As I said, Armstrong, Foster, Wheeler are all guys that can play centre and have had first team chances, plus Makinson is highly rated. We also have Lomax and Gaskell who will fill in for other positions in the backs.

We can't keep them all, and if its the best thing for Bradbury to move on, then the club shouldn't stand in the way if he's not in their plans. If we started tying down youngsters and then not releasing them even if we didn't need them, there'd be a lot more discontent in the camp i'm sure.

Agreed.

We've a number of young players who possibly have 10 years ahead of them in the game that have shown that they will go on to become, at the very least, competent SL standard players. Younger kids are going to have to show something extra to displace them in the squad.

Exactly, whether Bradbury ends up in SL or just has a decent career for oldham, it shows young lads at Saints that even if they don't make the SL grade for saints, its not the end of their career. If saints look after them and help find them a club that suit their level, then it will a) give the youngsters the confidence that the club will do the best by them, thus keeping player morale high and b)forge relationships with NL clubs that could come in handy if they have any young stars who should make the step up to SL.

I am an Oldham supporter just checking out this thread about one of our new additions 'coming home'. By the wat if you would like to send Kyle back to his home town I am sure we would try to squeeze him in somewhere...!

But seriously, I am sure that if the young lad is good enough you would hope that he would a slot somewhere in a SL squad ahead of an overseas journey man assuming he shows his potential in the National leagues.

The mere fact that somebody so ordinary as Meli is retained in one of our top SL sides is surely enough of a condemnation of the state of our game. he should get anywhere near first grade with his lack of pace and inability to catch a kick but he does and he will next yr.

Anybody surprized that we are not on the 4 Nations final?

Meli has experience, any team that tries to replace experience with youth too quickly comes a cropper and we've lost a lot of experience over the last 2 or 3 years. Bradbury isn't in competition with him, he's in competition with the likes of Lomax, Foster and Armstrong.



No, considering the youth development outside of pretty much Saints, Wigan and Leeds has been pretty woeful over the last ten years.

What are the rehabilitation facilities like in Oldham? World class?