The writings on the wall I'm afraid.

Hull and KR will merge in 3 years time for the next round of SL franchises, as will Wakey/Cas.

Allam is behind Pearson, Hudge is close to Allam and Pearson.....

I just can't see this not happening anymore.

Don't know why everyone is ignoring the real reason they met as stated in the article. If Pearson and Hudgell back each other at RFL level then that will help us have a greater influence.

The next time the RFL award licences they may decide to only award one in the humberside area forcing one of us out (or both of us into a merger). If we have more influence at RFL headquarters we can nip daft ideas like this in the bud.

So it's more about preventing a merger than creating one as far as I can see.

Once again I will say it won`t happen,both clubs have a decent support,despite neither setting the league alight.If I remember correctly Saints had 6000 at the last televised match despite being at the top.As someone pointed out,does this mean they will have to merge with Wigan, Widnes with Wire, Leeds with Bradford,Cas with Wakey.For the R.F.L. to justify both Hull clubs merging,then the others must too therefore.

The only time to worry about a forced merger is when the Edinburgh Smackheads, the Cardiff Sheepshaggers, the Bristol Bollockys and the London Rioters are all pulling in 15,000+ gates

A merger would not benefit Hull FC in the slightest, so it's a non-issue. We don't need to merge. We are a Grade-A club. There is NO WAY IN HELL that the RFL would ever consider dropping us whilst we have a state-of-the-art stadium, 12-14k average crowds, etc. They wouldn't bother threatening us because it would be an empty threat. If they said "merge or we'll drop you", do you really think if we said "no" they'd drop us? Not a chance.

They might threaten to drop Rovers at some point as they aren't a Grade-A club and are in an area with a Grade-A club. But not us.

The only time a merger would be beneficial is if both teams are at the bottom of the pile and in threat of being dropped. It's why Cas and Wakey gets mentioned a lot as they're both Grade-C clubs and both threatened with being replaced.

No-one talks about Wigan and Saints because all they have in common is that they're fairly close to each other. They're not from the same place. They're not even in the same county.

12-14k average crowds? Where? Nearer to 9,500 in reality this season.

Not a chance of a merger at all. Whilst I can see that Neil Hudgell might potentially look to recoup some of the money that's been sunk into HKR, why would AP want a merger? He's just spent a chunk of cash on buying FC and where's the return on that money by merging?