Just been reading Tony Smith's comments in the Guardian about this year's only signings being Sims & Clark with any further recruitment coming from within our reserve structure. When you couple that with the falling attendances ,i can't really see the prospect of watching another group of glorified reserves stimulating attendances or season ticket sales. I'm sure will see some great rugby on occasions but will we have the necessary coaching staff on board to lift the youngsters to another level ? I can see next season being nothing more than another transitional season & if injuries come along we could really struggle again & we could be paying first team prices to watch glorified reserve games.

Lies, all lies! We all know that Cronk is coming!

Signed Gary Wheeler on Monday according to his uncle.

Wheeler....well don't worry folks we'll at least have him for 3 of our games in a season.

I thought it unlikely myself but we'll find out soon I guess. Family don't always know everything!

Reasons to be opimistic Pt 1 :

Ben Evan's continued development
Jamies Laithwaite's continued development
Matty Russell's continued development
Rhys Evans continued development and try-scoring prowess
Ben Harrison continuing his inevitable march towards pack collossus, alongside Hill
Ben Currie having a good off-season, bulking up and ripping it up

That'll do for starters, and given our peer clubs won't be making any headline signings and will be focussing on youth, I'm happy with that. Replace Asotasi with Sims throw Clarke in and I'm [ivery[/i happy.

Cheer up, and that's good coming from a Mozzer fan.

You sure it will be 3, clutching at straws are we.

i heard he injured himself clutching at straws last year

Sabbatical's the answer Niner...It's lovely over here.

Semi in one comp, 5th in another but could of been 2nd dependant on a bounce of a ball ( literally) Not bad for a transitional year oh and let's not forget we are still in it for this seasons ultimate prize. The league has been woeful this year in regards of stars in teams, youth and bringing
Academy players thru the system appears to be the flavour of the day at most clubs with a smattering of ageing Aussies to help the teams along! I fear for at the moment at least gone are the days of signing someone like King or johns in there pomp!

Gary Wheeler sees more injuries than a medium sized A & E department, but the rumours have been circulating both in and outside the club now for quite a while.

I can remember a TV series from the early 1970's - 'The Six million dollar man', it had an opening line of;

"Steve Austin, Astronaut, a man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him, we have the technology, we have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. We can make him better than he was before; better, stronger, faster."

Perhaps Tony used to watch the programme as a young boy ?

Hope the club haven't taken any further advice from the numpty who recommended a certain prop we have - maybe Wheeler was on his recommended list....

I actually think wheeler is a good player, it's getting him on the pitch that concerns me.

If we can do for him what we done for solomona then could be ok.

I'd be inclined to agree with that but our back room team will be completely different this time. If tony smith thinks he is worth a punt then that's good enough for me.

Who else thinks that statement from Tony Smith is a smoke screen? We are all banging on a bit about a new signing, maybe we are getting too close to the truth and he wants it to be a nice surprise?

Just heard something hilarious,apperently Wheelers girfriend as said he as signed for us pendind a MEDICAL.

If you also look at TS words along with those recently where he said they were not looking for anybody (but if anybody). Surely that would also be factually correct if they had already tied up the services of others players and simply not announced them yet.

Indeed. He was rated more highly by Saints than Eastmond wsa when they both came through. Eastmond was the real deal and Wheeler may well be too, but he's shown it. I've watched him for 4 years now and I haven't got a clue how good he is. He's got superb footwork, decent pace and seems to have that time that world class players have. But in 4 years I can remember him doing about 4 decent games. He had a superb 40 minutes against Wigan once, he came up with a stunning run and pass once, he played well against your lot this season. Strange signing for you I think, you've got three young halves there in O'Brien, Myler and Ratchford. I really don't understand what Wheeler brings to that, unless you are planning to play him in the centres?

He'd be more suited to McVities or maybe he's part of the strength and conditioning team, he should be an expert by now.

I think we'll make at least one more signing but I don't think it will be a half.

I must say ,i do enjoy seeing the youngsters turn out even if we don't win ,but i know the are certain fans who only come for success & once they drift away will be hard to get back.

Myler is gone fo' sho'

On another thread a while back I thought it said we had a youngster from Widnes with Myler going the other way. If we have signed Wheeler presume this now supersedes that.

Gob is on fire lately.