It was also announced yesterday that Bradford will break with tradition and participate in a Boxing Day fixture this year, at Castleford Tigers,

Not sure where or when this quote is taken from

This was mentioned at the Fans Forum a few months back and posted and in the T & A

The first option clause should've been a given anyway if we were letting him go now.

I'd still try to get more cash out of Souths. It's not like Crowe can't afford it.

Although I agree with that and what Adey said, in cases like this, lip service is usually enough. If he just comes out and tells fans that they'll be the first to know officially, via a press conference or the T & A or whatever, 90% of fans will accept that. Sure, there's plenty of us will doubt it and think they'll tell others first anyway, but if they just make sure that the first place the fans get a comment is from the club or the local newspaper, then the majority will be fine with that and know no different.

Just to clarify, I'm not criticising Hood really here. I personally think the club get a lot of undeserved criticism. It's just that a lot of people have been complaining this year about the lack of communication and I would have thought there was better ways of handling it.

It's all well and good trying to keep sponsors happy, but alienating fans means less of an audience for sponsors to market to, and fewer fans equals fewer sponsors and less sponsorship.

Whether some people like it or not the supporters are the most important part of a club.

Again, I would like to ask...what do you want the club to do at this moment?

Should they confirm or deny any rumour as they happen?

They would be very busy.

Sheesh Hood can't win can he...

He's encouraged by the more vociferous on this board to make sure he announces a suitable replacement at the same time as Sam's departure (if/when). He's also supposed to tell the fans immediately anything is settled! (Which supposes that player contracts are like house sale chains, with the contracts all happening on a given day.)

As to the sum of money... £200k for one year isn't a bad deal for a young prop who has already had one shoulder reconstruction; given that when he's done his stint in AUS you also get first refusal on a, potentially, much better player who will still be about 25!

[i“Everything that’s done is always in the best interests of the club, not the player.”

Steve McNamara was back from holiday yesterday to discuss squad plans for next season with Hood, who admitted there is a selling figure in mind for Burgess.

The Bulls have heard nothing official and Souths are refusing to comment"[/i

I think this is fair comment from Hood and without any evidence to the contrary Im happy to accept that Hood and the club are trying to do their best with this difficult situation and that nothing is finally sorted yet.

Its clear Souths want him, its equally clear Sam wants to go, so letting him go for a significant sum with first option on return probably is the best option for our club. (And IMHO a significant and acceptable sum might well be around the £250,000 mark, on good terms, for a player who wants to go and only has 12 months before he can go for free on bad terms.)

First quote from sam I've seen on the subject;

[url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby/2009/09/29/burgess-not-too-bullish-115875-21708718/Sam Burgess tight-lipped over Bradford Bulls future[/url

[i"Burgess is training with England for next month's Gillette Four Nations tournament. He insisted: "I have no comment to make. I'm telling everyone the same."[/i

A lot of these rumours have been around for months. The silence from the Club has also been around for months. Any announcements could be made one at a time just to keep interest up. All we have heard is departures, and pretty much half of that has been negative. The balance of the squad looks terrible at the moment and I'm not confident it will improve much. I think we'll struggle to get what we need. Ah well I suppose we'll find out eventually but the longer they leave it people will be prioritising how they spend their hard earned cash. The longer it goes without positive news might mean that cash gets used on other forms of entertainment!

So what about Menzies, Sykes, Hall and L'Estrange? Oh, and wasn't there something about Halley as well?

Yep. Spot on.

Hall and L'Estrange I'll give you, the rest are already existing players. It's the outgoing vs incoming that isn't balanced yet.

This was announced last year Dave. An attempt to raise funds? I'm sure it will help but forgive me but the main driver was preparation

In words of Alan Partridge - a dosser and a dwad

as per my other post, can definitely remember them talking about it last January

One wonders whether Souths (and Caisley?) might have gate-crashed an existing arrangement or understanding for Sam to go to (say) Manly end 2010?

Extensions are not departures. As to balance, the season isn't even over yet, there maybe quite a bit more movement to come in the player market as a whole.

From today's Daily Express:

"Bradford will move for a top young English forward to replace Burgess once the deal goes through."

Wonder if this is just speculation or more than that? I guess time will tell.

We'll I'd probably be happy if we were picking up players from Saints, Leeds, Wigan, Catalan, Paramatta or Melbourne - if we are waiting for players from those teams to finish their season before we announce them as we have done in the past.

I'll take, Pryce as a replacement for Jeffries, Hall for Tadulala, Moi Moi for Burgess, Inglis for Tupou etc....

Would probably end up being Ryan Bailey, Ashley Gibson, Karl Pryce and a still injured Clinton Toopi

Who would we be interested in?

LMS from Quins?

James Graham, Roby, Westerman...

Westerman possibly but we won't be able to afford Roby or Graham, never mind them wanting to leave Saints for us!

Luke Burgess?

Swap one Burgess for another!

What's the betting it'll be the incredibly overrated Tony Clubb or LMS?

We'll wait and see what comes off. Would be nice to bring in a good replacement, but I'll be hoping it's not Clubb, LMS or Westerman. I don't think Westerman is nearly what everyone makes him out to be.

Personally I'd not bother with Moi Moi if we could get hold of LMS / Burgess as a replacement as I think we'd be better getting 2 o/s backs.

All you Bradford fans will be put out of your misery tomorrow.

That's the day it will be made official by Souths on their website.

You've obviously not met Eddie.