Why on earth would a DOR tell him that when you don't have an overseas spot, there are few/no quality props coming off contract and you are looking at Dowes and Radford as starting props for next year? McCrae's job is to get the best squad he can for Gentle to work with and telling Pearson to put his money away is not the way to go.

Not so much apples/oranges as you say, though.

It is all relative, but pearson has to put less money in to get more out. Buy a few great players will cost less relatively to football to make a big enough difference to succeed and get more bums on seats.

He is willing to spend money because he knows it will pay big dividends on the pitch and in the stands.

it is exactly what McRae's job is, if he thinks Adam is "having his leg lifted" with a valuation of a players then I'd expect McRae to say "not worth it".

AP didn't accumulate personal wealth by just scattering cash around.

He didnt??? Bo**ocks! I have been doing it wrong then!

Just seen on the Leeds forum a thought about Jack Reed now he has committed to the England side. Perhaps he has struck a deal with a Super League side, and was going to be ignored for SOO and Australia selection therefore has committed to England??

Reed for right centre anybody??

Nice rumour

What other options are realistically available?

depends what Bradford think Lynch is worth, if they start talking silly money then we may as well look at buying someone better than Lynch out of their contract.

Who?

Anyone....that's the point. Lynch is probably one of the top ten props in the comp but if money's no object why not offer a million for James Graham.

I'm sure Saints would bite our hands off

Or we end up in a bidding war with another club for Lynch which takes his fee beyond what is reasonable.

a) James Graham won't be contracted to Saint Helens next year
b) Why would a player for a truley top club risk coming to us?

I'm not saying he would, (bad example I suppose) but the poster I was responding to had suggested we throw money at Bradford, regardless to secure Lynch rather than McRae advising Pearson on his value and worth.

He then asked who was available and I was just saying that if we are throwing money around, then everyone is available. Westwood, LMS, Peacock, etc.

and to answer point b) Money

I see Agar's been doing his new job already and signing people for Wakey...

He's signed for Canterbury, Coley's retired, Morley and Peacock, Crabtree are going nowhere, Griffin is off to Leeds supposedly. It's a very small pool of experienced props who, crucially would improve Hull.

But their club's would sell them in a heartbeat if the price was right.....that's what I was getting at.

Pearson and McRae would've sat down and looked at what positions need strengthening. They would have made a list of all players available or not, and worked out what they would be willing to pay against the value that player would add to the club.

I'm sure McRar would have advised Pearson exactly how much Andy Lynch is worth with a year on his contract left and at the age of 32. To think he shouldn't get involved is naive.

Why haven't you made a bid for one of those then as all 3 are better than Lynch?

Probably numerous reasons.
1, They are playing for reasonably successful clubs so would be reluctant to leave.
2, Age, Morley 34, Peacock 33.
3, Crabtree is contracted till 2015 and would cost a lot more to release.

In addition Peacock has a bad injury record recently and Lynch is better than Crabtree IMO.

eh? You're missing my point. I'm not saying we have or would, I'm just presenting the case that every player is available if the price is right.

If we are in for Lynch and it costs £50K to buy him, then that possibly represents good value, but if it is going to cost £200K to buy him, then I would expect both Pearson and McRae to start looking at other options for that sort of money. The key thing is that Pearson would be advised by his DoR as to the value of each and every target

Not in mine but the point is that the list that Pearson and McCrae will have drawn up headed 'good quality props we have a cats chance of signing' would have had a lot of white space on it. My guess it would have looked like this;



Andy Lynch

OK....at which point Adam Pearson would say to his DoR, what's the most we should be paying for this player at 32 with a year left on his contract.

If Andy Lynch has any sense he would leave Bradford as they are very much a club in decline. At least with fc he will have a chance of winning something in his 2-3 years with us.

With regards to point b, in a salary cap sport I cannot agree. Maybe, for instance, Peacock would come if we offered a ridiculous amount of money to him. What happens then? The rest of the squad is of much lesser quality simply because we paid way over the odds for 1 player.. It doesn't work.

And the answer would be , 'it depends on how much you want to see Dowes in a black and white shirt next year.'

FC have nowhere to go with this. Is Pearson the sort of bloke who's going to fund good quality recruitment from the NRL and put it behind a pack which has finished 7/8th and lost Fitzgibbon and Lauaki (sp)?