Smokey, my club is not good enough to be in super league yet. Not too bothered by that, especially when it is populated by people like your good self. You cant fault them for trying though - there would be even less point of supporting an unambitious championship club!

Had much respect for all you achieved in the game once upon a time, now you're coming across as a bit of a pompous hypocrite, just a little insult back, lets hope thats the end of it

Finally some sense. Good post

The RFL made a rod for their own back saying they would promote a championship club this time round. Are any of them really gonna be better than the club they replace?

They finished in a relegation spot. They knew going into the 2005 competition that two teams would be relegated. They agreed to that. They weren't treated shabbily.

Aside from the satdium do Widnes offer anything that Wakefield don't?

well, we wont know the answer to that for 3-6 years. if not longer. thats the point of franchising (if your not a conspiracy theorist that is) did wakefield or Cas really ad anything to the league in the first year or two when they were promoted? did catalans? crusaders? the answer to all is the same, NO. frankly its insane to expect a newly promoted team to 'offer' anything in terms of being competitive, not at first anyway.

that being so, widnes can offer what will without a doubt be huge away support at the likes of wigan, warrington and st helens and all the great rivalries that come with it. they can offer a chairman with drive and importantly, the means to get this club where he wants it to be.
they can offer the biggest support of any club in the championship and showed last time in superleague that many more will come to watch them play in superleague.
a sponsorship portfolio many chairmen would jizz over, a first class academy system.
so i believe the answer to your question is No, not initially on the pitch but that will come, and Yes in terms of everything else they can offer. its certainly no worse than many in superdooperleague.

Solvency?

3 years of financial probity.

A scoreboard

Radiation

no nuclear power stations, heavy metal mines or nuclear weapons silos around here. i believe the background radiation levels in widnes are much the same as leigh

I was offering you a far less embarrassing reason for the multitude of six-fingered hands in Widnes!

so whats your towns excuse for all those women with beards then?

Lack of razors.

Gotta love this. Widnes have made a putrid start so far. Would love it if they finished in the bottom 2 this year but gained a licence!!

We've lost two all season so far.

two loses out of 7 hardly makes it putrid. and clearly we wont finish in the bottom two. what fantasy league are you smoking?

You lost at home to Hunslet who will be relegation fodder and got thrashed yesterday.

Yes yes. It's quite frustrating that every time we don't win we get multitudes of troglodytes on our backs about it. It is not our fault that promotion is decided by overall strength of club instead of yearly on field results, you are focussing your anger on the entirely wrong people.

So we wont likely be world beaters this season. Do you want us to forfeit all the hard work the club has put in behind the scenes?

I'm not angry.

If you do finish in the bottom 2 for example, it will be funny and show the RFL's little system up to be a joke.

Widnes can do what they can do. For strength on the field though in the last few years, you've not really been the pick. (of course I know there's more to the criteria).

yes we lost a couple of games. screw me sideways! thats NEEEEVVVVER happend before, ever.......... in the universe.

And beat Fev & Sheffield...

Who do you want in? Halifax (bottom of league) or Barrow (didn't make out of NRC group?). Funny as when people make this argument that never seems to crop up

The best side over the last 3 seasons (including this one when finalised in September). Just me though.

What sort of overseas dispensation will the team that comes up (Widnes) get next season? I'm assuming it'll be in line with what Salford/Cas got when both teams came up rather than Crusaders?