Good luck to the big man!

I'm now all too wary enough by the way to notice the original poster spelt his name wrong.

Took me a while to spell it an all when he first joined. Paleaaesina - I can type it with my eyes closed now! And of course I never added it to the spell checker.



Whatever anyone says he will always be remembered for the crucial try last Good Friday and my ringtone which belts out "BANG, CRASH, WALLOP, TRY" every time I recieve a text.

Dont forget Luke Patten

. Weve got 1 more quota spot, Andrew Ryan,Carl Webb or Ben Cross apparently

Best of luck to him.

First person to use the term 'legend' should be banned from the site, however.

The signing of Luke Patten from Canterbury Bulldogs - barring injury - will be their catalyst. Patten is a genuine top class tried and tested performer - albeit he will be 31 next season.

And as Ted replied there is no chance of financial problems with John Wilkinson in charge.

There are also rumours that Dennis Betts - a Salford lad - is in line to take over from McRae, which would also be a good move.

Couldnt agree more. He has given us a few good memories, a similar "Bang, Crash, Wallop, Try" in the Hull KR game last year in the play offs, were Stevo was screaming "give it the big man!!" And who could forget the barnstorming run against Hull at home, running 60m (but the last 10 was like he was running in quick sand!!!)

But i think its for the best as he didnt do these sort of thing on a consistant basis and not being able to do enough effective mintues on the pitch.

Good Luck Big Man!!!

The thing is that we went with youth last season and we now have a decent set of young players in the first team with Adamson, Ratchford, Boyle, Smith, Jewitt, Gibson and Broughton.

We have signed older players this season but we've also lost Alker, Talau, Swain, Leuluai and Jeremy Smith, with possibly Littler, Sibbit and Fitzpatrick still to go. We need to make up for the loss of those more experienced players.

I would agree though that it's a little disappointing that we haven't seen anyone in particular to emerge from the Academy side though.

You do need experience but it still doesn't do your youth system justice and highlights Salford's lack of homegrown talent. Even out of the young players you mentioned above, all but two were developed from another clubs youth systems.

This is an area where Widnes for example, beats Salford when it comes to franchise applications.

A new stadium coming (planning to start building it in November, apparently) and a raft of good-quality signings - good times for Salford look to be on the way.

As for Feka - love the man, and wish him every success in the future (except when playing against Wigan, of course). Many happy memories of his time with us, and apart from the obvious they include his friendly interaction with the fans, including often giving his bash hat to one of the youngsters in the crowd. Look at how many of the kids on the club's Fan Day page on the website have "Feka" written on their faces - yep, all bar one of them.

A gentleman, and one of the most charismatic players we've had in modern times.

I'm sad to see Feka going, but only because he is a great guy off the pitch and always has time for the kids.

In previous seasons, he has treated us to some great flashes of skill.

Unfortunately, on this year's appearances, this was always going to be on the cards.

I'm glad he has found another club over here, and even better, one that means that he doesn't have to move home.

Oh, and congratulations to Feka and Michelle. I believe they got married yesterday.
Some people will just do anything to stay in Sunny, pleasant England.

Did a Q&A session with him on the other site if anyone wants a read:

[urlhttp://www.wiganwarriorsfans.com/wigan/?s=Viewtopic&o=663630[/url

Good Luck, Good signing for salford

Hopefully we will sign a prop who can play longer than 10mins

Good luck Feka and thanks for that try at Knowsley Rd!

Bit sad to see him go.
Obviousley for the best like
That try at knowsley road. yess.

Lima

Doubt it to be honest, a lot of our highest earners are on their way and we've never really spent big for along time and we've always been way clear of the salary cap limit, and the moneys also their of lately. By the way Feka hasn't been announced yet though?

We've got Swain, Big phil, Talau and probably McGilvary and J.Smith on the way out though, all overseas.

IF Salford signing Feka at 28 years old means it doesn't do Salfords youth
system much justice then what did Wigan signing Andy Coley at 29years old do ?

we have

riddell
feka
bailey
phelps

and possibly roberts going out..doesnt stop all the e we have got over the last month from fans and media.

To be fair to Salford, it's a difficult place to get kids involved. Wigan is a big rugby town, (and to a lesser extent so is Widnes) and all the kids play at school, and know about the club, and it's ingrained in society.

In Manchester and Salford, rugby league is tiny in comparison to football. Most kids around here (south Manchester) know absolutely nothing about rugby. In Salford they may be slightly more aware, but still football is king.

Good luck to Salford anyway. Hope Feka can make a big impact, and if Stephen Wild gets back to his best that will be a great signing.

'tis true. I'm from Stretford and only got into league in a big way in around 2006 - I didn't have a clue about it other than having heard of the likes of Martin Offiah and Robbie/Henry Paul when I was very young - I would only be able to name Saints and Wigan as teams who played the sport. When I tell everyone I watch rugby league, it often results in a puzzled look on the face of the person I'm talking with.

There's a Cas fan who posts on these forums who has got kids playing it in Stretford High School so hopefully the game can start to be a bit more widespread over into Manchester.

Looking forward to seeing Feka play next year. He always seems to play well against us, hopefully will do the business for us now instead.

But why aren't any of those being replaced by players in your U20's for next year? As it stands, you'll have just two regular first team players who will have come through your youth system in Stefan Ratchford and Adam Sidlow (Ratchford a Wiganer, is Sidlow from Widnes?)

Next year we'll have Sam Tomkins, Joel Tomkins, Harrison Hansen, Paul Prescott, Eamon O'Carroll, Darryl Goulding, Micky McIlorum, Sean O'Loughlin, Liam Farrell, Chris Tuson, Lee Mossop not to mention the likes of Shaun Ainscough, Josh Charnley, Stefan Marsh, Ben Davies and Joe Mellor who have all dabbled with Super League appearances and loan moves.

Wigan came under criticism for signing three overseas players that will presumably replace four despite developing the above list of players. It sometimes feels as though the future of British Rugby League is mounted on the shoulders of bigger, successful clubs such as Wigan, Leeds and Saints and they are the ones open to criticism if people are under the opinion that signing overseas players are stunting home grown talent. These Salford signings are good for a club of that stature but it totally highlights how poor they are at developing British talent and I just wish it was taken into consideration next time Wigan decide to invest in a foreign player & when it comes to the franchise applications.

Bloody well said.

Sidlow came from Widnes. Adamson, however, did come through our youth system. We also had Turner come through the academy who is obviously at Hull now.

As I've said previously, we're losing experienced players at the end of this season and they need to be replaced with players at with a level of similar experience. Simply promoting players from the academy alongside our already fairly young squad would be suicide.

Echoing what 'talulah' has already said, it's a lot easier for the likes of Wigan, Leeds, Saints etc to attract youngsters, given the fact that they're bigger clubs with more success. I'd also hazard a guess that the difference in size of the pool of local players to choose from with these clubs is monumental when comparing to Salford due to the difference in popularity of the game and participation levels in the areas. Obviously it's something that needs to be rectified but it's difficult to compare the two because it's hardly a level playing field.

I don't have a problem with it, I mean look at some of the young British talent your producing, its impressive.

Sidlow is from Widness yeah, but Sneyd and Spencer get a game every now and then, to be fair we've got some decent players in the reserves but McCrea doesn't seem to choose them unless he definitely has to.