If I was Harris these would be the areas I'd be looking at improving on for next year.

1. Another Winger with natural pace like Johnson.
2. Two quicker and younger centres who can defend much better against pace.
3. Quality Hooker or two if Tomkins returns to Wigan.
4. Big Powerful Prop to replace Morley who's retiring.
5. A decent Goal kicker or fit Sneyd into the team.
6. A proven defence coach and mountain of hard work on it.
7. Improve agility and speed. Much quicker ruck speed needed.
8. Work on reducing silly unforced errors that keep costing us dearly.
9. Instill more enthusiasm, belief and team spirit into the players. (Body language of players is evidently very poor at times)
10. A class fullback who's safe under a high ball and also a decent attacker
11. A proper loose forward rather than playing a player out of position.
12. Work harder on legally slowing down the oppositions ruck speed.
13. Look to develop and integrate more young players in the 17 going forward.

You don't ask for much do you?



Most of the points you've mentioned are what nearly all teams would list as priorities.

So another new team & coaching staff basically?

Not at all. 6/7 players and a proper defence coach. This isn't any more than other SL club would usually sign.

Barker at it again :-

`Theo Fages also started at scrum-half and is said to be interesting the Dragons.`

Quite frankly I don't give two hoots about what other clubs priorities are. I am just suggesting these are the area's I believe would improve us as a team.

To start you need to chop out the dead wood, Gleeson, Meli, Puletua, Howarth, McPherson (not dead wood but too injury prone), Lee (not dead wood but we can get much better), Smith (unless he pulls up trees for the rest of the season) Rapira (like McPherson is too injury prone) and then obviously Morley is calling it a day. There is a significant amount of money to be spent there.

On the winger still say Dixon will be a Salford player next season.

I think S'au is a very good signing and don't know if Williams would make a decent centre, think Ford is well worth a shot at SL rugby as we see other teams blooding centres of his age.

Think we'll end up with Tomkins and again like Ford think Owen is well worth a shot at SL.

I have heard of a few people that Moi Moi will be a Salford player next season and think he is more than capable of being a hit in SL.

I think Sneyd will be scrum halve next season has he has proven he can play at the very highest level and doesn't look out of place in a top of the table team. He also fits the bill as an excellent kicker.

As for the full back if we do manage (is the 48 hours up yet?) to sign Locke there's just about the best full back in SL right there. If we don't sign him and Les Catalan are really interested in Theo try and get Escare from them in the deal as he looks like a quality young player. Not sure if Mullaney is that bad but do think he is nervous as hell behind a team of players who look allergic to tackling.

I think the problem at lose forward is we have chopped and changed, pick one from Dixon, Ashurst or Walton (for me when he played in the back row at Widnes he was immense) and stick with them allowing them to grow into the position.


Said in a different thread that there looks to be a real lack of self belief in the squad so maybe getting a sports psychologist involved could be a solution. Can only think the pressure being put on the players behind the scenes is having a negative effect.

I think possibly the most important signing is a director of football, think if we get the right one he might try and educate the Doc that a successful super league team isn't created overnight and hopefully also be used more as a front for the club rather than the Doc seemingly doing things via twitter and facebook.

In answer to your latter comment: you need to be; other clubs will be buying in the market you defined. Therefore it becomes a sellers' market and difficult.

Personally I think we need another winger, another centre, Tomkin's to stay, sneyd back & kicking, probably a couple of new props. Then it needs to be decided if our kids are staying and provide cover for injuries or we need more squad players (interchange hooker, backup for the rest).

Mullaney is a good fullback IMO, most of his errors handling kicks have been either because he's had to run all the way across the pitch, in which case the blame is more on the winger, or due to miscommunication with wingers over who's going for the balls. This can be sorted out in training & with time gelling with wingers. He isn't first choice kicker quality but would do as backup for sneyd. He's also one of our best attacking players and actually has pace!

I suggested a lot more than simply player recruitment. But on the subject of player recruitment are you suggesting it will very difficult to make improvements on what we have, despite the Doc's backing?

I'm starting to think this more & more. I think the doc needs to back off a bit and give the coach and team some breathing space for a while and see how they do. No twitter comments, no dressing room visits, no press leaks etc.

Also agree with most of the rest of your post, with the possible exceptions of Lee & Mullaney.

I agree it's just not right for an owner to be stood on the touchline pointing fingers at players it's just ridiculous.

I think a more appropriate thread would have been priorities for the remainder of 2014.

Desperate need for some pace in the backs. Platt is just simply not a SL speed back any longer and for me we couldn't have done any worse if we'd have thrown in the quickest winger in the under 19's (I saw a bit of a game recently and one kid was like greased lightening). Get Mullaney back in and based on what I saw on Sunday get Eden into the back line as he looked pacey and confident under the bomb.

When Walton comes back a place needs to be found for him as like I mention when playing in the backrow against Widnes h looked unstoppable when running the ball in.

A decision needs to be made if Smith or Theo is going to be Chase's partner and then stick with that pairing, your not going to get any cohesion if we keep changing the combination.

Does anyone know if Shane Flannagan has arrived yet? think he might have quite an impact and do think that part of his remit this season will be to talent scout some younger players as his reputation in the NRL is one of someone with an eye for bringing through some quality young talent. As think as he is only on a short term contract that he might be the one to be a little more honest with the Doc about the realities of how long things will take, he has nothing really to lose where as possibly someone on a longer term deal might be more worried about upsetting his pay master.

Seeing as we're far from done with 2014 yet, it's a little premature to be waving wishlists around just yet. There's plenty of time for change (In all areas) yet, and let's face it, our Club changes from week to week. What might be a priority now, may not be, come 2015. It's nice for us to discuss what we'd like to be done, but I don't think something so far ahead is that easy to predict.



Of course they're areas for us. You missed my point completely. The point being that you listed practically everything to be changed for the better. Something that all Clubs would wish for, yeah?

My priority for 2015 is that we reach it with a contented, ambitious and settled organisation.
Going for another wholesale change will only result in the kind of turmoil we've seen this year.
I'm glad to see that the Doc has postponed his visit to NZ, reacting to difficulties by just declaring that he'll flash some cash and bring in a superstar isn't the way forward. The time to bring in some stars is once we have a squad that is performing then it becomes much easier to slot people in and look for constant, consistent improvement.

The Doctor doesn't do patience.
He's ours,warts and all,but we can't just pick out the best bits and hope to change the rest.
2015 will be along the same lines as 2014.
It worked for Abramovich !

I wouldn't say it's too early to discuss such things - the anti tamper deadline ends in 2 days, and most clubs recruitment should be well under way by now. If you think about what you need in September, it's too late to do anything about it!

There has also been a significant amount of money invested in these players. If the Doctor is thinking along the same lines he has waved away a lot of money for limited return.



S'au is getting stronger. I think if he stays fit and has a full pre season of training & conditioning he will be a major contributor for 2015. I hope Ford is given an opportunity before long to show what he can do at super league level.



Owen is an impact player. Most teams play with two specialist hookers and Owen is very effective against tiring defences and he is the quickest distributor of the ball from the ruck that we have had in years. Perhaps its a Salford thing to have slow predictable distribution from the play the ball.



Yes more than capable, but he will be 35. Good short term signing. He can be a hit if we have long term additions to compliment the signing.



Yes and we certainly need a kicker with consistency (and not consistently bad.



I would have liked to have seen Locke recruited pre season when it was announced that Tomkins was signing for NZ. I dont know how close we came or how interested Locke was. Ive seen him play many times on the tv for NZ and ive always been impressed. We do need to select a player and stick with him though rather than chopping and changing. Mullaney has been hit and miss so far but if we give him time to settle and play in a settled time we may see an improvement, hes got age on his side.



Yes we need to start at the top though, settled coaching staff followed by a settled team.

The club had a sports psychologist,presumably paid for by Dr K.when they were in South Africa - [url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/10988602.Bradford_Bulls_legend_Noble_welcomes_great_expectations_at_Salford/Best Link I Can Find Cos I Can't Be Arsed[/url

What pressure is 'being put on the players behind the scenes'?

Weren't expressions of delight made when they had all the facilities they wanted,granted?

The Director Of Football is another wad of money being paid out.What will the role entail? It is usually a) Someone to deal with transfers b) Someone to oversee all levels of coaching.

What role do you see as being required and who do you suggest will be suitable?

As I'm blocked I may have wasted my time



Anyone....?

You're either being pedantic or thick. I'm not sure which to be honest.

You want another winger, two younger quicker centres, one or two quality hookers, a prop, a goalkicker, a proven defense coach, improved training (Speed/Agility), training to cut down errors, psychologists (Improve mental aspects), a perfect fullback able to defend and attack, a looseforward, tactics coaching (slow ruck speed), and quality youth set-up.

When I said 'practically everything' I thought you might understand that I wasn't referring in minutiae. Hence the word 'practically'. I thought it was reasonable to say that most Clubs would like improvements in all the areas you listed because you listed so many, which was my point.

Your priorities should be singing minimum players as possible, investing into your youth and being patient. Further backroom staff fairenough won't affect the team playing wise and is most likely to improve over all performance but buying more players a no-no for me.

I was being neither pedantic or thick. For you to suggest most clubs would like to see improvements in all of the area's I mentioned is questionable. Do Widnes need to sign a goal kicker? Do Leeds need to improve their defence? Do Warrington need more pace out wide? Do Saints need to improve on their ruck speed? Do Castleford need to work on their mentality? Do Wigan need a loose forward? Why you felt the need to bring up other clubs into this post is totally beyond me. I was purely suggesting area's of the team I feel Salford could improve on considering our current position.

And yes the list was exhaustive but I feel we have a lot more improvements to make if were are going to be serious challengers in the future. The point is there are a lot more boxes we need to tick before we will be able to mix it with the big boys. (Who already have a lot of these boxes ticked, hence other clubs not needing as much as we need right now)

That'd help !





No offence,Dreadnought,I just thought I'd lighten it up a bit

Well it would certainly make matchdays more entertaining.