Now that Solomona is off to Warrington - how do people view this?

Mac has taken a bagging and a half for signing him, and has been compared highly unfavourably with Tony Smith, esp. with regard to Wire's improvement inform.

So what of his decision to acquire Solomona, who is one year older, dare I say a gram or two heavier, and the sore side of a major shoulder op.?

Was Mac wrong to sign him?
If so why is Smith right to sign him?
One of them must be wrong.

Warrington what with their continued signing spree are being widely tipped as the great white hope for 2010 so who's the dud? Is it Smith, or is it Solomona?

I don't think Macca was wrong to sign him. He wanted a player who could provide some spark and Solomona was capable of that. For whatever reason it hasn't worked out for both parties.

I do think more could have been done to improve Sol's fitness though, he shouldn't have had a belly like he had for most of the time he was at Bulls and I expect to see a trimmed down Sol in 2010.

I also don't think Tony Smith is wrong to sign him, he's probably signed him on a contract which matches his value 3 years the difference to when we signed him. We signed him and expected a 'star' and probably gave him wages that a star player would get at every club up and down the league, where as Smith has signed him as an injury prone, & inconsistent player at the back end of his career.

There will probably be a big difference in salaries and I expect Wolves to get good value for money.

I can't believe Sol's fitness was as cut-and-dried an error on Bradford's part as people make out. What's being suggested, they just turned a blind eye?

As for the initial question, every signing is a punt to some extent. I agree with TM that Sol'09 is a very different signing to Sol'06 (no fee for a start). I think his signing has been vindicated by how we've missed him when he's been injured or out of form.

He'll probably have a couple of blinders against us.

A change of clubs might give him that extra motivation to get really fit, whereas if he stayed with us his mindset may be that of just playing out a final season.

From our perspective, by releasing him we can bring in a new player who will freshen things up and strengthen other areas of the squad. If he does play well for Warry it wouldnt necessarily mean that we had made a mistake by letting him go.

Who is this then?

IIRC at the time you signed Sol from us, it was your board that wanted him. They wanted a big name player (not sure if you had lost Hape/Volcano at that point??) to keep crowds up. I'm sure Mac wouldn't have objected too much, as at the time he was one of the best 2nd rowers in the league.

We hadn't. Because there was a big thing about playing Les, Hape & Solo all down the same side.

I very much doubt Warrington are paying Solomona anything near as much as Bradford are - but understandably as they are effectively signing a different player.

When Solomona joined Bradford he was probably the more dangerous offloading forward in the competition - since then he's suffered several injuries, drops in form and seems to have let his fitness deteriorate. Still, on his day he has the ability to provide the 'x-factor' on attack - IMO worth risking as a useful player to have in the squad but no longer someone to build a team around...

McNamara presided over Solomona's decline - OK you can't blame him for the injuries and maybe not his apparent weight gain, but you have to ask why the fitness and form issues weren't as bad when Solomona was at other clubs.

I don't for a moment think the staff turned a blind eye to Solomona's fitness. I'm sure it was pretty obvious. He's had issues with his fitness and training ethic since he was a lad but he's gifted enough for coaches to believe he's worth it. McNamara obviously thought he was good enough and he was for most of 2007. 2008 and 2009 were blighted by injury and loss of form but he was also playing with players of lesser ability.

I'm sure our staff did the best they could with him but there's only so much you can do. He's infuriated coaches from Endacott onwards so McNamara shouldn't be singled out for not getting him fit.

What you can call into question is whether we should've signed him in the first place. At the time I don't think there were many gamebreakers available so I could see the reasons for it. Shame it didn't really work out. We have certainly missed a fit in form Solomona but not the unfit, ill disciplined one we had at times.

I'd agree with that - definitely someone Bradford should have signed.

Interesting that Ferres seems to be having a good year with Cas though - although he didn't do much for Wakefield after the initial deal.

Ferres was a totally different type of player to Solomona and I'd agree with your assessment of him since he left us. I think a reason he failed at Wakey was because a lot of fekkwits there expected him to be the same sort of player and got on his back when he wasn't pulling of miracle passes.

With Ferres it's probably the benefit of experience as he was sold to Wakefield as a prospect and definitely not the finished article.

Solomona on form was a good signing as at the time we needed someone who could grab a game and make it his own, which on occasion he did. The fitness and form meant we never saw this often enough but I still loved watching him offload with 4 tacklers hanging off him wondering how the hell he did it.

The year before we signed Solomona we had a very solid squad but were lacking in creativity. It was our very obvious achilles heel. All our tries seem to come from wearing down the opposition, tries created from 20+ yards out were as rare as rocking horse manure. At the time it seemed to me be quite understandable that we take a risk on Solomona and in his first few games it appeared to have been a risk worth taking.

Obviously things havent worked out since. And we've compounded the problem by bringing in a number of equally erratic players. But I still think that the Solomona signing made sense at the time.

www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/spo ... e/?ref=rss Reading thisI thought well lets hope we do get to the GF and win, with him on the sidelines!

www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/spo ... e/?ref=rss Reading thisI thought well lets hope we do get to the GF and win, with him on the sidelines!