I wonder if they perhaps haven't offered him a wage rise and he thinks he needs one to stay.

If I had another contract on the table which would clearly pay more money then I would also be going all out to get a payrise too. I would expect my boss to say the kind of thing that Mr Hood has been saying about the time not being right for me to go and the job I would be going to wouldn't give me success etc.

I would also expect him to resist giving me a pay rise at the same time as knowing he could not buy my experience any cheaper from someone new. It's like a poker game in which nobody wants to move and both think the other is bluffing.

Steve could go for the England job and who knows perhaps he could do well. There's plenty of young English talent about these days and one day it will bear fruit.
He could also walk into just about any other superleague club. One or two are perhaps not performing to their owner's expected standards and may be on the lookout for someone who isn't settled where they are.

Steve is in a very strong bargaining position and I wouldn't blame him at all for using that to lever more money out of a notoriously tight club board. I just hope that that is all he has in mind and doesn't really want to leave.

Those who imagine he would be replaced by some kind of miracle working coach-god are living in fairy land.
We might be very lucky and get Jimmy Lowes but he would be starting back where Steve was 4 years ago. Why go backwards now? Anyway with our luck and unwillingness to spend on wages we'd probably end up with Paul Cullen

I agree. However it has oft been mentioned that a number of RL players are unlikely candidates to win Mastermind.

I would say the difference is Noble inherited a good squad of players at Wigan, who had won nothing, but won nothing himself. While Maguire has won nowt yet the improvement overall, & specifically with players like Roberts & Richards, marks him out as a special coach in the making. Noble took on a champion team at Bradford & maintained & developed them.

Indeed he did.

Problem was of course that he did not develop - or retain - the next generation.

I played for an amateur team who, in their day, were a match for most. We never bothered with juniors because we thought it would never end. The club folded about 10 years ago.

Like Sharlston Rovers will.