That bloody island! Expro miles offshore with no lifeboat would be best I reckon

As much as you're absolutely right the problem is, in a horrible negative way, so is Expro ( and it hurts me to say that ). Fact is the recruitment policy and contracts in place currently leave us with little option but to carry on with what we have. Radford and Dowes would perhaps be welcome additions at some botom 4/6 clubs and no doubt continue to provide good value for money. Problem is we haven't got the cap/quota/fed space to improve on them so they become a fait-accompli. Essentially though like you say we're not good enough this year and we'll be the same next year.

I wouldn't be too unhappy happy with a one year deal for Radford provided he is played at prop and prop alone. Loose forward should be a straight fight between Fitz and Washbrook IMO and Radford shouldn't even appear in the equation. Also he does need to cut out his suicide offloads.

Poor resigning imo .Dowes ,yes Radford No!

I would imagine the testimonial events would cover any short fall in that area.

Isn't there a Benefit game against Bradford in the pipeline for the next off season?

IIRC benefit games are usually at the end of a testimonial. I'm not sure how it would work as Radford (I think) can get a six month RL testimonial but Kirk Yeaman is due a 12 month testmonial starting next year after a decade at Hull.

Stan started his testimonial period with a pre-season game against Huddersfield , so Radford's Benefit may well start with such a match and the Yeaman's events ending with a game.

What the f'k have Yeaman or Radford done to deserve a benefit game, why can't the club stage a game for Help for Heros or some other organisation that genuinely deserves it, Yeaman has picked up £250K plus playing for Hull.

Yeaman's played 10 consecutive years in the first team at Hull FC. That's the way RL testimonials work. If the fans judge that he doesn't deserve it, they won't support his events.

As I've posted before , I'm not a fan of testimonials but it would appear that Radford will be awarded one.

As Mrs B points out , how the fans support them is up to the individual.

and to be fair to Yeamo for more than half of those 10 years he has played at international standard and for the remainder he has had very little quality service in a poor hull side.

Going back to Radford; i think the season extension is a good idea, surely it will be on reduced terms reflecting his status as a bit part player now. I think when Lee plays prop he offers more than Dowes and Cusack for me. Is the annomosity from some FC fans based towards him based on him leaving for Bradford many years ago to better himself?

I think most of the negative comments are that he was involved in the five drives and the aimless kick ploy which was seemingly the plan for quite a while.

my comments about Radford are based on seeing him stood behind the sticks, red faced and clueless too many times, whilst pretending to be a Captain.

The most notable thing he has done as an FC player occured in a pub in Beverley.

If I were in charge, Radford would have gone a long time ago. He is Mr Nothingness. Never has someone with so little ability achieved so much in RL.

If he were to be awarded a testimonial, it would be a complete joke and I wouldn't contribute a penny in any way shape or form and I'm sure that I wouldn't be the only one. I don't particularly agree with testimonials generally but to award him one for returning here for five less than mediocre seasons after stiffing us for a few extra quid when he had the chance would be a pi$$ take.

As for testimonials; I don't like the sense of entitlement, "I've played ten years therefore I should geta testimonial."

I think it's an anachronism; a relic of the days when guys played for some extra cash whilst holding down a day job; sometimes even costing themselves wages to play; the testimonial was a way of saying thanks and giving them a little nest egg as they embark on getting proper job. As full time pros I think there si no longer that need, unless to say thanks toa truly outstanding local player who has sweated blood for the cause over a number of years. And very few come into that bracket.

Come on, get off the fence. Do you like radford or not?

I don't like the idea that a player can leave a club, give their best years to someone else, then return and be awarded a testimonial. Testimonials should be reserved only for players with 10 years of unbroken service, IMO.

Absolutely, it's meant to reward loyalty and effort.

End of the day...if they are rewarded Testimonials then its upto the fans if they go....I personally dont bother at all with them.

Agreed. Devalues it otherwise.

Could not have put it better myself. If Radford gets a testimonial i wont be going to the events that is for sure. Horne got my support as he fully deserved it, and Yeamo although poor over the last few seasons (More down to supply than himself though) deserves a testimonial far more than Radford.

Hilarious! - He left as a hot prospect and came crawling back when he failed to live up to that early promise. I would have told him where to go. Not on one single occasion have I thought that his re-signing was a good move. Boy does this club need a coach and player enema!

He may have left as a hot prospect, but he came back a vastly improved and much decorated player, who had been a fixture in the engine room of one of the most successful sides of the time. Of course his signing was a good move, I don't feel that lee has ever let the club down on the pitch (or off it either, witness his community work) and it is he who has been let down by coaches who asked him to to jobs he just was not suited to, like being a ball playing loose forward when he was always a workhorse not a ball player.