3 years to the day since Adam Pearson's takeover, and I have to say I am feeling the most downbeat I have in those 3 years.

for all the hype and promise, we are pretty much in the same spot we where back in the summer of 2011. A poor team with a poor coach with very few signs of hope on the horizon. We had just been nilled at Headingley in an awful game where we didn't even get near the Leeds line, a story that sounds painfully familiar.

There has been a lot of investment off the field and in the youth system, but in the cold light of day its a results business and our finishes of 6th, 6th & most likely 12th is no better than the latter years of the Hetherington era, and to me the entertainment/style of play is still depressingly dull.

Comparing the playing squads from 2011 to now (2011: [urlhttp://www.superleaguefans.com/hull-fc/hull-fc-2011-squad-numbers.html[/url 2014: [urlhttp://www.hullfc.com/first-team/squad[/url )

I'm struggling to see a major difference in quality between the two squads, in fact you could argue the 2011 squad was stronger with the likes of Yeaman, Briscoe, Manu, O'Meley, Moa & Fitzgibbon all being picked for international or Exiles duty. For all the hype and noise about signing internationals, chasing after Rangi Chase and paying off players like we've got money to burn, we simply haven't moved forward.

Crowds have dropped noticeably (though to be fair to Pearson years of economic downturn are a big factor) we haven't even recorded a single crowd above the average attendance for 2011 (12,483) all season. To even get anywhere close we had to offer £5 tickets against Warrington.

I am by no means suggesting pining for a return to the Hetherington days, as they were slowly killing the club but I still can't help the feeling that we are no nearer success than we where when we limped out the playoffs at Leeds 3 summers ago.

Did you expect Pearson to come on board and not promise anything?Yes he is guilty of being over optimistic but he wants best for the club and he has put a lot of money in and i am sure he is not happy the way things are at th emoment .Like thefans he needs to ride this out and give radders more time

Ignoring this year we have seen good improvement under AP, two 6th place finishes, cup final, play off wins , more wins against big teams and most importantly the amount of young players coming through. Off the field better training, organisation and miles better financially.

I still feel much more confident with AP than the previous owners.

The only gripe with Pearson is the appointment of the current coach, Other than that , I think he's done a good job .

pearson has made a couple of misguided decisions but he's done what he thought was right. He now needs to take a step back consider things and look for the best coach he can afford with a proven track record in top flight rugby.

His programme notes are certainly worth a read this week!

I emailed him and he said he would send me his notes for Thursday but hasn't yet. I'm meeting him for a coffee on Friday and it would be good if you could email them to me before I go....please?

Meeting you for a coffee? Are you sure he isn't sending radford to beat you up?

I might get signed up for next season

Sounds like you're going to have to buy a programme.



Ask (tell) him to get the Crooks saga sorted - we need him to commit his long term future to the club.

Would get a programme but just wanted to read it now to digest it....wouldn't surprise me if the rumours in his notes address the rumours on this site anyway as he is a clever bloke

Can you tel him to make sure there is enough soap in the mens bogs as it ran out last game

Lets hope they're more fact than fiction.

And the pies are rubbish and over priced

Yeah, get the important stuff sorted if you can. I might email him and see if he'll spring for lunch

what makes you think I've got them but three years in I just think they will be interesting!

You're right......I just assumed as you are generally in the know

I think he is as honest as they come......there is only so much he can say though in his position. He must also be fully aware that the FC fans are threatening to vote with the pass sales.....will be interesting as he has some tough decisions to make

Hes not!!! dont kid yourself

He assumes a lot

Problem with Pearson is he's a proper Jackyll & Hyde on top of the fact he's impatient and prone to making astonishingly carp decisions that make no logical sense both from both a business sense AND functionally at a playing/club level.

IF things don't turn around pretty sharpish I reckon he'll bail and want to sell up to cut his losses as we are so far behind everyone else at the moment it's an utter joke.

Under Gentle at least we were at the business end of things and despite all the rubbish about having a pack that was too mobile (utter garbage) we had a squad that did get to a final, that did win a play off game on top of the fact we'd had shocking injuries losing Holdsworth for two months or more as well as Horne who'd come into some very decent form.
We may even have done better had it not been for certain others around Gentle and yet it was Pearson whom winkled Gentle out instead of those that undermined him..THERE IS YOUR PROBLEM!

We are now further back than were we were under Agar quite frankly, at least with Agar you could trust the guy not to lie out of arris everytime he opened his mouth..but Pearson elected to pick an 'assistant' (i use that phrase in the loosest sense describing Radford) with no experience coaching/managing a professional outfit ever, with clearly not enough nouse about the game to figure out even the basics, with ZERO man management skills and based on this season not a fooking clue about anything.
Radford hasn't the balls to own up he's being found out and was never the man for the job and Pearson hasn't the balls to own up he's made a fecking pigs ear of things..two bottleless s making our club a laughing stock.

Frankly Pearson can do one as well..good riddance as he's too unbalanced to run this club

I think the pies are much better than they used to be. The steak & ale one is very tasty.

I really hope its not, an extension to Radford's contract.

Just got round to reading Murdock's article in the HDM and this stood out for me

"Instead, I believe the real problem lies in the thirst for immediate success. Rather than see long-term strategies put into place which will benefit the club for years to come, fans want success yesterday. Because fans by their very nature are fanatical about their club. They want success and they want it now"

And while we aren't responsible for poor on field performance or tinkering with the squad, I think that's spot on. Yes we should have kicked on from 2005/6 and should have done better last year, but if the club needs rebuilding as some seem to think, we need to lower our expectations. A lot.

Coming out with a quote like that and you think Pearson is unbalanced.

Pearson is the best thing that as happened to this club in a long time, unfortunately he is building from the bottom up for long term success unlike Salford who are buying for instant success and we don’t like it.

I am not happy with how FC are playing this season who is, but I am also not short sighted and can see what they are trying to build.