensible move.

I don't know why people are bagging Nero, he's had his best season for years for mine.

Whether we would be in the market for any more big money backs, or indeed if there are any such available, I really don't know. However I've a feeling and certainly a hope that we may see some youthful halfbacks / hooker getting some chances next year. You can never really tell till they are tested, so let's hope we've got some genuine contenders as if we do end up striking lucky with these lads then wouldn't it put a whole new complexion on the new season?

Long day FA?

Presume you mean Crookes!

problem with that is, if we have such players available in the youth setup, you'd have thought we'd have given them a run out this year given injuries to deacon and godwin, instead we brought in rinaldi and played sykes in the halves. This suggests that the youth level halves/hooker arent really upto superleague standard. If we go into next season hoping that our obvious problem in the halves will be magically solved by an unproven academy lad stepping upto the plate then were taking a massive gamble, and given the obvious salary cap available given high profile departures, then it would surely have a serious negative affect on attendances if we dont bring in a high profile signing for this area.

Gotta agree with that, I don't get why people continue to criticise Nero. Quite a few games this year, he's looked one of our most dangerous players. He may not have much competition in the backs as far as danger goes, but the combination of him and Semi on the left is one of the few areas of the team I'm actually quite happy with.

This may be may tendancy to like centres who can defend though, with Nero in a similar mould to the likes of Scotty Naylor and Ben Harris. That may also be why I have such a downer on the likes of Sykes who can't defend.

Playing a prop at centre that's a thought.

I bet he'd defend better

Yeah, so be it. But we will get a handsome payout in the end.

Couldn't be any more of a turnstile than the present incumbent.

I don't see this as too much of a downer, Sykes has shown some attacking flair this season and has a good rugby brain.

It is a shame that he has been so awful in defense, but the whole team have been pretty pants defensively this year so I can't help but feel Sykes has come under a bit much criticism. The ineffective sliding defense that Bradford try to work with just doesn't cut it.

A coach that can teach defense is very much required IMO, I remain hopeful that some decent coaching could improve Sykes' defense.

You get to a certain age and there isn't much any coach can do about basics.

However he might not be so exposed if we were better drilled defensively, and had some discernible systems, but we don't, and don't seem to have had for some time.

It has become such a problem now that McNamara has to do something to change things round, whether that be swapping some of the centres and wingers around or even bringing Menzies back from the second row. Look at Leeds, they switched Scott Donald to the right to accommodate Ryan Hall, and have him playing with a solid centre in Keith Senior to help protect the youngster and it has worked well, even if it did take Donald a while to adapt to the change.

Doing nothing shouldn't be an option, but often seems to be under the current regime.

I think they subscribe to the "If you ignore it long enough then it might go away" theory.

It reminds me a lot of what I used to be like on Football Manager.

Assemble what I think is a good team. Put them out, watch them lose. It's a one off, don't worry about. Watch them lose again. They just need time to get used to one another. Watch them struggle for half a season. Ah but they look good players on paper, so they'll come good eventually. Get relegated. Not understand why they didn't play better as they're obviously good players, maybe I should have changed something?


It's quite worrying that the current coaching seems a lot like my crap Football Manager days....

Hmmm it was the individual training regimes and training in general I could never be bothered with.. just seemed a bit too much effort.

I think he meant Crookes not Crossley.

he has probably only been given a one year extension because there are no available centres on the market that the club are interested in signing, but there maybe the year after. sykes maybe only being used as a stop gap for a year...thats what im hoping anyway.

You don't say we never knew.

why have we signed sykes up again, he's ok attacking wise 1 game in 10 but his defence is awful, not gonna do owt this year now, i'd get rid of him and put crookes at he's home grown so problem solved, he were terrible against cas but Halley nothing short of outstanding and if i were burgess i'd go to Manly