Leneghan and Hetherington aren't going want the salary cap increased - one's club has won the title 4 out of the last 5 years and the other has his team sitting on top of the table (an worked very hard at their club to acheive this). Both od thse clubs have very healthy crowds and balance sheets. An increase in the salary cap would allow someonelike Koukash to buy a winning team which would be in direct competetion with them.

As I said, clubs should have a salary cap to keep them safe, but wealthy benefactors should be able to fund star players past the cap as long as they, or their company, take responsibilty for the entire length of any contract. This will allow us to get star players over from Aus, or keep british players in the game without jepordising the financial security of the clubs.

Most top clubs break the cap in some shape or form. What annoys me more is this duel registration scheme tossing aside the u16 & u19's comps etc. Our lifeblood. One positive as Saints is this coaching with Rushie at the helm will never stop & we'll continue to develop homegrown talent.

The change in age groups was wrong! for younger players, but All Clubs really invest in youth these days you can't claim it is Saints only!

I think people have either not read my OP or have just completely misunderstood the point I was trying to make.

I am not for one second suggesting we raise the salary cap RIGHT NOW as this poster seems to think

I am saying that the views of chairman, like Lenagan and Hetherington, are potentially damaging as their insular view on the salary cap could mean that SL will retreat to a position of no return. If they are just thinking about Wigan and Leeds then their insular view of 'we're ok, sod the rest' is worrying. That is my point.

I'm not an idiot, I do understand that raising the cap now should not even be on the agenda before most clubs spend up to it (maybe 4/5 consistently spend the cap?), but dismissing it outright is what is worrying me.



If you actually read the OP, you will see what I say about McManus and Moran.

I think you have the wrong idea about both these two, based on a limited newspaper interview.

To give you an idea of how "insular" these two guys are, both have been very generous lending London loan players over the last four or five years when London's been under threat of going under. They do this because both Hetherington and Leneghan are aware of the importance of not retreating to an M62 ghetto, and because they didn't want to see London go under.

Some other clubs, including our own, were unwilling to do the equivalent of urinating on London even if they were on fire.

I know that attitudes to London are hardly the only decider or whether one has an insular attitude to the whole game, but it's a useful pointer. In my experience, Hetherington has consistently, for two decades, been supportive of trying new ideas both on and off the pitch, to try and expand our game and win new followers and new sponsors. Leneghan has also got a decent track record of putting his money where his mouth is, and is generally supportive of the game as a whole. Not all SL chairmen can say that.

You need to look at this article in a different light, I think. Koukash at Salford has turned heads, but it's a one-off. The rest of our clubs are struggling financially except for Wigan, Leeds and Warrington. If we lifted the cap, without any question the three clubs who would rapidly depart from any meaningful competition with the rest of the league would be Wigan, Leeds and Warrington, and I doubt Koukash will spend consistently as much as would be needed from his own pocket at Salford to remain in competition for very long.

So you could interpret Leneghan's opposition to raising the salary cap as a very enlightened view which is actually to the detriment of his own club, but for the benefit of the majority of other clubs in the league.

I can't believe you're making me defend a pie.

Great, finally someone who is going to debate the thread properly 10.4072265625:5