Interesting conversation with Brian Carney, Tomkins & Wilkin on SKY tonight confirming what we knew already that Salford are one of the lowest spenders on the cap. Think AP would do well to offer a position at Hull to the person that sorts their recruitment and deals out.

The difference to how they operate vs how we operate is huge , neither club owns their own stadium either yet despite Hull having much bigger fanbase we still seem to be losing ground.

It's Ian Blease isn't it? He's a former agent. We've got a former radio DJ and it shows....

Also we dont know how much money Adam Pearson actually takes out the club

Good observation. Interestingly in football, with the current operational change at Man Utd, one of the first things they have done is go after the main Head of Recruitment from Newcastle (and formerly Brighton). It’s about buying smart, as opposed to buying players for the sake of it. We need to get smarter on our recruitment. Best value for money signing we made in recent times was Ratu, and that was a few years ago.

Big advantage Salford have over FC
Is geographical location..
Lancashire based players don’t have to relocate home and family etc..
One thing I would concede though is Salford do recruit overseas players exceptionally well.

Wakey will have a better squad than us next season if rumors are to be believed .

I do understand the advantage Salford have geographically as have mentioned this on another post however I do think in the case of Salford that advantage is negated somewhat with job security vs location so to speak. No disrespect meant to Salford at all but its well known they do and have struggled financially and needed to offload players to be able to continue but credit to them & Rowley for still being able to put a side together than competes like they do and achieve what they have done since Koukash pulled out and Watson left.

As someone commented you do have to wonder if a lot of our recruitment issues are down to the personnel we have in that dept. Look at what Motu achieved in players the club brought in, compared to what we have had under Clarke for example. So is it poor recruitment, lack of money offered, poor coaching appointments biting us or simply we are not an attractive option since 2018?

We are told/lead to believe we are operating and the cap but when you look at Salfords squad who are operating well under the cap limit then compare to our own something doesn't add up.

It just makes you wonder if AP invested in someone with a proven track record re player recruitment etc whether we'd fair better in this area?

https://www.totalrl.com/st-helens-pippe ... -reporter/ Geographical advantage?? Really disappointed we didn't even seem to be in the running for him, perfect replacement for McIntosh

https://www.totalrl.com/st-helens-pippe ... -reporter/ Geographical advantage?? Really disappointed we didn't even seem to be in the running for him, perfect replacement for McIntosh

So, its the middle of March. Rovers are signing Tom Davies and Warera-Hargreaves, Wakefield (a current Championship side) have signed McMeeken and Johnstone. Tom Burgess has signed for Huddersfield.

Meanwhile, in West Hull.....

For as good as Davies is, id say we have bigger priorities then wingers for 2025.

Well if the fans see us do next seasons recuitment on the cheap i suspect the pitchforks will be out for pearson

Adam will be tapping into Grix to see what we can get from the bargain basement of the championship.

Personally I'd be disappointed, IF we used a marquee slot on a winger.
We need, 7, 9 & 3 -IMO

Davies wouldn't have been marquee money surely, high paid but marquee, he'd have been an ideal signing to replace McIntosh for next year

I would imagine McIntosh will get a contract extension.

Its a case or where do you start as weve some glaring needs such as a number 7 a looseforward and a new hooker.

On the other hand we have alot of average players that we need upgrades on, id say Mcintosh is one.

Id release him personally and let Lewis Martin come through, Barron looked alot better on his last outing alot stronger, we also have Litten as wing cover, think the Mcintosh wage can be put to better use elsewhere.

I wonder if Hull will have the same policy this year as last year, i.e. leave any annoucements until much later in the year.

Ese'ese was the first confirmed IIRC and that was mid August. Contrast that to Rovers. I think they have the right idea. Two good signings if they confirm Davies and it generates a feel good factor for the fanbase. I could cope more easily with another mediocre season if I knew now that we had top replacements announced for Houghton and Tuimavave.

id be happy if they announced they had a top class 7 signed for next season,we are missing one badly

When it is announced I'm not that concerned about. What bothers me is that we leave it too late and all our targets are snapped up and we are scrambling around for a replacement and end up with a hooker who can fill in at at scrum half when we have injuries.

yes,we need to be looking now,late last summer,hull went from looking for a 7 to about to sign a spine player.in other words we had left it to late for a good 7.

i could never see the point of signing both morgan smith and nu brown.1 of them fair enough,but both.no.

Let’s face it we won’t sign anyone of note. We will get beaten to the punch on anyone that’s worth having. We will just get what’s left. Harsh but true.

There's not much in the UK player pool as it is so when when you see clubs already signing quality players for next season. I does make you wonder who can we target for next season.

If we'd have paid the 250k fee for croft and Ackers, Pearson could have potentially made that back if it encouraged an extra 1000 fans to go to each game if we were playing better rugby (25 * 1000 * 13 is 325k), I've always thought it's a false economy doing things on the cheap as you end up losing revenue when fans don't turn up to games and buy merchandise, don't have prize money from finals etc

Less 50% to the SMC, leaves £162,500 so realistically you’d have to attract nearly 2,000 more fans to make a profit and I don’t think that’s going to happen especially if the Covid loan is £500k.