Williams name was discussed a lot on here when we signed Long with a view that people hoped Long would mentor him. Not heard much of Williams since though.

He is a year younger that Nicklas so may go FT next year, last season Hull FCTV was great showing highlights of the youth teams, shame it stopped hopefully they will start and continue it this year.

Also be good if the club updated the website about the future stars.

Nail on head,

I agree entirely. The same people spouting the stuff about there being no halfbacks around, are the same people that call Noble a poor option as coach! There are lots available, it's just having the vision to sign the right ones! Witt, Hanbury and Sammut would have signed for any club in the Super League if approached with the same offer Crusaders gave them.

Would the cash we have used on transfer fees over the last few seasons been better spent on trying to attract a top coach to the club?
Like you say other clubs dont appear to have the same problems we do.
Do we not have the right contacts?
Do we have poor scouting?
Is it just purely down to RA not having the pulling power?

This is purely my opinion but 2012 is going to be a massive year for recruitment and decision making, is RA the right man for that, personelly i think not.

I didn't see anybody complaining when we signed Fitz, O'Meley, Moa and Lauaki.......

Agars recruitment has been spot on so far!!

And not forgetting the recruitment may not have finished yet, if we don`t perform well this season then Agar will be under pressure, until then we should just wait and see what happens.

Just a question which I and a friend have been pondering...

When did Hull FC ever beat another top RL club to a signing (be it a coach or a first team player)?

I've gone back about 20 years and I cannot think of one, there are a fair few that other teams wish they had signed with the benefit of hindisght, I appreciate that, but I mean when have we ever genuinely beaten someone else to a players signature?

I'm pretty sure that other clubs would have made players like O'Meley, Fitz and Long an offer at the same time we did. I can't imagine that Sean Long only had just our offer to think about.

How do you know??

How do you know what players we've gone in for and what players other clubs have gone in for??
Oh, and the rumour was that O'Meley turned Rovers down for us, just a rumour though, I don't KNOW that!!

The most recent is Will Smith, not every thing is reported in the media, normally only the one's were the agents want to bump up the price

Surley you are not that stupid Standee that you believe we only sign players no other top team wants

Also Reece Lyne, he had plenty of offers from other clubs and FC had to really sell the club to him!!

Long and Wigan

Excellent signing, he can star in the remake - Men in Black (and white)!

Salary Cap.

Hul beat Saints to sign Fitzgibbon.

Not at all, but I wouldn't say Smith or Lynne are in that category yet, someone has suggested to me that it was possibly Barnett Snr, I tend to agree.

is that a fact?

Doubt it, but we'll never really know (as many are saying in general about this point).

I could understand a player turning FC down for Saints (LMS)

i can too....

Of course we don't know the in and outs but I don't remember us beating another top team for a top player of course there will have been clubs interested in the likes of ogre and Fitz but I don't think there was firm offers, people say Long but surley if Saints or Wigan made Long anything like the offer we did he would have stayed in that area, we don't seem to get into bidding wars for players and that is fair enough, and sometimes I think players just dint fancy living in Hull.

The funniest thing is you agree with him...

Well I tell you what I am having a cr@ppy morning at work but you have cheered me up no end, I actually LOL, reading your post thanks

Correct, and Fitz will tell any-one this!

Ask Fitz he will tell you, he is often at Junior Rugby matches.

Am I the only one that remembers hearing Long said he turned down Wigan?

Unfortunate but true, especially seen as though we've not come near to really winning anything for a while (yes, we had a CC final, but we were never going to win it)