moon was injured and smith had left by then .. this year he hasnt had much to work with lets face it so i just think it was a bit quick but its done .

Why wasn't the decision made to dispense with his services made as soon as the management team was brought together from Down Under ? That is where the playing and coaching side now appears to be pointing towards.
I do not believe any coach could have motivated that side for Friday night and perhaps the players are now too frightened to make a false move or they will also be 'on their bike'.Not only will the jeering and ironic cheers affect their confidence but so will the callous disregard for someone who they may respect - and judging by the time he has spent in the sport and the associated names,I am sure he will be highly respected.

As a side issue - What is the name of the pub where the 'passionate Salford' supporters were when Dr Koukash
and the mayor,Ian Stewart,took a break from the discussions regarding the takeover ?
I am surprised those 'passionate fans' have remained anonymous and not taken advantage of the back slaps and free drinks for their part in the survival of the club.Are they part of the passionate 2,000 who attend the games ?

You may have missed it, but Chelsea didn't win the World Club Cup.

Also, they're suffering from a manager who's snapped at the way he's been treated, player power ruling the roost and supporters who don't seem happy whatever happens. I'd rather any success at Salford came with a bit more stability and club harmony than that.

The bulls head in swinton I think.

I cant answer that purely as i am not sat at the top table with Koucash and his men and only they will know truly why they waited until now / acted now to remove PV from his post.

Applying business logic though for a second, when one company takes over, they dont sack the management team straight away. They asses what they have to see what is worth keeping and what is not. Some people then get made redundant while others stay. Could be that they first thought that Phil was the man they wanted but now after a few weeks of seeing him on a day to day basis have decided he isn't right?

Personally i think Phil has been shown the door so they can get a big name in, who in turn they hope will attract the type of players they want to get us rocketing up the league within the next 18 months.



Agree completly with you on the motivation part. What was put on show the other night was woeful. Most of the local open age amatuer teams would have been more fired up for it and put on a better performance that what they did. But i would not have played McGoldrick in the centres, i would have left him and Sneyd 6 & 7. Foran should have been nowhere near that position for the full 80 minutes. Only Phil could have made that decision and he has to live by that and the other one's he has made which could ultimatly cost him his job.

The players are simply just not good enough. The mistakes that were made were comical. These lads are suppose to be professional but some of the mistakes and decisions that were made are no where near the standard that is expected at this level so i dont buy in to there being pressure, if anything there is not enough and know with the size of our squad and the talent we have, there unlikely to get dropped.

At times last year we were awesome in attack but its fair to say defenceivley we were poor throughout. Long has been credited for the attacking side so surely the blame of the defence has to fall at vievers?

I am not at all anti vievers here. I thought he would see out the year easily and would have been happy for him to remain in charge for the next couple while we rose up the division to see what he could do with us once he actually had a few quid to spend.

Agree with you entirely on your post. He has a team which would at best be in the mix top half of the championships but not clear cut runaway division leaders or anything like that. We lost every influencial player we had last year bar Williams and Broughton. As soon as smith left though, we capitulated as a team and it showed just how much we relied on him in attack. We were not once in any one of those games after he left and have never recovered.

Just out of interest, who would you have played at centre once Broughton didn't make it in time?

Gibson.... and Evalds on the wing. However with him being released out on Dual Reg to Oldham we left ourselves completly uncovered. So given the 19 / 18 man squads, McGoldrick was the only option available.

Weather Vievers was the one who instigated the dual reg move or that was a decision made by others i guess we will never know. He may have also been leaned upon to play the new signings but again we dont know that either.


Was Vievers also leaned upon to play the

I think the impression was that because the 2 players came from a 'professional background' at Manly that they would be playing.
Given the efforts to boost the crowd and the publicity given to the signings it was a certainty that they would be playing.

For those Warrington fans trying to offload Tony Smith in our direction they must be very lucky that their board didn't dismiss their head coach,a year into the job,when,before the London side reached the full salary cap as they apparently now have,they scored 60+ points aginst Warrington.[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/mar/16/matt-king-warrington-harlequinsselective amnesia[/url

Wasn't that one of his first games in charge? In a season when they won the cup?

First or second game I believe. Selective amnesia indeed

You're asking me ?



Sure they got to Wembley the following year.

Our new life president said,that if the Doctor needs advice he is always there,I bet the Doctor says take advice
from you,you could't run a whelk stall.

The bitterness continues I see. But for the President we wouldnt be having the excitement we are having at the mo. Always remember that lance.

Oh dear. Just as you thought hostilities were over, here comes lancetodd, like a Japanese soldier being led blinking out of the jungle years after the war has ended.

Everyone's moved on lance. Is it not time you did the same?

As with Wilky the club is now the Docs baby and he can pretty much do what he wants. We wouldn't have a club to watch so we thank JW for all he did but we now must trust that the Doc wants whats bets for the club and ultimately we become a force as a result.

Think only a fool wouldn't see that he has taken advice from his exceptionally experienced new back room team, your not telling me that Graham Lowe hasn't overseen the odd training session since he's been involved and advised the Doc accordingly, your not telling me that PV hasn't made a mistake in keeping on Murphy when we have two youngsters who would do a much better job on the books and that the Doc has been advised this (it is no coincidence to me that in the interviews I've heard he has directly mentioned the urgent need to strengthen at full back).

Sorry but if we want a ruthless business man to own and run a thriving club these kind of decisions are going to become more and more common - I can gaurantee you one thing there are many at the club who can't tell ar$e$ and elbows apart will be cacking about getting their own invite to have a little bit of a chat with the Doc.

Lance has my sympathy, obviously suffering with the same post-traumatic embitterment disorder that Neil Barker needs treatment for.

Does the guy realise that his personal crusade to rubbish the previous regime at every opportunity in the MEN isn’t helping the club to attract new sponsorship or fans. What is the message to the readers? Don't bother with Salford because the club still stinks at the moment.

I know he did but why go into all that rubbish about spring cleaning and air freshners? He's meant to be reporting on Rugby League not an episode of How clean is your house? I'm surprised he didn't recommend the help of Aggie & Kim. I feel like it's one step forward and two steps back, weeks of great positive press about the Doctors ambition and where the club is heading and then a really negative article like this. These kind of articles are damaging and may dissuade people from coming to watch us right now. It seems to me the Doctors comments have been magnified into a story for the sole purpose of a dig at those not running the club now. Everybody needs to look forward now and not back for the benefit of Salford City Reds.

As for Phil Vievers, why would he have to look to blame somebody else for being sacked? He was the head coach and the team won 1 game in 13, he knew how difficult the job is at Salford when he accepted it.

Just read that Evslds has been recalled, makes you wonder if this is to cover for Williams or simply that Vievers didn't rate him.

Would love to see Evalds at fullback with Theo/Snyed/Foran in the halves and McGoldrick at 13 which gives plenty of flair though maybe not the best option defensively.

I have to commend the young man,and curently the public face of rugby league,for his most welcome and inspiring words concerning Phil Veivers which will have served not only to lift the spirits of Phil Veivers but also to act as part of a cv for any head coaching positions that may arise.
For Sam Tomkins to use his name in the headline and then use words such as,'good operator','experienced','hard working','knows what he talks about', and 'I enjoyed working with him',not only as a footnote at the end of a programme perhaps only Wigan fans will see,but in a newspaper sold across large areas of the north west and online so the story will remain for a long time,was something he need not have done but elected to do so in an act of humanity that is very rare in my experience.
A class act.Thanks for restoring the faith.

to be fair the MEN has improved its coverage of salford ten fold at present, before the doctor arrived we were treated like child nobody talked about which was locked in the attic and fed raw meat

Now well we eating at the top table and dancing happy through a field of flowers hand in hand with the MEN

Hopefully this new found love with continue having the MEN onside is a massive bonus

Something just occured to me in that since the new players arrived from Australia and PV was sacked they haven't been interviewed properly which is odd. Makes me wonder if they feel slightly ill at ease having just made the move over here to work with one coach and then find him gone within a week.

I'm sure not even knowing burgers they probably couldn't give a rats!

Of course that will have nothing to do with the club finally having positive news to put out there...