Stargirl we've spoke before about your ignorance of how Widbes have developed over the last 3 years

You've jumped ship already ?

Growing what about your club ?

No the game has declined Widnes have just treaded water -nothing wrong with that they are still the team to be 'promoted' but don't delude yourselves or try and delude us, and for what it's worth Widnes should never have come down in the first place, they made a great step in the first O'Connor year to put the building blocks in place and just have been able to keep them there through his investment, like I said nothing wrong with that good on 'em.

I must be forgetting the academy progress, multiple new sponsors, club shop and agreement reached to build a new training facility already being in place then?

The academy progress was because the RFL allowed you to and no one else from this league (have a look where a good portion of those lads come from), the sponsors brought in on the back of O'Connor and Stobart with big promises of the future because everyone knew you'd go up this time, and agreements are like chocolate they melt away in the sunshine (rather like agreements at Salford Wakefield etc etc..), like I said delusional you actually believe your own propaganda.

So you've never run an academy/u 18's before ?

Sponsors as Fred said , easier on the back of a

" we know we're going up " situation

So you've never had a club shop before ?

The agreement for a training complex , brilliant , well done , I assume there is some connection with the council and Stobarts to turn the playing fields into a Leigh east LSV type venue , once again easier done with SL on the horizon

In fact all those things are what Leigh and other Championship clubs have achieved before , including Widnes

Spot on Mo,

Got a company to go in for the shirt sponsor (now on Tommy G's shirt), telephoned the MD the day after the Fev game, he says looking good to play Wigan, Warrington etc next year. I say only in friendlies then we had a replica of your conversation.

Its absolutely mind boggling that people can even attempt to put a postive spin on the franchise saga.

I do not believe that anyone thinks franchising is a good idea apart from the handfull who think it will work.

I live in a footie area and as I am always going on about how good "my team" is this season they usually ask when we will be in Super (non relegation)league.

When I tell them their jaws drop open and they say c'mon mate we are not that daft. I then tell them and they think it is crazy. Then tell me how it would never work as a sporting concept in this country for ANY sport.

A bloke said to me today so why do you go when apart from getting to Leigh your team is going nowhere.

I will maintain Franchising has some very good aspects to it, but it's the implementation of the rules and allocations of the franchises that our wrong.

No it's not great but what do you want us all to do? Moan about it every day of every week of every year?

Yes we do.

Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year of every decade of every century of .........

Some people seem to manage doing that just fine! Pity they target the wrong people all too often really!

They can spout all the crap they want to until the RFL confirm it will be us making the step up to SL I will cease to believe it is the case!

The way people make out we are somehow the chosen ones, the favourite child of the RFL, let's not forget some of the decisions that have gone against us in the past shall we?

Don't think most people think that mate, i for one think you should be in SL, and wish you well, also think a lot of Leythers think the same to be honest, we will miss you though, and the banter.

I do think that franchising could be the way to go, just not in it's current format. It doesn't encourage any championship team to be consistently strong over the three year period, any one team just has to go s**t or bust for one season out of the three and pick up the northern rail cup, or get in the grand final. Granted, that isn't an easy feat, as all the teams are aiming for this, but it just seems like a (for want of a better word) easy, way to get into super league. There is too much emphasis on geographical position, which is totally irrelevant to the quality of a rugby league team. Instead, i would like to see more points, or ticks in boxes, for producing british talent and consistent league position, that should be the main judging point. I feel that the attendance part of the application is also difficult to gauge, look at hull kr's crowds now. The season of their promotion, they had a very good, exciting rugby league team who played flowing rugby, arguably as entertaining although not versus such high profile opposition with as high profile players as now, and they got nowhere near the crowds they draw today. If Widnes, Leigh, Halifax got the nod in future, i have no doubt that their gates would improve as have KR's, just because it is a super league game. Overall, i would just like to see the franchise awarded to the team most consistent over a three year period, producing local talent, perhaps a points system with 10 points awarded to top of the league one particular year, with points being awarded at descending values for a lower league finish, then after three seasons tot them up, and award ticks in boxes or what have you to the most consistent.

Except there won't be any more clubs going up , ever

Don't think you know that for sure though do you Steve?

Starbug, I have your Oscar award for the most depressing lobby of 2011 thus far.


And don't say your a realist.

I'm a realist

Hmmm...

what a load of old cobblers !

Not sure how we have treaded water... There has not been a year since we were relegated from SL in which the club has not ended the season having spent to the maximum allowed under the salary cap.

The argument that only Widnes was 'allowed' to run an Academy set up also melted like chocolate in the sunshine once the facts were pushed for and the hysteria was got through.

It's very easy to be churlish and knock the achievements of the club in the last 4 years. Yes we had an academy set up and we lost the academy set up. Clubs such as yours, Salfud etc benefited from us entering administration and we lost all but a handful of players. The rebuilding exercise has been hard work and costly and it's a disservice to those involved to suggest otherwise.

The club shop was simply a joke before 2008. It was a dusty room in the stadium that sold light pulls, mugs and keyrings. I kid you not.

The training complex, if it comes off, will be terrific for the club and the community. The council are the landlords of the ground but all the investment to rebuild the clubhouse, the pitches etc will be coming from SOC and the club. I'm not sure how it is easier to do with SL on the horizon or not? This is still money that needs to come out of someone's pockets and I'm not sure how it will make more money with us being in SL. It's not the sort of thing that is linked to performance or crowd attendances.

It's easy to suggest that SOC is doing these things because he has had a wink or a nod from the RFL but SOC invested close to £1.2m into the stadium improvements before the last franchise decision and this was far from guaranteed.
Has he been told that he is guaranteed a place in SL.. it would have been foolish of the RFL to do so. A similar amount of investment in Toulouse or Barrow would have made for a far more attractive option to the fat cat and friends at Redhall.

To a simple soul like me, this is all getting rather confused, bitter and tiresome.

Could it be that the explanation of Widnes’ likely elevation to Sooper Dooper League, is just a matter of them checking with the RFL, exactly what needed to be done, to make an acceptable application, and then working extremely hard, to ensure that they succeeded in meeting all the necessary criteria?