Course we will. Players always leave unexpectedly. McManus will know he can't sell season tickets with no signatures, we'll sign someone, even if it means players leaving.

Soliola, Wellens, Meli, Flannery and Clough are off contract. If the club can't get over it's sentimental attachment to Wello, he'll be taking a significant pay cut. Flannery is leaving and I'd expect Meli to as well. I'd expect Clough to get a new deal, provided he's happy with a squad player deal, because that's all he is. Sia is one we all hope stays, but there are obviously issues there.

Given we're not spending the full cap this season (We can't be as we put bids in for players and haven't done anything since) I'd say we'll have cap room for at least a couple of players to come in and there are no young players knocking on the door at the moment, like there were in the previous couple of seasons.

I expect sia to stay but honestly don't see how we can replace flannery and Meli as we've no qouta spots free, no quality English players available and certainly won't pay for anyone.

How and who could we possibly sign?

There might be about 30 players becoming available in Yorkshire by mid-April



There are plenty of players about:

Stefan Marsh
Mike McIllorum
Chris Tuson
Sean O'Loughlin
Mike Cooper
Gareth O'Brien
Rhys Williams
Will Sharp
Jordan Turner
Paul Johnson
Oliver Elima
Bryn Hargreaves
Tom Burgess
Danny Addy
Jason Crookes
Paddy Flynn
Joe Arundel
Josh Griffin
Jacob Emmitt
Richie Mathers
Craig Hall
Matty Smith

All off contract or free to move. Plenty there to have a chomp at, even if it's just for squad depth.

The likes of Marsh, Cooper, Sharp, Turner, Johnson, Emmitt, Burgess, Flynn, Griffin would all be decent young signings.

Paddy Flynn signed new deal.

Wouldn't touch most of them to be honest.

Er no. I did.

To be fair i think he probably is the best coach available, who else is there?

Except for tony smith he's the best coach in super league.

Hang on a second bud. You're the guy who, only a couple of weeks ago rattled off a list of available props for last year and yet you can't come up with either one second row or winger for next year. What's going on? This forum needs to know!

I don't know which is kind of my point lol.

That was last year and players was available and we had two overseas spots available but we've none this year.

The list saddened posted are mostly Bradford standard players and not quality.

I've heard some good news today about my bro sia

Off that list, what about Richie Mathers?

i can't see any top NRL coach coming over, ever. After that its top SL coaches and top NRL assisstants. Brown is one of the very top SL coaches (with Tony Smith), as for NRL assistants, its very hard to tell if you'll get a good one like McGuire or not like Roycy baby.

Bloody Hell!

What about him?

Being serious, given that Flannery is really no more than a squad player and a backrower, from the list I'd go for Elima. Francis Meli leaving opens up a spot for an outside back (Even if just a squad spot with Tmak coming in) I think Marsh, Sharp or Turner would do a good job.

We're short on geniune front rowers so one of Johnson, Emmitt or Cooper would be a good addition to the squad depth.

Another option is Gavin Henson playing centre. We'd have cover and wouldn't be relying on him, so it wouldn't be too much of a risk.

Seriously, what's to laugh at? He's the perfect rugby league centre. He's tall, big physically, his defense is fantastic and he has great hands and feet.

His off the field indescretions are his only real negative and if you could persuade him to behave, he'd make a fantastic league centre.

Flannery has been starting so he's more than a squad player.

I'd take enmitt or elima but wouldn't touch the others.

He got a worse lifestyle than Scott Moore. I wouldn't want him anywhere near our club!

Bit disappointed but I guess it's hard to think of too many better candidates out there at the moment. The only other options would have been another punt on an NRL assistant (I think we're off those for a while now), giving someone young a crack from the lower leagues (not bleedin' likely for a club like Saints these days) or going for an out of work has-been like Noble (eeeuuuwww). Just so long as he doesn't bring too much of that godawful game-killing grappling and can time our preparation right for the playoffs then he'll do for now I suppose.

I'd rather we signed a rugby player than some self-obsessed sub-Jordan media-whore if it's all the same to you... Plus he'd cost a flippin' fortune: way, way too much to ever justify being spent on a "cover" player. He'd be the ultimate ticking timebomb and we'd be lunatics to even think about signing him. Leave the circuses to Billy Smart and let's have RL at LP instead, eh?

A club like saints that invests so much in its youth cannot have role models like him, which is why Moore was binned as well. Leave him to the novelty clubs like hull kr, he'll make a great replacement for big willie

I think what replacing Foster and Makison with Meli and Gardner have shown us is that the go forward on the 1st tackle that a bit of extra size gives you goes a long way to a team gaining momentum. If Meli goes, I'd like sign someone who would keep a real pysical presence on at least one wing (one that can cope with kicks as well would be even better

)

Money, basically. I bet you anything he's getting considerably more than the invisible men were paying him.

I was screaming the exact the same thing for the whole last year under Royce - relying on Foster, Makinson and Wellens returning the ball cost us 10 yards every single drive last season and was another one of his frustratingly baffling selection policies (though admittedly injuries left us with not an awful lot of options). In the modern game the extra prop at #2 or #5 is an essential, especially if you've got no pace at #1 as we have. Meli, for all his failings, has always added a huge upside at #5 that far outweighs the occasional brain explosions we're exposed to when he plays out there, and he brings far more to the team than he can playing at #4, and far more at this stage of his career than Makinson does. Of course I've been widely derided for expressing this opinion on many occasions by the kneejerk brigade, but that's never stopped me from being right...