[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/15015943.stmAbout 3 weeks ago?[/url



TBF, I know what you're saying about the reputation of the area, but IMO it's not so different to most of the alternatives that it couldn't be outweighed by the main factors of trophy prospects, coach, and money. I still maintain that those are the main factors for players, and we've struggled to attract decent players in recent years because we've clearly been on a downward spiral.

no change there then

And you know that how? Was it you I saw stood with a clipboard on king edward street on Saturday?

I forgot about Lynch



Fair points your making and ones I agree with

I wasn't trying to be a dick about Hull I was born there and I am very passionate about the City.

and you know that I don't know that, how?

the majority of people I speak to, whilst a bit "uneasy" about a few things, are not questioning AP's ability to improve the club, or the way he is going about it. Most, quite sensibly, accept there are about 4 months to go before we kick a ball in meaningful competition, we have new coaches, conditioners, director of rugby and general professionalism around the club, they see no reason for the minority of hand wringing amongst some FC fans, and it seems the ame FC Fans that are never happy, no matter what.

I wanted two things as an FC Fan, Agar gone and Hetherington gone, both have happened, so it's the land of milk and honey as far as I am concerned at the moment.

I agree 100%, but that shouldn't have anything to do with voicing displeasure on the forum about individual things that the club does.

Kath and her pet loser leaving and Pearson, McRae and Gentle coming in is the best thing to happen to the club in years, I don't think anyone is disputing that. It doesn't mean though that people who want to question or voice their unease about certain decisions should be accused of 'moaning' or 'being negative' etc.

I'm cock-a-hoop about the overall changes at the club in the last couple of months, but does that mean I should pretend to be chuffed when we sign a seemingly disproportionate number of players through the same agent, appoint a husband & wife team to the coaching staff, or sign Tony Sodding Martin? Of course it doesn't, it's what the forum is for!

But there is no real basis for your displeasure, do you know the husband and wife team are doomed to fail, no, you don't, do you know that we signed Martin because he was our first choice, no you don't.

People just need to be a little more realistic, that's all I am saying.

I agree about being realistic, but AP hasn't done a great job of managing peoples expectations so far. In fairness to him though, I suspect that it's more a case of him initially underestimating how long it would take to make the changes that he wants to rather than anything untoward.

I don't buy the 'you don't know they are doomed to fail' line though, of course it's impossible to know that, but it doesn't mean you should be criticised for passing comment based on the evidence that's currently available. The currently available evidence on the three things that I mentioned suggests to me that they are all pretty dodgy decisions, so I'll say as much, it doesn't mean I've lost faith in AP.

what evidence, that is what I mean, there is no evidence to suggest the conditioner/physio is a poor appointment.

why is it an issue if players have the same agent, do we even know who is the agent of anyone else we've signed?

Well Devlin's career so far has hardly sparkled, but putting that to one side, I find it very difficult to believe that the best candidates for the conditioner and physio roles just happened to be married to each other. That's not condemning them to fail at all, but should I ignore it out of blind faith in AP and McRae?

The same idea applies to the Howes thing, there may be no problem with it at all, but it looks fairly dodgy to me so I don't see anything wrong with voicing that. Put it this way, if it was Kath and Agar doing it there'd be all kinds of conspiracy theories floating around.

in order to achieve success you first need to be granted opportunity

I know for an absolute fact that not every person who is unhappy at some of the recent signings posts on here

and I know for an absolute fact that there are many more FC fans playing the "wait and see before I comment" hand.

Of course, but the displeasure is about whether we are granting opportunities to the right people.

He can't play in the back row. He runs about as hard as rice pudding

As long as he attacks the gaps he'd be fine.

wont it be great to have a coach that encourages that, instead of constantly running at the man.

drivel?

looks like im in good company then as there has been plenty posted!

never known a set of ungreatful fans who don't realise how fortunate we are to be rid of hetherington and agar!

You may consider it pedantry, but Pearson didn't say anything about demonstrating that we were going to be a 'massive club'. He said that by October/November people would see what our intentions were or similar. I didn't interpret that as us making huge signings, others seem to have. Hence I thought it relevant to point out what had actually been said.

He was quite clearly talking about the direction of the whole club, and in that space of time we've had major changes the vast majority of which have been positive. A little premature to be writing things off as 'spin' IMO.

I actually think he said something along the lines of:

get your season passes early as by November everyone will want one

Can't wait for November

I do, because it is.


You're not wrong, but you knew what the poster meant yet just dismissed him out of hand because he didn't quote Pearson exactly.

Really? Spin is spin, regardless of when it's said.

Lets face it every club in sport uses spin pre season. Maybe AP's best signing could well be Mcrae, he might just rein him in.

Dear me with comments like that your longevity and credibility on here will last about as long as Lammtarra's career! You want to try watching the game and you'll maybe notice that the most successful loose men are the ones that go around the opposition or put others into spaces.

Accuracy and pedantry are not (always) the same thing.

I didn't dismiss his point out of hand. I corrected him on what he was quoting AP as having said. If you wish to interpret that as dismissing his entire point then fair enough.

It will only be spin if the club don't deliver.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, I've skipped the last few pages because the bickering made me think I was at home with the kids, but next year we lose 2 interchanges. I think this will see a lot of team's packs lightening somewhat to cope with the fact that they won't be able to chop and change the big lads as much. Maybe this is why the pack is looking lighter for next season, I know that Huddersfield have done the same.