Quote jaybs="jaybs"I respect the number of players the club has brought through the Academy system, but many use it as an excuse when a few matches are lost.'"
We beat Quins a couple of weeks ago with a team almost entirely made up of our Academy products and only one of those had their debut at that match, which shows just how much we have used our locally grown players this season (and indeed last season). We have won games and lost games with our Academy lads in the team (including our older Academy lads, such as Wello, Jammer and Robes). Some fans don't have patience, I agree, but for the most part I think you will find that Saints fans have bought into what has been a deliberate club policy over the last few years to grow our own.
Quote jaybsWhy should I be bitter? I support any club that is trying to improve themselves, it is just unfortunate it was not done when the Sky money first came into our game.'"
That was down to the RFL, not the clubs. Clubs want to win trophies, that is natural. A governing body sets the rules by which and the climate within which clubs seek to do that.
Quote jaybsTesco paid only for itself? so no money was given at all towards the ground? '"
Nope. Not a bean. They came into the project in order to enable the site to be developed. It's a big site; a former glassworks. Saints could never afford to develop the whole site.
Quote jaybsSo do you underestimate the investment from the Council? which come out of taxpayers money, 3% of them a recent figure who support rugby league, even though Council Leader Marie Rimmer tried! to claim much more was down to them, not saying why nothing was ever done much earlier? '"
You don't know what you are talking about. Not a penny of the Council investment came out of taxpayers money. It all came from the Council's capital budget, not its revenue budget. Initially the Council's contribution was £10 million, purely for infrastructure works including the footbridge (yet to arrive). However, just before it was dismantled, the NWDA awarded a grant of £4 million towards the infrastructure works, so reducing the Council's contribution. Without the Council's contribution the site's infrastructure works would not have been completed and neither Saints nor Tesco could have built on there. But that is part of the role of a Council: to promote regeneration and invest in the future.
Marie Rimmer will take the glory for everything. She is an idiot, especially when her Labour council, prior to the years we had a hung council (when most of the stuff for the new stadium was passed), offered all of £50,000 towards the development, an offer our chairman was not complimentary about at the time.
Quote jaybsI just wish Wigan when they sold Central Park had gone for their own ground, not the beck and call of an owner as we well know currently.'"
Wigan couldn't afford to. They bought their success in the 80s and 90s and got themselves into millions of pounds worth of debt. Selling Central Park was the only way they could get rid of that debt. That's the price paid for buying success. Give me youth development and a stadium to call our own any day of the week!
As for London, I seriously hope that one day the SL club there will have its own identity and I reckon taking it more towards the East End could well pay off, especially if the sponsored project takes off. There is a lot of potential in London but it's just a massive place and so no matter where your club is located there is going to be a long trip involved for some people. That means your on field performance needs to be good enough to attract and retain the commitment from fans.
