www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/39554106

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/39554106

How will their players respond to this ?
If they start playing how does that reflect on Cunningham ?
Will the fans think they've stitched a club legend up or are they just glad he's gone ?
If they carry on playing the way they are will the board have to take a long hard look at themselves regards their recruitment policy ?

Who cares as long as we smash them on Friday

I think McManus is far more culpable for Saints position than KC is. It seems he's tried to mimic Wigan's operating model of local lads with pride and passion for the club taking the club forward.
The difference is Shaun Wane went coaching at St Pats after he finished playing. He then coached at academy level and as an assistant coach for years before taking on the top job at Wigan. Whilst KC obviously thought he was ready, McManus made the appointment and needs to take responsibility for the clubs current position.

I see that St Helens was one of the clubs that voted against raising the salary cap. Methinks they may well be struggling financially.

Maybe they should have employed a chimp, instead of a chump...

#HTH

I think the new stadium is more to blame. They're obviously struggling financially, you can see by the pedigree of players coming through and the established ones they're signing.

I have to agree, but then you've got to ask "where's the money going?". They boast about owning their own place & how all the revenue will allow them to expand & prosper...so where's it gone? With rates so low the mortgage payments can't be that excoriating

According to Companies House they made an operating loss in the last accounts filed, but that doesn't mean too much in & of itself

Arrogant and deluded.

His complete failure has been fun to watch.

Even funnier for me was the kid on the news (couldn't have been more than about 20), calling for them to "get Paul Wellens in".

Hell yeas - Get him in right now.

What could poossibly go wrong?

I wonder if they'd consider one of our legends in Dennis Betts. He's fighting with his hands tied behind his back at Widnes but last year with a decent group of players, he got some superb performances out of them and they play some good stuff.

Never mind promoting Wellens, Bobbie Goulding wants in!

I have heard his name mentioned in some fairly knowledgeable circles this evening. I agree with you that he's done pretty well with a limited squad so he may be one of the better options. There are others in the frame though I believe.

That's what fans of all Clubs do though isn't it - promote their personal favourites. How long ago was it that some of your lot were shouting 'Edwards in' or 'Hanley in' despite the respective flaws in the arguments for each of those - it's just the same. I also think there's an air of desperation amongst Saints fans after what's been dished up for the past 2 seasons.

Saints' biggest weakness is the Chairman's ability to make good decisions in this area as ,barring Anderson and Brown, his selections of Potter, Simmons and Cunningham have been terrible.

Someone earlier on this thread made a great point about the appointment of Cunningham being an attempt to emulate the way Wigan are set up and it hasn't worked. I can't disagree, and it was a very very poor attempt.

Will be interesting to see which way he goes next. I have a hunch what it will be but he's under pressure to deliver or he'll be the next pariah.

Friday will be interesting.

He's a good coach for my money. He's had a Daryl Powell type rise in that he got a chance at a young age to coach a club he'd played for and whilst it didn't quite work, he's still been able to go on cut a good career and dragged more out of a club then you'd expect.

He's not quite got Widnes hitting the heights of Cas but you sense he's on a more limited budget and I think he'd be a realistic option for Saints.

Whatever Saints decide the one thing I think the fans are desperate for issome attractive Rugby League. You've had a line of coaches that haven't played up to the tradition of Saints sides throwing the ball about and they need to get that back.

I agree and what I like about him is that he can probably be described as having over achieved over a sustained period of time. The hesitation I have is not with him but with our organisation. At Widnes Steve O'Connor is pretty hands off, as Lenagan and Radlinski appear to be at Wigan, thus leaving the coach to do what he is paid to do.

McManus and Rush are the opposite. Would that work for Betts? I am not so sure.

Betts has done a very understated job at Widnes with having seemingly only a fiver to spend in all of his time there,one i think Widnes fans will only realise how good he is once he's gone.

I thoght at the time, and still do, that Betts was hard done to by us. Considering the injury list we had during his brief spell, his win/loss ratio was pretty good. Especially when you consider what happened under his successor! It was a pity, perhaps, that he was thrown in a little before he was ready because of Mike Gregory's illness, but he was following a similar development path to Shaun Wane back then, starting with the junior sides and working his way up.

Betts got chucked in the deep end and was far too inexperienced at the time. I think at whatever time Wane moves upstairs he would be a very good next coach for us.

I can't recall Hanley being mentioned for literally years as a potential Wigan coach. Edwards yes but that is because he's a coach at the top level albeit in RU. Could he return to league and do the job is a valid question. Personally I don't think he himself would assume he could do it without being an assistant for at least a couple of seasons.

As to Betts for Saints that would be a bad move for him. He's done well at Widnes but I think he'd be better off taking a step back and going to a side as an assistant where the demand for improvement is not immediate such as Wigan with a view to taking over as head coach eventually. A spell in Oz would not do him any harm either. Saints need someone like Noble to calm things down short term (and then not making the mistake of keeping him on two years too long...).