Totally agree with you Pepe.
If, as we were told they went for world class players & a coach & were turned down, then why;
Didn't they look a lower calibre Aussie coach? (Salford did & so did both Hull clubs) So Denis could be their number 2. Or even an English coach Noble-Kear-Powell-even Justin Morgan as he has just done what we are aiming to do with Hull KR
Why didn't they look for a better class of player than we have now?
I have listened to & read the reasons given for this & have come to the same conclusion as Pepe.

Widnes were going to spend vast amounts of money on world class but because they couldn't get them they decided to make do (smells like bulls~~t to me). Looks as though the thinking is leave it as it is & hope our youngsters come through. Well it hasn't happened & the first good one will be leaving us (Mull)

Which leaves our club in an awful mess as we are dire meaning that fans aren't turning up, less income, less salary cap= downward spiral.

If the club don't act all the effort & money getting us to SL will be wasted as we will be back in the championship in 2 years

Aaaanyhoo, your second favourite club (Halifax) smashed Fev today on their own middin' 12-60. Fax are top o' t'league once again. It feels fan-bloody-tastic!!!

Hope you all feel better soon. You're in there for three years at least don't forget

just to change tack slightly and take an anallergy that soc is familiar with, stobarts have the best looking fleet of trucks in the haulage business, they portray an image of being ultra professional and invest massively in their infrastructures. their drivers are amongst the worst paid

Betts is bullet proof.He was in RU for years and landed the Widnes job in the Championship were his mediocrity was rewarded with a SL contract.Now 13 games in with an atrocious points against record he is being defended to the hilt by his Chairman who threatens to walk if critics try to bully the coach out despite 17 games on the bounce conceding 30 plus.Talk about landing on your feet.The club then have the cheek to express disappointment at the lack of home support just because the non die hards make sensible money decisions by not attending and paying to see dross.Ironic how they talk about time and patience when it comes to the coach and team but don't seem to have much time or patience themselves when it comes to crowd numbers at the stobart.Err,It's a three year plan isn't it?Support needs to be built up gradually and patiently.Or does patience only apply when the club wants it to.

well GSF it took a good man like youreslf to represent the supporters at this meeting think if i had attended the meeting i would have totally Blown up listening to all that total Bull and escorted out the back entrance !

:3hoxslk7

Epic fail yesterday Denis. Time to draft the letter that begins.

Dear Mr O'Connor,
Firstly let me thank you for the wonderful opportunity and ongoing support you have given me, however after due consideration in light of recent performances......[ [i:3hoxslk7the rest writes itself[/i

and yet our board is exactly the same as yours. No-one seems to be happy at the bottom at the moment.
For Wakefield and Widnes it is going to be a long road. Keep the faith guys.

Wakey are, at least, competitive. We are uncompetitive and the club is falling apart at the seams. Steve O'Connor fiddles while Widnes burns.

It's sad but true but, with this current coaching set up and very average players we will only get worse this season. SOC is in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks we will get 7000 VSH members. The only way this will happen is if he sacks these clowns now, gets a decent coach in and a big name half decent Half Back & Forward in who will help turn these dire performances around. At least if we can compete for 80 mins in every game it will be a step forward! At this rate, and with the current economic climate, he will be lucky if there are 2000 VSH members next season!!!

Got to face up the reality that Betts & Cullen probably wont be going anywhere, at least for the remainder of the season.

That's seems to be the case, Paddy. It will be ing disastrous for next season though, and there goes our stay in Super League for good.

People said that in 2007 when you went bust. Don't sweat it - the RFL aren't interested in results. It's security and the size of the Chairmans wallet that counts.

If this is all we continue to offer in Super League, I'm not sure we deserve to stay here. I've been arguing for years that Widnes deserve another shot at Super League and it's starting to look like I may have been wrong.

I think SOC has shown the licence system up for the utter farce it is. Only under the current system could Denis Betts get, and keep, a job as a Super League coach, after an abysmal season in the Championship too?

Let's roll forward to August. Crap season in the bin. SOC announces 7 gobsmacking signings for 2013 along with Wayne Bennett as coach. Now who's downbeat?

It's all fixable very quickly and memories will become short in the face of a Man City style shopping spree. And please - don't throw the salary cap at me - it's a sham.

I live in hope!

We all knew this season was going to be tough. But the team has massively underperformed. Its hard to see where any win will come from. The Saints cup game gave me some hope with a bit of grit and determination shown. Unfortunately the collapse and embarressment of the 62-0 drubbing a few days later brought me back down to earth with a bump! With all the time preparing and training for the Castleford game I thought we'd at least run them close. But again another lacklustre performance. I really hope there is a master plan to recruit quality and have a half decent team in place for next season...

Aint gonna happen Rich.The club don't do big signings to get bums on seats.They seem to prefer mediocre signings and still expect bums on seats.I think the term is having your cake and eating it.Oh sure there will be talk of Benji Marshall,Rob Burrow,Rangi Chase,Jon Thurston etc.Who we end up with though,because those players turned us down,will be Matty Smith or Danny Orr.

I've been saying this for a while now... but for the first time I actually doubt our chairman's willingness to go anywhere near a strategy like this.

The only problem is you are extremely unlikely to get big signings / big coaches during mid season (arguably Noble). As you know we did go for these people in the off season which proved unsuccessful and then seemingly left us a bit short when going for other options.

I agree with Rich to an extent that I do think a few good moves on coaching / playing front and things could quickly change. Unfortunately this season is being a real struggle thus far for numerous reasons some in and some out of Betts' control.

For those of us who felt Widnes should never have been kicked out of SL seeing you back was great. People were worried early on last year when you got belted by Leigh & Fev and the end of last season was poor.
Recruitment has been dreadful and the season a disaster.

All this is due to very poor recruitment and if the recruits have been poor then it's the fault of the recruiters. Not sure from out side who was responsible for player recruitment but if next season is not to be a repeat of this or worse, then those who recruited for this year have to be replaced.

We all remember the great recruitment job Nobby did at Crusaders and most of us expected the same from you. Yours has been absolutely awful!
Nobby may well end up at Bradford now which will put Potter's job on the line.
You should now be putting feelers out for Potter. He would attract a far higher quality of player than you can attract at present and he is also a very good coach.

It's no use sacking Betts etc unless you have a better quality replacement ready to walk in. That is where your priority should be now, attracting a quality replacement coach. Once you have him you can then sack whoever you like!

Yeah, I've been thinking along the lines of getting Potter, should Nobby take over at Bradford. He might not be the best coach around, but I reckon he can organise a team, particularly in defence. He did a great job a Les Catalans. The Saints job is all but impossible to stay in, unless the coach is winning trophies every year. Under the circumstances he is doing a great job with Bradford at the moment.


I disagree with this one. I honestly think that it matters very little who takes over from Denis Betts, in the interim. The tea lady probably wouldn't be much worse. As it happens, we have a decent replacement in Paul Cullen, who could take over as caretaker coach until the end of the season, if need be. This will give any coach who wants to apply for the job time to apply and the club time to assess. Wait until the end of the season, and most coaches will probably be tied up again.

I am sorry Pepe, but you are wrong!
Paul Cullen was a terrible coach at Warrington.
He had a fantastic squad, and a super supportive chairman, but the team was useless!
The change in fortune with the same team under Tony Smith, is proof of this!
I pointed out in a previous post the simmilarities between Widnes now and Wire under Cullen.
It is not a coincidence, the common denominator is Paul Cullen!
Widnes need a great coach, not an egotistical useless one!

I only want Cullen as a caretaker coach, I just want it known, over a period of months or weeks, that the job is on offer. I'm only asking that he replace Betts for a short period. If you think that would be disastrous, you haven't got a clue. Betts makes Cullen look like Wayne Bennett.

I feel for you lads its not nice getting a thumping and I keep thinking its bad enough watching Wakey.You could take Agar off our hands but it wouldnt do you any good with the quality of players we have we should be doing better than we are.To me the only coach who would do you any good with the players you have at the moment is our old coach John Kear who performed miracles with what we had last year.

Seems some may need a plate.

You'll need more than a plate if you think you can get away with digging up old threads just to wind people up.