Why blame the player ? The buck should stop at whoever decided to bring him in at an inflated price ,as with Roy Asotasi. There is plenty of video evidence about to watch players before they are signed. Poor decisions !

I still think he will come good. Remember a certain Matt King?

As Ninearches says those that scouted have to shoulder some of the blame. However, once the ink is dry on the contract the player has to perform whether he is a fat lump or skin and bone its his job. He's not flown in from Aus he is 3 hours down the road and a move here is not the end of the world. He a young bloke earning (probably) a great wage playing a sport he loves. Perhaps he is just a mardy pants and wants to be back home having his arris wiped.

Back to Ninearches point again someone should have worked out 75% of the issues and probably we wouldn't have signed him.

and thereby is a potential problem. Sure Lineham and King could have what is best described as slow starts to their Wire careers, I'm just not convinced that in Lineham's case the player himself wants to or just as worryingly has the capability to turn things around.

There should be no talk of last chance saloon type stuff he should be heading into his prime and it may yet work out but the odds are heavily stacked against it unfortunately IMO I also agree with those that lay some of the blame with those involved in parting with the cash....it's not looking great

i dont think you can compare the two really, aside from big money moves the situations are different.

king was a SOO player and Aussie rep player(allbeit fringe ish) who was brought over with a lot of expectation and to be fair as Rob Wire pointed out at the time, wasn't the player we were expecting and we didn't know how to use him and but expected him to be a world beater, and added to that came into a very very underachieving squad that was dishevelled early on through injuries in a bunch of crap weather, 2008 really was garbage looking back.

Whereas lineham is a young lad, lot of potential with some kinks to his game but doesn't seem to be that d about the fact he needs to sort said items out, but also its eroding his once good reputation. In a squad that did seem to be on the up and up.


That probably isn't a fair representation of the lineham situ, and i'll hold my hand up to that, but writing about 08 season really just took it out of me

the comparison is that they are both humans (strange, unpredictable creatures) ...and each can take time to adjust for lots of different reasons. I don't think anyone would disagree that Lineham has all the ingredients to be a top player....his head just needs sorting out. If anyone can do that its Tony Smith. I hope so.

Shame about tom as imo could be a very good winger, his temperament can be his undoing as it was crap at fc, nothing bad just couldn't be d most of the time, likeable lad just maybe needs to grow up a bit,still young so he may well do, the other thing which I have noticed is he seems to be a bit slower than he was with us, take the semi against you guys when he was pretty quick, all in all time is on his side and you may yet have a gem on your hands

He's a bum, he's one of those pupils that teachers always hate, the one in which they see so much potential but the kid just cba and prefers to mess about.

He needs 1 of 3 things, a serious kick up the backside, a professional shrink or showing the door regardless of cost.

I wanted to blame the scouts but the thing is everyone can see the potential, including, Smith/Agar, the board, everyone sees it except Mr T Lineham

He must have had a big kick up the (Rochdale & Reserves), he's tried to shrink, the door is looking likely

Yed where do you see the potential in a lazy, overweight, poor ball handling, defensively poor, Unathletic average paced, repeatedly dropped and loaned out nice but dim winger....??

give me something to go on....

i see no potential in him at all.. absolutely nothing..... Yet i see people saying rubbish like 'he has the potential to be a great winger'.. no he doesn't... i dont see ONE decent attribute in him...

Sorry Biscuit i can't, i saw it, i don't anymore....he's a bum, cut their loses and get rid would be my advice.

Lineham isnt just potential, weve seen him play very well for hull, powerfull and quick just not shown it for us, although to be fair he has scored some decent short ranged tries. Also worth noting that evans doesnt give great service to his winger. Seems obvious to me that ratchford Should play centre with Russell at fullback where he is far more effective.

Problem is, replacing his centre, won't fix or address all the other deficiencies in his game

A decent centre can make or break a winger, don't get me wrong, i am disappointed in lineham, really rated him and thought it was a great signing and he has failed to perform but i do think that evans is a great defencive centre but a poor winger's centre, i also think that ratchford can dp a job in any back position whereas russell looks like its fullback or nothing.

Agreed Gary.
Our coaching staff don't seem to know what a great centre feeding winger is.

Atkins and Evans know where the line is but neither can pass or hold a line taking in defender's and having the strength to put a winger through.

I've said this many times. REvans provides very little in terms of spacing or passing, and Ratchford is a cracking centre for me.

You're looking at an area that doesn't necessarily need fixing.

Again, he was scoring in the first third of the season, he can finish when given the opportunity, I don't have a problem with that, it's the other 75 percent of his game which he's got his problem with.

You could make a mutant version of Paul newlove, mark gasnier, Matt gidley and gene miles. It ain't gonna make him run a ball back any harder, or turn quicker and make his decision better on chasing kicks

Good point

[list=[/list
Well i agree somewhat, like i said earlier I'm disappointed in lineham so far but not going to write him off yet as ive seen he can do 'it', i did widen out the discussion because his centre is an important factor in his overall game. Luckily there is an alternative imo that ratchford can play in that position instead and russell is very good at returning the ball yet seems very ineffective on the wing. Seems like logic to me.

I've always liked Ratchford at centre, but the problem we have is Russell is completely shot under the high ball. All well and good he is good at running it back but he as to catch it first, as it is right now Ratchford as to stay fullback.

Absolutely 100% this you can't fault his effort but Russell under that high ball will get picked out every time he's not even immune to it at winger either against teams with a proper offensive kicking game

The saying goes...

A big good un always beats a small good un!

Well we'll get Lineham in a boxing ring with Chris Riley, he'll still be a poop winger

....his career does seem to be on the ropes!