For me it always seemed like a bit of a short sighted appointment, in a way that Spurs seem to operate in football with coaches/managers. People saying that Pearson believes fully in Radford, I'm not so sure he's not just putting his trust in the trends that have worked well recently in SL. Before Gentle was appointed clubs had sucess with appointing coaches who had worked as Assistants in the NRL, Micheal Maguire being the main one at Wigan. Us, Rovers and Catalans etc followed suit with Gentle, Robinson and Sandercock. With Gentle deemed not to be successful, we went the other opposite direction in appointing a no nonsense type British forward, which had served clubs like Huddersfield with Anderson, Wigan with Wane and Leeds with McDermott well amongst others while we struggled under Gentle, I'm not sure AP has seen something that special in Radford in particular, more likely that he fits the profile.

It makes me laugh when people say Aussies make the best coaches, I wonder if Maguire would have gone on to do a superb job at London or Wakey? With no disrespect to the two clubs, but the town of Wigan has & always will produce some of the best players to play in SL, no matter who's coaching them, McDermott & Wane & Anderson are doing a half decent job, maybe the game needs less imports in all departments for home grown talent to get a chance, & prove that they're good enough.

I think that is the last laugh, ears is clearly a better coach than any of them.

HAven't you just made yourself laugh with that comment. Would McDermott, Wane or Anderson have done a superb job at Wakey or London (one of those has been answered).
I suppose you can look at Brown at Hudds (Smith had some bearing on that) and Powell at Cas as examples of doing a superb job.

There is very little proof of an British assistant with no 1st team experience taking an under performing club and turning them into winners. For me they need a term in lower league rugby then the step up to SL.
I actually think Radford will do ok for you next year, Top 6ish which is probably as much as you can ask for.

don't be silly, professional RL coaches with a single focus fall short of someone who runs a pub. FC finished a mighty 11th, don't you know?

This is what I am saying, the one with the whistle barking out the orders on a training ground, is he better just because he has an accent? Or is it his calibre of players? Wane,McDermott & Anderson are all doing well with the clubs they're at, as Maguire did well at Wigan, but put any of them at London & see how well they go?

Why don't you change the record.

I will when you do

I'm not even getting into this over & over again, In your eyes if ever I post on any topic, I'm defending Radders? I was saying about homegrown players/coaching staff should be given a crack at it more often, rather then having a quick fix, (import).

I just reflect what you post, we give plenty of young players a chance.

RL IS A RESULTS BASED BUSINESS, is it not?

Yeah but without English players/coaching staff we won't have a competition, but you know everything don't you? Put it this way who would you want as your scrum half next season, Jacob Miller or Marc Sneyd? Not much difference in age, but Sneyd can kick, boss a team around the pitch, & he can change a game, the other talks funny.

Your totally wrong here, he owes a pub he doesn't run the pub.

I own a car but I don't spend all my time under the bonnet, I get someone else to do that for me but I do spend 5 minutes a week checking the air and water and I still find time to work full time in my real job.

nationality and ability are not linked.

But it's a results based business isn't it? But we both know with Miller playing we won't get many good results.

you do talk tripe now & again buddy.

Is there actually anything you like about fc ?

I like the walk from Walton st car park!

Are you forgetting he was there? They finished 4th from bottom in all of his full seasons.

It's possibly a chicken and egg issue, but answer this: Who was the last British coach to have real success in SL without it being on the back of an overseas coach's groundwork? The 3 you pick out are all doing well, but they hardly took over poor squads, did they? 2 of them took over teams who had won the GF in the last 2 seasons.

And you can't separate the calibre of players from the calibre of coach, it's a symbiotic relationship.

do I?

you mean I have a different opinion to you?

I agree, but Barham Red is bang on saying that they need to have some time in the lower divisions first, rather than going straight from young assistant to head coach. If not that then at the very least they should serve much longer apprenticeships than they often do. One of the major problems with sport in general in this country is impatience, and it's one of the reasons why you relatively see so few British coaches at the top end of both football and rugby, as soon as a player retires he's looking for his first management job. For the flip side of Wane & Anderson, see Agar, Cummins, Powell the first time, Harris at Crusaders, Betts at Wigan, Cullen.



And this is a similar story. Miller needed to be able to be introduced gradually with less pressure and ideally experienced support taking the lead, he didn't get that. Sneyd arguably did, and is now much further on in his development than the actual age gap between them.

Barham red is right, Cooke is doing it right but only because he wanted to still play, as for Radders it was to good to turn down, but what ex-player would turn down a top job in his own town? He has had his top level coaching badges years, so he is more then adequate to coach at this level, well at least with his paper work!

You have a different opinion to most, you are against the grain always.

I agree, I have independent thoughts

Being qualified and being ready aren't the same thing. I can completely understand why somebody will take a job they might not be up to, but that doesn't make it a wise choice by both parties. An alternative idea is also that if someone is confident they will make a good coach albeit not yet, why wouldn't they think the opportunity will come again later? This idea that the offer will only come around once suggests a tacit admittance that the coach does not fancy himself to prove himself consistently and remain in demand.

His man managment skills will have to improve, he has taken the Shaun Wane approach, his way or no way, but the Wigan lads are a different breed, as to what we have at FC.

Unless of course Sneyd has better natural attributes as a player in which case that might be a bigger reason why he's much the better of the two.