It bl*ody stank mate!
Mrs BG wouldn't let me bring it in the house!


Its still a bit mucky anyway.....

Pleased, really good news, he went really well for us last season. Let's hope the signings that follow will go as well .

Was immense for large parts last year in the middle. Excellent news.

Great news, our most consistent forward for the 2nd half of the season, gives us some great go forward.

Amongst the uncertainty at the moment, this is good news

The only uncertainty at the moment is from some posters on here, why not just wait and see, it's less stressful.

It happens every chuffing year. The moment the last game is done the doom mongers are out. I could actually name them, they are as predictable as the tides.

Every little thing is a disaster and if we don’t have the Australian test team signed before the first leaves fall from the tree panic sets in.

Every flipping club is in some state of flux at this time of year. We have about 6-8 places to fill, same as most clubs. We’ve lost three influential player but two were down to age. We have also lost a steady player in Batch and a promising youngster in Aydin.

Standard for most clubs in truth, when like us they are leaving a relatively stable era and rebuilding as has to be done at some point.

The only genuine concern is that we have not yet announced the new coaching set up. That is an unknown but one has to assume that’s well in hand and has been for a while. This also may explain why recruitment is yet to begin in earnest.

This idea that all the best players are signed up already is total rubbish. But what is even more ridiculous is all the experts on here proclaiming that we have signed Gale and whoever else are talking utter rubbish as ever.

We may well sign Gale but that will be down to the new coach and nobody on here knows who he is. Still they won’t admit they are wrong and will continue to chuck in the names of any remotely contentious player to stir the pot and demonstrate how knowledgeable they are.

So I agree, wait and see. Some of our best signings have been late in the day, Whitbread being one.

Exactly, you pop onto a particular Facebook group and it’s like a cesspit of negativity. We haven’t even close finalised our squad yet and pre season is a couple of months away yet. It’s fine to have an opinion but even for trinity fans it’s too much.

I choose to remain upbeat until the squad is complete and coach is in place and have built their team.

I agree. The Whitbread signing along should be raising smiles.
He is a proven player, not a risk, who is well sought after and he's signed for us.

I agree let's wait and see and most importantly keep supporting the club.

I also see it as a bit of a relief PT - thought he might have been leaving too...
But delighted he's staying - and for a few years too.
He can now have Tini's shirt & number (not mine, next season's obviously)

It's like a game to some of them lets see what mischief we can make, then there's them that I actually believe revel in the thought of things going wrong and hate the possibility of for once things are going right, the plus side of that is you never hear from them when that happens, then there's the eternal pessimists preyed on by the others that heard it in the chippy, or two blokes were talking when they took their dog out walking, it must be true though because there seems quite a few in the know at the moment

From what I have seen and heard this would be a valuable long term signing that we can build a forward moving pack around.

He will have certainly known who the coach was going to be to change from a season option to signing for 3 years.

You’d have thought so but frankly this is a signing I’d trust even the BOD to make. It’s a no brainer. He may not be as good as some think but he’s clearly a good young pro and they are not that available.

This is a big re signing but the BBC and Sky haven’t covered it?
If somebody like Welsby had three Wheatabix for his breakfast the Saints publicity machine would be letting everyone know.

That'll never happen.
Welsby couldn't eat three......

May be a big signing for us but for some clubs he would be a squad player .Think it was given out yesterday to soften the blow about the coach

Disagree squad player. He would be one of those solid players who’s a workhorse and professional that all teams need in their forward pack. He is about to hit his prime years and the way he’s improving too it’s well deserved.

It was given out because he’s earned it 1000%.

A blow to who it’s not a blow to me! Quite the opposite. Do you honestly think the BOD think so little if their appointment.

Whitbread's been quality
After settling into the team he was the stand out forward in our pack, not flash but hard working, hard to handle for the opposition and not expensive in terms of discipline or errors.

Tying him down to 3 years is superb for the coming seasons, he’s only going to get better over that time.
In some ways he reminds me of Kyle Amor, not a big singing but grew into one of the best most sought after front rowers during his spell at Trinity

Jai Whitbread may have been a squad player at the start of the season but definitely our stand-out player by the end! I feared we might lose him.

still a young guy as is Rob Butler who (it seems) is over his injury problems and I hope we can reap the benefit of a hungry talent who was front and centre in the England Knights squad not long ago...


as an aside...
in terms of the overseas spots I would like to see a half, a prop/middle and a loose/middle with maybe another couple of 24/26 year old squad forwards (assuming Shaul comes on board)

Don't think there's a blow to soften once fans had got over the initial shock of Willie getting sacked and that JD wasn't coming over from Oz, those that know him or have dealings with him in the game are quite happy with his selection if it's confirmed and that'll do for me, not going to change anything so the best thing is to get on with it and give him your full support as I'm sure you will, one thing I wouldn't agree with you is your opinion of Whitbread being a squad player elsewhere, the leagues full of players like him being an essential part of their team as he is with us and would be elsewhere.

I got quite worried that we might lose Whitbread when he made those regular appearances in The BetFred team of the week.