Speculation on the Wakey board is that 2 championship clubs are coming up.

I know that's probably not true but its apparently doing the rounds amongst certain jounalists

Harlequins have been in existence 30 years, and have 6 overseas players in their squad this year.

Catalans have been in existence 6 years, and have 6 overseas players in their squad this year.

Crusaders have been in existence 6 years, and have 12 overseas players in their squad this year.

We've been in existence over 100 years, and have 7 overseas players in the squad, and it would have been 9 if the Leo Latu deal hadn't fallen through and if Bailey hadn't retired.

The RFL need to wake up and stop letting us sign as many overseas players as we want. Why should we be allowed to bend the rules? It's a joke. It's a huge disadvantage for all the other clubs.

Play by the rules or get out the league!

Depending on how you judge this, Hull KR have 10, Wigan have 8, Hull FC have 7 and most others have six in one way or another.

I don't want to appear a smart a*se here but both Catalans and Harlequins have at least 8 (not 6) non French/British born players to my reckoning.

Who are the 8 Harlequins players you are taking exception with?

I'm not all I'm saying is Quins have 8 non british born players to my knowledge. Dorn, Bailey, Randall, Temata, Howell, Krasniqi, Kouparitsas and Bryan. I don't have a problem with it I was just correcting a previous poster who said they had 6. And before you go to the trouble of explaining that some don't count on the quota I know.

I'm not disagreeing with anything you say, but:

How many overseas players were in the seventeen last weekend, or the week end before? Answer: 5, and 4 the week before. When the calibre of the overseas players is that of Cashmere, Holdsworth and Patten, there's no arguement against including them in our seventeen. Nero, also, adds to the squad, but I'm not sure about Mark Henry anymore. I'm of the opinion he's ok going forward, but not the best defensively or particularly quick, and we really should be able to find a British player of the same quality.

On the other hand we did have Leo Latu and Bailey on the books, plus we've still got Feka and Anderson, but would the latter two break into the first team right now. I would hope not, and Godwin appears a much better player for us then Leo Latu, probably, would have been. Our recent team selection has been far better than the summer recruitment drive. There seems some confusion over who decides what we players, but we certainly appeared to have far too many 30 plus players coming into the squad.

Anway, my point was, the number of overseas players does need capping. Although, it shouldn't stop any SL club bringing in genuine quality Aus/NZ players. Young players are coming through in abundance, whether this is due to franchising or better coaching is debateable. It could be said part of McRae's failing as our head coach was his old school method of finding an experienced Aussie to plug the gap.

It's very easy to criticise some of the recent signings but have you considered how difficult it must be to attract certain players to the Willows at this present time. I'm sure the club are very ambitious in who they approach but that's the easy part. Let's be honest the club aren't going to make it public knowledge who and how many turned them down. We only got Luke Patten because of DJ!

Let's hope Salford will be a much more attractive proposition if we can gain some momentum in the new stadium.

I'm not too sure about that, we currently only have 4 of our 27 man squad who are 30 or over and those are Patten, Cashmere & Nero (3 you've mentioned for the right reasons) and the other is Anderson. 19 of the squad are English / Irish (i.e. home grown) compare that to Saints, Leeds, Wigan & Warrington and we fair much better for 30+ players.

The average age of our squad at this moment is time is 24.84. (and thats not including Marriott, Davidson and Holmes)

I'm nervous!

You just never know what the RFL are going to come up with, until we get the nod for another 3 years I'm always going to have my doubts!!

The problem is that 2 of the 8 which you have identified are UK developed juniors. The orginal poster said overseas players not born overseas. I would have thought that most contributors would take overseas to mean developed overseas like the guys we have and the 6 Quins RL have. Clearly they are not overseas players if they are UK citizens who started playing the game as juniors over here.

I was responding to an earlier poster who was whining on about Catalans, Harlequins and Crusaders being teams full of overseas players. It's received wisdom that the newer clubs are just packed full of Aussies, and the people bleating about it don't bother to check whether it's true or not. The truth is, we are no better than them, and in some cases, worse.

Ocker why waste your time telling me something I told you I already know? OK what about british born players that move to Australia/New Zealand in their youth and develop over there and return, should they not be classed as overseas players?

Harlequins have eventually been forced by the RL to tow the line and put more effort into producing more local players after 30 years. I have witnessed many season's of London/Harlequins being given special allowances by the RFL. Knowbody can deny they have recieved special treatment from the RFL in terms of their past overseas quota and the RL's defiant stance when they went bust. Didn't most of the clubs want to vote them out before Mr Richard Lewis threatned to resign as chairman? Would he have done the same for another non development club? I'm not sure. I think people's perception of them is changing and will change further if or when they have a team consisting of mainly southern developed players.

The Catalan situation is different and some would argue why they needed so many overseas players in the first few years considering the higher numbers of french players already playing RL. This said they do seem to have made the transformation with more french lads now in the squad.

Let's also not forget that these clubs in the past have fielded teams made up mainly of overseas players allowing them to compete at a higher level than some of the other Superleague teams. This is something that sticks in the memory and isn't easy to forget. It's no coincidence that both clubs have played finals at Wembley with a lot of overseas players since the likes of Salford, Wakefield and Castleford last made the trip.

I wasn't criticising the club, more our head coach. When you hear his interviews, he seems convinced that what we needed to improve the team was more experience players, rather than coaching the talent we've got. I seem to recall him employing similar theories at Hull, where he hit the jackpot by signing Jason Smith. McRae just seems like a throw back to SL of 15 years ago, when every team in town was signing Aussies instead of developing talent.

Salford haven't won a major title in generations and the ground isn't the best, granted, so we have to be very shrewd in the transfer market, and hopefully we'll pick up another Holdsworth/Patten. Not going after Feka amd Bailey because we have quota spots to fill.

I've heard the Holdsworth out of contract story and Patten is best mates with him, but does anybody know how we managed to sign Cashmere?

Why waste your time posting it in the first place. Harlequins only have 6 overseas players.

Actually when you look at the squad, it isn't as big an issue as some fans from other clubs would have you believe. There are, however, a couple of players who will be 30 before the month is out also. Which isn't that bad, really, the porblem lies with signing 30+ players who have struggled with injuries since their early 20s. Anderson. Don't get me wrong on his day, he's fast, powerful and has been at the top for a good while now, but will we see hm on pitch? I hope so, and I would love to see him 'tear it up'.

No i suppose that all depends and what you class as an [ioverseas[/i player, don't forget Olsi Kransniqi who was born in Albania and Lamont Bryan who was born in Germany and plays international rugby for Jamaica

Ocker I was responding to a question you asked me!

If you are referring to my first post regards Red John's comments I believe I'm correct in what I said. I couldn't help but notice you didn't question the comment I made about Catalans?

Harlequins are not the worst offenders in SL, and we would have had nearly as many overseas players as HKA, if things had turned out differently. Crusaders do need clamping down on, if they can't find enough British SL players willing to join the club, they should be scouting the national leagues. There are talented British players out there, and you're right too many clubs, Salford included, choose an overseas player over a British one far too often.

When you look at what is being achieived by some clubs, mainly: Hudds, Wigan, Sts and Leeds, minus some average overseas players, and you see what can be achieved by good coaching rather than plugging gaps. Which is a throw back to early SL years. We're lucky to have coaches like Nathan Brown, Micheal MacGuire and Tony Smith in this country, when you look at what they are achieving with largely English squads. Questions get raised over why players leave these clubs and regress. It's simply a matter, of poor coaching at the clubs where they end up.

Look at the difference at Salford the last few weeks. Simms puts his faith in the young British players that he's got and coaches them how to play the game, all of a sudden we appear a much stronger team with less overseas players. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Simms a coach before all the crazy imports started to arrive.

I understand what you are saying but these bigger clubs have had the advantage of taking their pick of the best young British talent for decades. I know many years ago Salford offered a 17 year old Shaun Edwards a massive deal and he turned it down and signed for less money at Wigan. How many more has there been Adrian Morley, Callum Watkins etc. It's similar in Football where the hottest young talent wants to play for Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea. Although there is always a few top quality players that slip through the net or develop later and that's what Salford should be looking for.

Personally I think our club's junior development has come on leaps and bounds in recent years under Alan Hunte. There is nothing more I like to see than young local players given a chance and taking it. Realistically all Salford can do is sign the best kids they can and then ensure they put as much investment into their development as possible.

I know it must seem like I'm defending the club but it's very easy to make comparisons (with big clubs) and criticise but sometimes you have to be realistic and put it down to the hand you are dealt. I think Salford have got to look to emulate what Huddersfield have achieved after some years of growth in a new stadium. Would these quality kids they have now signed for them if they were still at Fartown without the financial muscle of Ken Davy?

The original question was about the new franchise,as of this morning we know that widnes will be joining the super league,and the way they will get a squad strong enough is that they will do the same as everybody else, they will sound out the aussie agents and bring over another planeload of second -rate aussies,with a couple of academy kids to keep the league quiet.

JUDK: more possible could be quiet and hidden "nods" to certain very good SL players unhappy at their club ; especailly if out of contract by October. (SR?)

You are probably right hillbilly, but i am still willing to bet that widnes start super league with at least half a team from aus wether recruited from other super league clubs or from australia.If we lose any they will be replaced by more of the same.