.....seems to sum it up right now.

I want Quins to succeed. They are MY team and I will support them evermore.

But this is the death knell. Free falling performances, budget cuts, cloth cutting.

Seriously, how much longer are we going to stay in existence if we continue down this path?

Have to say the Salford game is very important for obvious reasons, If We lose then serious questions will have to be asked by the club as to what the real answers are for our future. IMO something different needs doing on and off the pitch to get the club somekind of momentum.

I was going to write something but I am so depressed about our current situation that I can't bring myself to do it.

Wonder if BM will go down as the coach who completely tore Quins apart, too proud to admit defeat and go but stayed to doggedly crucify them and rot in SL hell no more to return. Get rid of him now David before his damage is permanent, he is no good, he is destroying the team, the fan base and the club. We are moving forward in all areas except the game and this dross will stifle the club and it will be totally impossible to fill seats while such dross is going on. New manager = new team mindset and a break from the habit of failure. I feel for this team of lads who believed what BM told them about the fact they had a wonderful future. They are being ruined and no one will want to touch them after being with such a losing culture. It's the future of these youngsters he is ruining not just the club and the fan base.

Is DH back in the country this week????

Mmm…

You'd think this, wouldn't you, but what does Mr McDermott have to say about the Salford game:







Speaking of “spontaneously combusting” — we've won 3 out of our last 19 games (16% win rate).

This season we've won 1 from 6 (all competitions) and 1 from 5 in the Super League.

We've scored 9 tries in these six games, meaning we score 1.5 try a game. In Super League we've scored 7 tries in 5 games, which is even worse (1.4 per game).

In the last 160 minutes of Rugby, we've scored 8 points (a point for every 20 minutes played), all points have been tries scored from kicks.

From our 7 tries scored, three have been from kicks (2x Sharp tries against Catalans and the two Ben Jones Bishop tries against Wakefield came from handling moves). So it is blindingly obvious we don't know how to attack. Our most threatening player is a loanee from Leeds who can be called back at any time.

In Wigan's recent game against Catalan Dragons, one player (Pat Richards) scored more points than our entire team has managed in 5 games. We concede on average 34 points a game and score 6.8. If this continues then by the end of the season that "against" column will read 918 and the "for" column will be at 184.

Apparently the return of Purdham, Dorn, a 32 year old seasoned prop, a hooker who hasn't played a single Super League game and a winger who didn't score any tries last year is going to turn it all around. We can all make our own judgements.

Those 19 games in full
[u2010[/u
Leeds 62 Harlequins 4
Hull 28 Harlequins 4
Harlequins 10 Melbourne Storm 34
WIN: Harlequins 16 Catalans Dragons 4
Warrington 58 Harlequins RL 0
Harlequins 10 Wakefield 18

[u2009[/u
Warrington 44 Harlequins 34
Harlequins 0 Castleford 48
Hull 26 Harlequins 6
Harlequins 22 Salford 26
Harlequins 18 Bradford Bulls 42
WIN: Bradford 14 Harlequins 22
Harlequins 24 St Helens 44
Catalans Dragons 38 Harlequins 16
Harlequins 16 Huddersfield 32
Wigan 40 Harlequins 12
Wakefield 20 Harlequins 18
Harlequins 14 Leeds 48
WIN: Hull KR 10 Harlequins 40

PS: Correct my on the stats if any are wrong because I threw in together in a hurry and unlike Mr McDermott, I was quite angry.

Crusaders success makes it hurt even more. Vision, direction, marketing, marquee signings, local government support. Its great for the game, but shows just how poorly run we are.

Yah, that's too right Tre, hear a lot about them on Talk Sport I do.

I don't think you can compare the two - Wrexham is a sporting and cultural desert. Think of all the other attractions not just in the whole of London but South West London. Signing Thomas was clever but the rest of it isn't rocket science - they didn't exactly do well in South Wales did they? Would be interesting to see the Thomas effect if they were still there.

Agree with you PP. We are not comparing like with like. Some of the Northern clubs have had stadiums built for them by the Council - No way would that happen in London. The cost of buying land and building a decent stadium up North also bares no comparison to London.
When I lived up North I was actively involved with the local chess club. To get publicity for them I approached the Local Evening paper about doing a weekly roundup to go in the Sat Evening green sports edition which of course was mainly for the football but they said "you write it, we'll publish it" and i did for many years before i moved south. You don't really get the media down here as keen to respond like that.
Likewise RL could succeed very well in many large populated ares outside the North such as in Milton Keynes where they wouldnt have the same competition as in London. Get a ground from the Council invest in a good squad, it can easily be sold as 'your local RL club' and establish a local identity as people in most large towns and cities have that local identity, and away you go.

I live in Catford but have no affinity for it - I just happen to be able to afford to live here. Londoners move from one part to another in London without seeing where they live as 'their community'.
Up North we had family and friends over many years living in the same area for generations so we had a strong identity for the town/county etc. As Goughy said on the radio about supporting Lancs (their enemy) in some cricket comp. "Im a Yorkshireman first and then I support the next County to Yorkshire still in it" Likewise he wanted Shorpe to win a cup tie against a southern team - people outside of London identify with their local and regional teams no matter what the sport and develop that siege mentality. It is something we cant get that attitude down here which why it is so much harder for London.

You can't say that Londoners don't have a sense of community. What about working class kids from the Boroughs? If your argument was valid, nobody would support football clubs in London. Fair enough, there are more distractions for wealthy middle-class punters, and like you say there are a couple of other obstacles London faces such as the increased costs involved. But you can't say there are no communities, that's just a poor excuse. Harlequins/London Broncos just haven't been run properly at all throughout their history.

Hence why moving out of London should at least be given consideration. There are a fair few towns surrounding London who have no one to cheer for. London Irish play in Reading and London Wasps play in Wycombe, they have both developed significant fan bases since moving.

Crusaders look like developing a fan base composed mostly of people who had never seen a live game of RL in their life before this year.

Move down to Kent! Please!!!!

But we did all that in our first season at Craven Cottage , which all petered out when Ernie Clay lost interest when he realised he wasn't going to make a load of money from RL (closure rumours began half way through the second season, thereby starting one of the club's most enduring traditions

). If the Quins move has failed then I'd try somewhere like Oxford as a last throw.

High Wycombe would be better IMO. Not much else to do, easy access from the M4 for those fans on the west of London, decent population. Long way for me though

What about "London" Wasps? And use of the ground would be an issue with Wycombe Wanderers there too. It's also a much smaller town than Oxford, to use the other example.

I must say the instant results re. attendances at Wrexham did make me start wondering about the RFL's whole expansion strategy. Crusaders v Leeds was an easy sell for a border town with only a football club in the doldrums to satisfy the local sports spectators: "Come and watch your new local Welsh team take on the best team in England".

Given Crusaders' relocation and the need for Ian Lenagan to sell his shares it did start me wondering what miight happen if a wealthy newcomer came in with an offer on the proviso that the club relocates lock, stock & barrel to some other town on the edge of the Home Counties or beyond. Oxford seems a good example - a football club attempting to fight its way back from relegation to non-league with a modern ground large enough for a Superleague club. Ashford, mentioned earlier, is another town of the type where the "Wrexham scenario" might work: a large town, not very affluent, over fifty miles from London with good trasport links and no other sports club of note. Problem there would be a ground - there's a non-league football club with a twenty year old ground on the outskirts of town, but it would be nowhere near SL standard and is in a rubbish location on an unlit main road with no footpath. Basingstoke is another similar town, but again no suitable ground. Swindon? The football ground there would be good enough and when I passed through there on a Saturday a few months back there were crowds of people boarding my train to go to Bath for a union game. Perhaps a local top flight SL club could flourish there?

Ideally what I think our club needs is another SL club in the south to stimulate a bit of rivalry and more interest. I just hope we can hang in there until the amateur game down here takes off and stimulates greater interest in watching Quins.

Stay at The Stoop. I like it there.

In the past Oxford were desperate to bring Rugby to the Kassam Stadium.

The then owner Firoz Kassam (who still owns the stadium, Ian Leneghan owns the club) tried to buy Mosely, tried to hijack Wasps when Wycombe failed to expand the stadium and had a deal done for Bristol to move had they stayed in the Premiership a few years ago

It all fell through and the stadium is now used just for football

Would suit me nicely, I could be there all through the year

Equal Partnerships are fine where both clubs own the ground and share the running costs. However when the soccer club owns the ground they cant resist sucking the life blood out of you.

Of course I can compare the two, if we want to be a succesful franchise we need to have a market to market to! We dont have one they do and they are doing it right. We need to move to Oxford/Milton Keynes. Somewhere where we can be on the back pages of the local papers, get support from a council keen to have us and interest local businesses and families. Stop jumping in at the deep end and hoping for the best. Its called taking control.

Your original post to which PP responded didn't suggest anything about moving out of London to become a big fish in a small pond like Crusaders, hence a London club shouldn't be compared with such a club.

Personally (as a Londoner) I sincerely hope we can remain a London club. However, given the precedent set by Crusaders' relocation, our declining fortunes on the field, failure to grow our crowds and the issue with the majority shareholding, the direction our club may take in the next few years seems very much up in the air.

And on the flip side of your one sided coin we have the best youth policy in the game currently with 22 players on the scholarship, a chairman who is in it to the end, a financially unprecedented shirt sponsorship in RL, a superb facility to play in, a sound core support to build upon...........
Its not always greener on the other side. We know Wire have a big backer, Leeds are built on sound foundations, Wigan have financial backing a big support, youth etc but what have the likes of Salford, Cas, Wakey, HKR got(accepted HKR crowd is bigger etc). Outside of the SL Widnes are a 5000 crowd team but other than that there is nothing to replace us. Fev, Barrow, Leigh offer nothing across the wider spectrum of requirements

Quins will remain in Superleague and we will win it within the next 10 years.

Curty maybe me and you are the only day dream believers!!

It's all about being patient. That's why relegation was abolished. We're taking a pounding at the moment but we are in a transitional stage. Second half of the season we'll start to fire.