My dear chap, I have no desire to dump in your shoes, or in any item of your clothing, for that matter. Just calling it like I see it. I think Koukash has spent what he can on what he's been able to find, but I fear the total won't be the sum of its parts. Now don't think I'm some gratuitous Salford knocker. I'd love Salford to be successful, get big crowds and make some serious inroads into Manchester for RL. But from a neutral's perspective, taking your squad :


1 Jake Mullaney - FB - wouldn't be the first Aussie to come to Salford for a holiday, but let's reserve judgement - could be good.

2 Danny Williams - WG - meh

3 Martin Gleeson (vc) - CE - used to be a big fan when at Saints, but a total headcase off the field, and has largely ed away his talent, which is a shame. Waste of a shirt in most games.

4 Junior Sa'u - CE - Not quite made it antipodean, no better really than the sort of fringe islander London traditionally sign.

5 Francis Meli - WG - Too old and lazy now. But at least you won't have to experience his habit of making colossal feckups in Finals.

6 Rangi Chase - SO - on his day, brilliant with ball in hand. A terrible team player. Another off-field headcase. Trouble with a capital T.

7 Tim Smith - SH - Clever player, but another who has just failed to settle at a club or show consistent form. Don't see why Salford should be any different.

8 Adrian Morley (c) - PR - Great career. But it's over.

9 Tommy Lee - HK - poor hooker, already failed at several clubs

10 Lama Tasi - PR - who ?

11 Tony Puletua - SR - Big Tony was a star for Saints early on, but by last season, the ballboys were faster than him when jogging backwards, and his workrate makes the Greeks look like Stakhanovites.

12 Gareth Hock - SR - devastating on the field, but also sadly off it. Nutjob. Will lose more games with penalties than he wins with good play, and will miss plenty for disciplinary problems.

13 Steve Rapira - PR - meh

14 Théo Fages - SH - I thought last year the hype around this lad was entirely manufactured. He's ok. He's not great.

15 Darrell Griffin - PR - When your pack enters the field, do they get free pensioner mobility scooters ?

16 Andrew Dixon - SR - from a club which produces an endless supply of solid, unspectacular, unthreatening second-rows (Saints), comes one of the least impressive.

17 Shannan McPherson - PR - Hooray, a prop under 30. Solid, unspectacular.

18 Harrison Hansen - SR - Solid, unspectacular. Do I detect a theme ?

19 Matty Ashurst - SR - see Dixon....


I stopped there. I know there are others who will get a game when either your headcases are suspended for on-off-field disciplinary cases, or your old fellers in the pack are injured. But let's face it, none of them are names to cause the crowds to start shivering with excitement.

Should be good enough to turn over London and Widnes with no problems. Decent matches against Wakey, Cas etc. I predict a few thumpings against the top 6 sides. Sadly.

I'm just gutted we don't have scouts/ coaches with your knowledge and expertise! Maybe if we did we would win the league!? You must be a top coach from the nrl or somthing?? Every club need to sign people like you (experts) the doc needs to employ you and we will be sorted! What does noble know about signing players? He's never won anything has he! It's not like in his last job he took a team from South Wales who were only in there second year in Superleague and got them into the top six! Noble Hasn't got a clue who to sign or what team to pick, we might as well get rid now and get you signed! Then maybe we'll finish just above the relagation zone???

Funny how you don't say that to those predicting good things for Salford. Is no one allowed to say bad things about Salford?

For the record, I think he was overstating his opinion to make the point, but what do you disagree with? His points on puletua are pretty much spot on

As for noble he also signed a team that caused the club to go bust ... So there's an element of how well did he do given the resources available ... His job before at Wigan he hardly lit the world on fire ... But that's being pinickity and just showing there's another point of view to those held in Salford ...

He took wigan from the relegation zone one year to one game away from the grand final the next! Not bad that. I'm not saying noble didn't spend with the crusaders! I said he got the club to the six in there second year in Superleague which is pretty dam good IMO. He didn't bankrupt the crusaders the people incharge did. People can say what they like about Salford on here, I can reply how I like on here as well.

St Helens 2014

1.Jonny Lomax.. a legend to the Saints fans only a bit like theo at Salford more the fans wanting him to be great rather than actually being great.

2.Tom Makinson.. hardly an Antony Sullivan nothing great imo more down to the quality of super league lowering being the reason of him doing anything in games.

3. Jordan Turner.. Average player was at Salford was at Hull still is at saints wont be ripping any trees up.

4. Josh Jones.. Meh

5. Adam Swift.. Meh

6. Lance Hohaia.. WAS a decent WORLD CLASS player 5 years ago now he's nothing more than an average fullback playing stand off, saints fans slagged him off something rotten last year what's going to be the difference this year?

7. Luke Walsh.. supposedly a good player according to the expert saints fans, fact is I've never heard of him being spoken of in high regard is Australia if he was that great you'd have countless NRL clubs cuing up to land him fact is there wasn't.

8.Mose Masoe.. Big lad Could be a good player don't know yet though.

9. James Roby.. good attacking hooker probably the one world class player saints have.

10.. Louie McCarthy-Scar..oh cant be bothered.. just an average forward no better than any other forward in SL.

11.Sia Soliola.. had an ok world cup got dominated against England Knights at aj bell in samoa's warm up game, not exactly Simon Mannering quality anymore.

12. Jon Wilkin.. Been there (not there anymore) passed it

13. Willie Manu.. another pacific Islander type player similar to what Hull FC would sign.

14. Anthony Laffranchi.. another NRL player who wanted one last payday so headed for SL.

15. Mark Flannigan.. meh

16. Kyle Amor.. the experience this guy brings is just what St Helens need I mean all those big matches grand finals Challenge cup finals what a world beater that guy is.

See its easy to pull a team apart and give a supposed expert view into how good or bad certain players are going to be.

Please tell me this is a wind up of some sort? Otherwise, you are literally clueless.

Saints fan I presume? obviously not totally serious just pointing out how what you write can pick fault with any player.

Saying meh is hardly "picking a fault' with a player. Also you're plain wrong with several of the things you said (roby is one of if not the top defender for the last couple of years for example) but I'm not going to be drawn into that.

What's frustrating is Salford fans jumping down the throat of anyone who says anything remotely negative about their team this year.

Plenty of people have doubts how far saints will go this year, that's fine, if people want to question how Walsh will go, that's their prerogative

It's one thing saying how Salford will go and another being ignorant and coming out with stupid remarks about players they have barley even watched on a regular basis.
Let's just keep our negative opinions to our selves and see how the league pans out because I'm sure quite a few people like Roy had Hudds down in 6th place last year, so on that basis and expert review Salford should finish in 7th place.

By that argument no Salford fan can comment on their own team because you haven't seen your players regularly! In fact by that argument no one can make a suitable prediction because no ones seen enough of everyone else - it's called a predictions thread.

As I said, my guess is the views were inflated to make a point. Though whilst his views were potentially misinformed which were actually wrong? (Like yours on the saints team) - even if not, he made his prediction, and the Salford fan got flustered with grand "better tell the doc his investments worth blah blah blah" - and it's happened in other threads too.

Also, show me anywhere Roy has claimed to be an expert? If that's his analysis, there's nothing to say Salford won't be as he predicted, there's nothing so say saints won't be in the bottom 3, but as I said, no ones been asked to defend when they've predicted Salford to be doing better than expected.

Its not just Salford fans defending there team who are being slagged off before a ball is kicked. I think you will find on every negative post concerning a particular team you'll get a fan of that club defending their side.

so a saints fan calling another fan clueless for stating his opinion is ok then? Its not just Salford fans mate, we are all entitled to say what we want and also reply how we want. Thats the whole point of a fans forum.

Well I can't find any in this thread - there's a few "I think your underestimating ... " or equally "I think your overestimating ... " but there's only a 2 incidents of "your going to eat your words" and both from Salford fans

As I've said here and elsewhere, I expect Salford to be battling with 2 or 3 other teams for the 7 and 8 spots - and a little lower if they have a bad run of injuries. If they get higher, great for you guys, a little worse than that isn't out of the question entirely (which is as Roy predicted) - that's not "slagging off".

Blimey, I didn't realise some Reds were so sensitive.

It is a thread called "league predictions", so I was just giving some predictions. Let's be honest - if any of us knew exactly what was going to happen, we'd all be picking lottery numbers and laying down accumulator bets, so that next season we could buy our own teams full of NRL stars.

I don't disagree with some of Mike's assessments of Saints players, by the way. I think our threequarters are fairly unexciting, and Hohaia and Laffranchi are clearly unimpressive occupants of overseas spots. But in SL, it's not whether all your players are excellent, it's whether they are better as a group than the other groups you're playing. Saints can carry a competent-but-not-great set of threequarters because at fullback and hooker they have genuine class, while they have a very strong pack with a good replacement bench. Last year a weaker pack, no halfbacks and both class players missing for much of the season, still saw them top 5. Avoid injuries, and nobody has strengthened more.

Salford's pack, on the other hand, are suspiciously weak. Either getting on a bit with best days behind them, or a bit below-average. The threequarters are again either past-it or below-average. The halfbacks are probably above average, but as Chase has found at Cas, you can't win games with just a good half playing alone.

Noble's done some good things with average squads in the past, but he's got his work cut out here. There are some right characters in that squad. It's like throwing sulphur, charcoal and saltpetre into a dressing room filled with pyromaniacs.

Anyway, no need for anyone to get upset. I hope Salford do really well. We certainly need more competitive teams in SL, and for me the best thing about SL 2013 apart from the World Cup was the emergence of Huddersfield as a genuine contender. Maybe this year will be Salford. I just hope no Reds fans are betting the house on it.

Weak pack! You are joking! People are entitled to there opinion so what ever you think pal. By the way I think our pack is stronger that yours. But hey! Opinions opinions.

And before you say it! No I don't think our squad is better than saints, neither do I think we'll win the league or think we will finish above saints!

I'd be chuffed to bits to finish in the playoffs! But starting 2015 in Superleague is what I'd be happy with.

Exactly we can't comment on our new team as we've not seen 95% of the players play before, but you won't see any Salford fans predicting us to get into the top 4 or even 6th 8th would do us all fine, well more than fine actually, from bottom last year to 8th is a massive step for me.

Saints fans predicting to win it this year are IMO just setting them selves up for a fall and a lot of disappointment if you don't perform,

And yeah it is a prediction thread but you can't use that as an excuse to tear opposition squads to pieces as that too will make you look very foolish if your proven wrong, (ala huddersfield).

Saints will be there or there abouts. The only thing stopping them winning will be Nathan Brown.

Nah!
It will be the players or allegedly the match officials.

Widnes are going to beat the lot of you so don't bother turning up.

You could probably do a similar hatchet job, with 3 exceptions, of the Wigan squad who won the double last year.

Loving this Saints Vs Salford match-up. Can I bet Saints finish above Salford in 2014 please.

So 2014 Predictions. Here are mine:-

1 team to win SL - Wigan (can't see past them tbh)
1 team to win the CC - Warrington
2 teams to be relegated - London and Wakefield or Widnes

1st - Warrington
2nd - Leeds
3rd - Saints
4th - Wigan
5th - Huddersfield
6th - Hull KR
7th - Catalans
8th - Salford
9th - Hull FC
10th - Castleford
11th - Bradford
12th - Widnes
13th - Wakefield
14th - London

Saints are the only ones with the remotest chance of finishing top who may actually want to finish there.