As the only club outside Bradford not to supposedly spent up to the cap, is it all now too apparent?

I'm not going to resurrect the older threads of we need a quality prop and we need a halfback cos nobody likes a smart , but wouldn't the shortfall would go some way to filling at least one of these positions?

What shortfall?

My theory, because we have a play off system and a season long of medicroty doesn't rule you out of becoming champions. We are able to spend a big part of the season seeing which of the youngsters can cut it at SL level and which can't, then later in the season strengthen where applicable. Of course the club couldn't say that publicly as it would affect ticket sales.

To be honest, unless we really start to drift into trouble at the wrong end of the table, I can't see us bring anyone in purely because it would be seen as an admission of failure or a mistake in judegment on behalf of the management. Even if quality players were available, I sense a certain stubborness from some people would prevent recruitment.

Given the reluctance to even drop players who are selling us short, I can't see the club sanctioning mid-season recruitment to directly replace said players.

Where has your information come from that we are £400k under the cap?

Is it from somewhere reliable or is it that someone on a forum said he spoke to someone in the know and said we are £400k under the cap?

Our board has shown in the past it has a liking for blue chip signings so if someone good was available no doubt we would have gone for him. More than likely we are looking at who will be available in 2015 or 2016. But there is no point just spending money for the sake of it.

Remember last off season, there were players available...
Rangi Chase
Gareth Hock
Scott Moore

the verdict on here was "we don't want him" and probably the verdict from our board was the same....

Question is, who is available or who could we realistically sign???

I don't see the point of signing someone just for the sake of it. If we have to have a season or 2 of mediocrity in order to re-build long term then so be it.

I've no doubt Smith and Moran are looking at who's available not just next season but also the season after.

But which teams on a matchday, who have beaten us ,have actually turned up with any better team on paper than us ? None of this year's teams are made up of spectacular players but they seem to have better structures in place in both attack & defence than us & are also able to play as teams on the pitch.

sounds like a dig at the coaching staff

It certainly does !

Who alleged it?

Even if it was true then who would we get?
You can't get a top Antip for 400k.
No decent player at another club is going to be released
Any clubs with a bit of money won't sell their talents.
All the broke clubs have been asset stripped.

Daft.

That figure has been batted about and others.

Tony Smith a couple of weeks before the season started was asked on local radio if Warrington had any further signings?
He answered that he didn't have but said there was room in the cap for further signings if needed.
I heard that myself.

Who can we sign, realistically this moment, that will improve us?

In the salary cap days no one is available that can improve us right now.

This.

Unless we want to throw money at Bradford and get Luke Gale..... But if he's the answer we really are screwed.

Even before Briers announced his retirement we were always going to struggle, but that just tipped us over the edge.

As for the 400k figure, has this come from the same source that said we are signing Gareth Hock, James Graham and Kevin Sinfield??

No citywolf.
Hock said so himself.
Graham from many.
I know nothing of Sinfield.

You know nothing of any of them.. you just make it all up as you go along

Top 8 isn't a gimme this year: as has often been said, we have a serious lack of punch up front so we have no go forward, and zero guile behind to even try to make up for it. Making the pay-offs will remain uncertain unless we address at least one, and hopefully both these concerns. For today's Warrington to fluff the play-offs given its resources would be a poor reflection on the management of the club's playing side this season. There's "rebuilding" and there's "getting it badly wrong". It's not even a fine line.

Great to see Coops get a good try for St George at the weekend. How on earth did we let him go?

Agree to a point but teams around us have improved massively this year and we are certainly going through a transition. I would take a season like this if we improve the squad with some big signings next year and the youngsters who have played this year improve too.

Regarding Cooper, when he left this board was full of posts about how we wouldn't miss him, fair play to the lad he has done great so far.

If we had the "£440k" to spend during the close season who would you have signed.
To me the only player that has moved that i would have liked now with Hindsight is Luke Walsh at Saints. Other than that not sure who else was available that moved clubs.

The last half of last season Wood Hill and Cooper were our best front rowers imo.
Never rated Coops as a loose though. He knocked on too many times for my liking.

for what we supposedly need, there was no one.

People were harking on that luke walsh was available, but saints had him tied up from mid season last year, enough time for his form to pick up and the rumours start about him not coming over.

a few people after the wigan game were saying that we weren't caught short by the briers announcement, he retired in november, so we had the majority of the off season to recruit a new halfback from australia. Clearly they dont have a clue about how long it takes to sort something like that out. And at that point virtually no one of any class would be available to pick up.

Hmm. Still lacking a plan B though eh? If we expected Briers to play a full season unscathed then our medical staff were on a different planet, and if we didn't then we should have got cracking and started recruiting a replacement in well in advance as contigency should the worse happen ........... which it did.

And please don't tell me Ratchford, GOB & Myler were the contigency cos Ratchford was clearly being groomed for FB, and GOB was involved in more loans than Wonga.

I have heard from two different sources than we are well under the cap. One said £380,000 although i would be hesitant to trust this guy and another who I know well said £300,000 and I would trust his call.

If we are upto the cap then there are quite a few players earning well above their worth.

Can we refund you for the money for Daz Clark so you've got a few quid more to spend?

Would people have been happy if we would have recruited below standard players that may have been available NO. they would be calling for Smiths head over his recruitment. The club have siad that the quality of player was not available end of. We need to stick with the youth and hope that some come through, if not keep looking for the special player that warrents the big bucks.

Do people seriously believe that we are £300k to £400k under the cap?

At most we'd be Briers' wage less whatever up-grade Russell got for this year plus whoever replaced Briers in the 25 first tier players.