Quote ="Terry Monster"And telling us blatent nonsense like this lark. [iPeter Hood, insisted: "Bradford is not and will not become a selling club.[/i www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 05106.html 2006 - Fielden - Sold 2007 - Vainikolo - Sold 2008 - Hape - Sold 2009 - Burgess - Sold So it's clear for all to see, we have become a selling club by selling our best players.'" What nonsense... 2006 - Fielden.... wanted to leave, club received a massive £400k+ for a player who'd slipped well below his own high standards = good business 2007 - Les 'sold', but his knees are shot and he was spending more time watching than playing, saves club one of its largest wage packets 2008 - Hape 'sold', he'd not been the 'same player' since his Nth knee reconstruction and also a high earner 2009 - Burgess... not gone yet, maybe he really wants to go early in his career? Also rumours that he has some form of 'get out' clause in his contract, so maybe the club has no choice IF he decides to go.

Quote ="Terry Monster"And telling us blatent nonsense like this lark. [iPeter Hood, insisted: "Bradford is not and will not become a selling club.[/i www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 05106.html 2006 - Fielden - Sold 2007 - Vainikolo - Sold 2008 - Hape - Sold 2009 - Burgess - Sold So it's clear for all to see, we have become a selling club by selling our best players.'" What nonsense... 2006 - Fielden.... wanted to leave, club received a massive £400k+ for a player who'd slipped well below his own high standards = good business 2007 - Les 'sold', but his knees are shot and he was spending more time watching than playing, saves club one of its largest wage packets 2008 - Hape 'sold', he'd not been the 'same player' since his Nth knee reconstruction and also a high earner 2009 - Burgess... not gone yet, maybe he really wants to go early in his career? Also rumours that he has some form of 'get out' clause in his contract, so maybe the club has no choice IF he decides to go.

Damned if he does and damned if he doesn't, I guess. And its a newspaper article that quotes him (selectively or otherwise...dunno) rather than looking like copy straight from the club - bear that in mind.

But I fear the article creates more uncertainty and implies more issues for concern than ever it resolves.

From an england P.O.V it will be great for him and the national side.
From the bulls side of things it's a massive loss and unless there a some major quality signings waiting to be announced the seasons of discontent are set to continue for a while longer.

What a load of bollocx, I must have imagined all the ringing of hands and beating of chests when it became apparent that the best prop in the world only a few months earlier was leaving for Wigan.



Again, a load of bollockx, Les played 17 out of 18 games in the 2007 season and made a return of 16 tries.



Still our best centre and he was sold.



He's getting sold, if he had a release clause then he'd have walked weeks ago.

IMO it's done more harm than good. Also the club could do with employing some real PR person for the club because at the moment all we get are conflicting messages.

Perhaps it will be a little clearer in a few weeks why we have yet to announce any new players since Hall and L'Estrange. If a deal was agreed for Burgess some weeks ago then the club would surely have wanted time to conclude other deals before making that announcement. It is frustrating waiting but the season only ended a couple of weeks ago.

The club will want their recruitment pretty much finalised and announced by the end of Oct to maximise season ticket sales. I expect we will have a much better idea of the side for 2010 this time next month.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing indeed. Whatever you think about all 3 players when they were here (and I agree with the points you have made) the form that they have all shown since - particularly Les's injury - you can't say in any case that we didn't i) get the best out of those players in their career and ii) sell at the right time, hindsight or otherwise

At the end of the day, they all wanted to leave. Im a firm believer that if a player doesnt want to be at the club, no good can come of keeping them.

None of these players were sold at their will.

In these instances, every other club would have done exactly the same thing.

To say we are a selling club is totally stupid IMO. If anything you should target the reasons they all wanted to leave, most if not all were finance related.

If anything we have become a victim (serious victim) of our success and in my opinion we are light years off competing again at that level. This is if nothing more a big loss to SL in my opinion.

At the end of the day, yes he has the potential to be awesome. He is only one player and we could keep him and he obtain a carear ending injury in the four nations. Its not the end of the world. Don't get me wrong, I'd love him to stay but its not as if he wants to move to our neighbours. Good luck to the lad if and when he goes.

The timing could be better, but it could be a whole lot worse. The club seem to have been expecting this I feel, hence the delay in confirming a few signings knowing Sam was going to leave for Aus once Souths stumped up an ok offer.

Providing we get a replacement ala Moi Moi and use any cash we receive to strengthen the backs I think it probably will work out ok.

The club do need to sort out PR though.

If he wants to go there is little the club could do to stop him. But if there is no signings forthcoming then I see big problems.
We now apparently have some money to spend, lots of cap space and 2 overseas places. I'm still hopeful of some good news. Please.

I agree. Players come and go that is the nature of sport. It is disappointing but we all support the Bulls not Sam Burgess the player. It may even turn out to be exactly the right time for him to leave. At this moment in time we're in a bit of a mess and looks years away from having a realistic tilt at the SL. However by the time his contract is up we may well have at least one Burgess established in our team maybe two and looking in a much better position. Whether he would want to return I cannot answer but it would surely be an attraction. I can absolutely see why he wants to go over, I'd do the same in his position and good luck to him.

I think we all agree that his replacement is crucial though. He needs to be an all action Prop, one that will lift the crowd and the team when he enters the field. Moi Moi would fit the bill and it would appear is available as well..

I agree with post of the posts viz Sam. But I can see it being 10 years before he is back providing he keeps his form.

I'd be very surprised if he stayed that long. I think he'll come back to SL looking for a big pay day before then.

Warrington it is then.

Exactly. In 10 years he will be the same age Morley came back.

Well we can only guess. 10 years is a long time living away from friends and family even if he does have a GF etc over in Oz. Admittedly he'll no doubt be over when the season ends.

It should be announced by Wednesday.

Souths are gunna have an amazing pack next year then with Asotasi, Burgess, Taylor, Luke, Crocker, and Pettybourne. That Dave Taylor has looked world class the last few weeks.

The other good thing about this is that to free up some money and a place in the pack Souths have 'released' Fa'alogo. So we get to see a World Cup winning back rower in the UK.

At the end of the day they were all sold before their contracts were up to make a quick dollar. Selling our 4 best players in four consecutive seasons puts us firmly in the catagory of a selling club. It's black and white.

To me, a selling club is a club who sells its top assets who want to be here. A selling club to me, isn't a club that sells its players because they want to leave.

You have a poor argument this time. If someone wants to go, let them go rather than keeping against their will.

So you think all should have been kept to their contracts even though they all made it perfectly clear they wanted to leave?

I cant believe having players at the club that want to be elsewhere is a good thing.

To be fair Fielden said he wanted out before Noble even went to Wigan, Vianikolo and Hape had a desire to play union and Burgess obviously wants to go to Oz. So we are not a selling club, if someone wants out then you might aswell get good money for them, rather than lose them for nothing. I just hope we have something up our sleeve, becuase we need a marque signing.

I think selling a player that is held to a contract makes you a selling club.

Sell ya best players and you're a selling club. It's that simple.