John while I respect your opinion, I don't agree with it , as I think to keep up with our competitors next year going full time is a must ,if no team gets promoted to the SL from the Championship then Bradford , Leigh,and Sheff will all have the advantage over us ,I think Bradford and Leigh will try harder next year and Aston men won't want to be left behind,we must ensure that does t happen at Fax either.
We must improve our Squad get shut of the surplus players ,try to sign a bit of quality ,as we need bigger crowds, bigger sponsors and more on and off field investment,I still think we can win maybe 2 games in the 8's against Leigh and Bradford have faith.

Terry, explain to me where the money to go full time will come from.
I obviously don't know how much our part time players get.
But a full time player would want, what? £40, 000, £50'0000, ?
Multiply this by a squad, 19 match day selections and another 6 or 7, can't do the maths, but I would respectfully suggest that at the moment we don't have that luxury.
You say have faith, I do but not blind faith.

John,I'm not sure what we will get next year for finishing 4th but it must be a great deal more than last year , I think RM will be very frugal with his spending and go for a few quality signings which would enable us to go full time,I realise it's a long shot but maybe a risk worth taking, as London seem to be gone,maybe along with Fev leaving only Bradford and Leigh to aim at ,and if they don't get into SL who knows what will happen, I've a feeling Deggsy at Leigh might short circuit if Leigh don't do as he expected.

Watching the CC final today for me emphasized the gulf in class we see between Champs clubs and the top flight. Thinking back to when Fax were up there, we had a real shot at Leeds, Wigan and Saints etc and it is heartbreaking to be exiled from it, especially when confronted with the "what league are Fax in" etc which makes my blood boil.

I share Mr Jagger's view TBH because being cautious is NOT going to put us into realistic competition with the likes of Leeds. Remember we have hammered them in the not too distant past (dependent upon how old you are) 42-0 for example. What is so different now?

Do we REALLY NOT have the interest anymore in the numbers we need? I must admit that the cost to take my family to every home game is just too much although the free junior tickets will help.

It would be great to know what we need to do because clearly it is not just money - look at Salford.

The belief and coverage Leeds had today really did turn me utterly green with envy - I have to be honest.

Mr Jagger, encouraged, I repeat where is the money for us to go full time next year?

Where is the money going to be for us to go full time the year after, or the year after that? Next year we have the top four money. If we fail to get into the top four next year we are back to square one. It is fine planning for the future and developing the youth, but we all know that any decent players will be picked up by SL or a full time team as soon as they show promise. Shouldn't we be capitalising on the increase in money we have next year and go full time to give us the best shot at repeating this years top four finish and get some proper money for SL? One year of increased money is not going to turn the club into a SL club, two/three years of increased money may well do that.

This is exactly what I'm saying,if we don't keep up we WILL be left behind then it's back to being an also ran team, next year we will have a chance don't waste the chance.

John my friend you ask where the money is coming from?Its simple the increased money for finishing in a top 4 spot,we must use it otherwise it's pointless trying ,Leigh and Bradford will use theirs we have a chance to compete, I think London and Fev will struggle next year we must take advantage , maybe the year after go for gold.

We have to agree to disagree.

Perhaps if we had got the sixth spot and the extra £237,000 that goes with it we may have been able to go FT. Sadly losing to the seagulls has probably ended those hopes.

We aren't close enough to the £ numbers to make an informed decision but I am a believer in the saying that if you accept mediocrity that is exactly what you will get! That longer term view from the BOD and RM is admirable but if we stay out of the middle 8's for a couple of seasons then that loss of revenue could prove a real stumbling block to future progression.

Going FT will not mean we will be anymore successful than what we have achieved this year-we could end up not even making the top 4 like London and fev. People often think if we go FT then we will be automatically better-I disagree. If its the same player standard but they are getting each a 100 Pounds more will it increase our standards? And would a quality player often be prepared to drop down a league with the chance we might get promoted? I feel we are in a phrase where there is a hope one Championship club has a small chance of promotion and that we should throw everything to get it-but then forget how they actually intend to stay there! I would rather us spend money on things that will be rewarding us long term rather than chasing a goal that for now is unrealistic. I have a feeling some clubs will be busting a gut and bank balance to get/to stay in SL and that it will hurt them in the future when they realise that they could have used that money in a better way. For now we are best staying PT and working hard without the potential of going bust-we saw how we was very lucky to ecape that last time.

Superb.

With respect TLBC surely being full time means most of our players will not have to play matches after shining up ladders or braying lump of rock or wood all day etc?

Being a full time athlete allows time to fine tune what pay the bills, your body, in the gym or on the track whatever? There will also be a psychological aspect of course and a professional mindset.

If we cannot go FT, we should be looking at what we need to do (financially) to get to a half-way house maybe with half or most of the team being FT as despite our best efforts, this could backfire.

Our realistically nearest benchmark rivals (Eagles) have realized this....

The other point is that, as we all discovered in 1995, it's very difficult to find sufficient players to make the leap in a single close-season.