If you speak to Sponsors and other stakeholders in RL, Clarky pleads poverty to everyone, so when AP comes out and says we are at cap, there is no way that can be true. Either we are running at cap and there is some real mis-management of salaries and contracts, or they are spinning a load of lies. Man for man with the top 6, our squad is far weaker so either Hoy, Carlos etc are on 150k plus, I just can't see it

Albert Kelly and Liam Watts both left under a cloud and we were very pleased to take them.

Desperate? after Thursday night I would say yes.

Club is going backwards and will only continue to go backs until further investment comes into the club, AP skint and attracting investors to the table will be a mammoth task. Most concerned I’ve been of this club in 20 years of watching.

investors wont invest if they cant have any say in the clubs day to day running, something Pearson won;t give up unless bought out completely!

catch 22 imo, Pearson is safe guarding the club from going bankrupt by cutting costs, it clearly shows on the pitch how poor we are atm, question is how long will fans shell out year on year on passes/merchandise to watch poor rugby?

Crikey Wilf, how long did it take you to compose that epic!! You must have spent all day and half the night putting that together!!, and that's coming from someone who can also go on a bit given half a chance!!

Agree with every one of the sentiments expressed, and with all the replies since.

I think we can split the situation into two halves really, on-field issues as one problem, with associated questions regarding how the club is run/financed forming the wider concern.

Taking our current shortcomings on the field first, it's obviously not going to be a quick fix, I think we've all worked that out already!
The club needs to take a medium/long term view to this. We need someone (T. Smith) to lay down a coherent plan for the club to pursue.
This will necessitate:
1: What style of rugby are we aiming for?
2: What type of team is required in order to achieve the style of rugby we are aiming for?
3: What type of player do we need who fit the profile for the team we are attempting to build?
4: Out of the current squad, who fits this profile, who doesn't, who needs to be moved on?
5: Identify compatible players when it comes to future recruitment, both in terms of first-choice quality and as strong reliable squad back-ups?

This needs to be set out by an experienced Director of rugby - Head of recruitment. I'm of the opinion that this is the role best suited for Tony Smith, and that it may be better for the club for him to assume these responsibilities (for the direction of travel) with a younger coach taking over the day to running of the first team squad.
Obviously, both men would need to be looking in the same direction, with a shared vision of where we are heading and how we aiming to get there, and be able to work in tandem with each aware of their own parameters.

However, all this ties into the wider issue of how the club is ran and, more pertinently, how it is financed.
As Mrs Barista pointed out earlier, none of us have any real idea of this aspect of operations. Everything we think we hear and know is really a combination of rumour and/or supposition with little in the way of knowledge.
Even so, it's difficult to get away from the feeling that a lack of funding and investment is currently severely hampering any ambition we have. As others have pointed out, the idea that, in 2024, we are spending at full salary cap having assembled this squad simply doesn't add up. If we are then, quite frankly, a raft of bottom-four players are earning top-four salaries, which can't be correct, surely!!

I agree with those posters who've opined that, due to the fact the threat of relegation has been removed, Adam is running the club at a reduced rate in order to clear some extensive debt. But this runs the risk of storing up problems further down the line. What the SL/RFL do one of their customary u-turns in two years time and suddenly put relegation back on the table, and we suddenly find ourselves facing the very real threat of 2nd division rugby, and quite possibly extinction as a club?

I do think the root of the current malaise is the lack of substantial investment (along with confusion about what type of team we would like to build). Like others on here, I've heard rumours that Pearson is something of a control freak and he has a habit of interfering, seemingly unable to appoint people and give them rein to do the job they've been employed for. It's an image which has tended to follow him around during his sporting involvement (Hull City, Leeds Utd), but unless any of us actually work for him, we've no way of knowing or confirming.

So, to sum up, we're in a hole, a big hole of our own making. There's no quick fix, it's not going to happen overnight that's for sure. Adam probably needs to acquire investment from somewhere, whether he would be prepared to relinquish some degree of control only he knows, and we need to ally that to a coherent vision designed to give us a team we can all be proud of once again. Failure to do so could result in a permanent dislocation between fanbase and club.

This is the worst I have felt about our immediate prospects since the late 90s David Lloyd era (the 2024 squad is the weakest we've seen since 1999 in my opinion). The club very nearly lost it's core fanbase then and It's becoming impossible to ignore/resist the gloom which is threatening to envelope the Faithful just 80 minutes into the new season. The passive acceptance of an inevitable derby defeat before it had even kicked off was a shocking indictment of how mired in the dark we all feel. For almost the first time in the 50 years I've been following the club, through so many ups and downs, I am truly struggling to detect even the merest hint of optimism for what lies ahead.

I'm not, by nature, a pessimist (nor simply a blind eyed optimist), but a less than 48 hours after a new season started It's difficult to see anything other than hardship and despondency ahead of us in the coming months.
Keep the faith is all we can do really, that and pray. Alternately do what my mate did on Thursday night and have so much to drink that I seriously don't think he was even aware of who we were playing (or even what sport was taking place) by the time the end finally arrived!!!

One positive for the new overseas players they wont have to learn the words to Old faithfull

I agree, but also…

I think it’ll be difficult to attract new investment until there’s certainty around Hull FC’s long-term tenancy at the MKM stadium. I think, fwiw, that the risk of it not being renewed is very small - but it is obviously a huge hazard for any potential investor.

Once there is some certainty, that’ll help - how much, will depend quite a bit on the shape of the new agreement.

Can’t argue with what Pete had put. For me it seems very reminiscent of the Hetherington period where to cash put into the 1st team was limited and the club relied on the supporters backing the club.

What pee’s me off is that AP stated we are at cap but even the uninitiated can se we are well under cap unless we are paying way over the odds.

I’m just none plused in the club and the sport as a whole and pretty disillusioned with it all to be honest.

I wondered when I started this thread but iI's great to see so many fans getting involved with this because in the end the majority of us just love our club. But, let's face it there's not much on here any of us can disagree with either. Yeh its only one game but for us lot its been a decline over 4 seasons at least. The club won't like it but no one is really criticising the owner or the coach and perhaps when you look at the ability levels in the team the players either, they all have some issues within the situation but everyone knows that we have not made any forward progress in at least.4 season. If watching the other games this weekend proves one thing it is that big players break teams and win you matches. We've always had em, but now we simply don't have any at all, any more, do we? I listed them earlier but just look at Sneyd what a loss, because when we were a man down through sin binning he would have managed that 10 minutes saved out energy levels and probably got us through, yeh he would have probably kicked to the corner every set but we have no game manager at all now.Great to read everyones thoughts though.

Wait till you see the results of the disciplinary panel next week
no doubt will cause a few explosions on the fans forums

Pearson is the sole owner of Hull FC but the club don't have a stadium and has no real assets. What exactly would any new 'investor' be buying other than your debts?

Rovers have several millionaire board members who have bought into the exciting project going on at Craven Park. Would they have come on board if the club didn't own the ground and surrounding land? Possibly not but they are all fully committed now and are supplying the best business brains...and money into Hull KR.

What is happening at Hull KR is built to last, you are going to have to get used to it.

Nobody even mentioned rovers? Believe it or not, not everything is about "the man city of rugby league"

Exactly. There's no way we can be at full spend. In stating that we are he loses trust and almost unwittingly admits that it's management is shambolic.

If he just acknowledged that we cannot spend the full cap this season, which is understandable, fans would have to accept this and be realistic with their expectations.

I'm fully expecting a double digit ban for Pele. First weekend, time to make some examples of people.

You should write scripts for eastenders.

You’ve waited 40 years to write that

I did write on here Thursday night that I’d joined the doom n gloom brigade.
On reflection and having seen some of the other 1st round games.
It’s a long old season there will be plenty of twists and turns to come.
Lewis Martin looks the part.
Hopefully Balmforth & Staveley can prove their fitness and kick on.
Losing Sutcliffe one of our only few rugby intelligent players was a blow.
If we can keep Sutcliffe & Truman fit then we can improve.
Oh by the way an attendance of 20k is also a very positive point worth noting.
Something our dobbin friends on here will never achieve on their own poorhouse lane patch

What has physically been built since the ground was purchased (not by the club apparently) 2 years ago? Genuine question - I remember Mike Smith talking about 14,000 capacity plans about 15 years ago but I'm not aware what the ground purchase has actually delivered in terms of new facilities/capacity.

The land around it? It's not worth anything, what are they going to do, put up a fancy money spinning hotel up on Preston Road, behind the Go-kart track?

They have got a new screen on shipping containers now, to be fair.
And the burger van sells cans of Fanta apparently. Onwards and upwards.

It’s clear that the one game barometer is the only one needed this season.

I wish it was different but there is no
catalyst coming.

Nothing can change for us this season.

I can see us finishing 10th at absolute best because of the Coach , Chairman and a small number of the players.

I’ve posted for a few years now that the common denominator in all this is AP

If this was a small company on the stock market then shareholders would have voted him out with no bonus

Think about it - would you have given Adam the job for this year ?
No one would as we’ve failed under his leadership

However it’s his money and fair play to the guy as he’s tried hard and gone through a lot of stress.

So hopefully he gets that extra investment from local business people.

So for me it’s a long season watching live every week from Melbourne and I may even be over again this year to see a match and spend some more cash on Merch

Where are we going
Not were are….. lol

We lose at home to Broncos then
Smith may as well leave then

If Broncos are our only win and we lose
at Rovers then he may as well go then

Adam is more to blame than Smith almost. Adam is clearly a soft man manager who accepted this rubbish
for years under Radford and Hodgson

Lots of people unhappy with the State of play and rightly so. We brought Smith in to turn things around. No signs yet but only 1 match in. IMO this year will be tough. But I believe as he's told us again and again there's no quick fix. It is gonna be rough. What's our choices? Get rid of him? . Some say don't go although I believe some don't go anyway. If we all stopped going we would have no club. So that's a good plan. Then what?. Some of us are just addicted to our team. Yes we complain we crumble etc. But we still go. We can't help it . It's in our blood..

Think this season will be similar to last season, more lows than highs, we will beat London and win a few games, but lose plenty too, particularly when we get a few injuries, like we have now.

We have to show some kind of improvement. Particularly

Discipline
Not let our heads go at a few behind
Young players embedding and looking like SL players.

Agree with much already posted.

Take issue with the "we must buy tickets/buy merchandise or the club will fold" narrative, because it is this very behaviour that has enabled successive owners to milk the fanbase for minimal returns for a very long time.

The two cup wins (incredible as they were) papered over the huge cracks - the fact Radford clearly targeted the Cup every year meant our seasons ended when it did every year; they just went on longer when we got to the final.

Home form has been shocking for a very long time, atmosphere at the KCOM/MKM practically non-existent, and these crystal clear warning signs ignored because season pass sales, merchandise,etc - that is, the cash cows keep stumping up regardless

When I first started going to the Boulevard in the 70's, we were cr*p, but the (frankly poor/limited) players put the effort in and seemed like they cared. I have not seen or felt this for what, six seasons and counting?

Ask yourself as I have done, in what other part of your life would you continue to accept it?