Signing one of the best goalkickers in the world and still having Sutcliffe teeing up...

Hadn't thought of it like that actually. Fair point. Sinfield is going to be around (hopefully) longer than any coach you have.

I remember Graham Murray saying saying very similar when asked if he thought his squad was good enough he replied my job is to coach the players and make them better.

And it works the other way too of course. I’m sure McDermott had input to recruitment but Hetherington seemed quite clear that he was responsible for recruitment, contracts etc. previously.

He made some inspired signings early on with the likes of Delaney, Peacock, Ellis, Donald, Leuluai, Senior etc and you’d have to give him some credit for the golden gen too. Something along the way has scuppered his judgement, and I’m voting for him being flat out too tight with the playing squad once success was regular.

GH would often say we are in the market for new players but they have to be affordable.