Never a truer word said!!!!!!!!!

Brown might be looking at the lesser of the 2 evils. Im my opinion on this season alone Lance looks a better no 6 option than Gaskell at the moment.
If Gaskell gets his chance he needs to come up with a much improved performance than what he has offered so far this season regardless of the domination of the pack, for me he just isn,t good enough to transform us into a top team.

but he has been given chances, and we dont know what he's like in training, but as he's not being picked its a safe assumption he's not been performing there either

i'd like to see him given some time with wilkin too.

Gaskell should be given the chance to play along side Wilkin and if he doesn't perform then it time to bin him off it would be nice to see how he goes along side someone with a lot my experience then what he as be playing with lomax was just as bad as Gaskell at the start of the season some might say worse but look at him now been more to full back and he been our best player ever since

Not with proper support he hasn't. He should be allowed to work alongside Wilkin who is experienced, who clearly is a good talker on the pitch and works at encouraging the young blokes, and who has some experience in the halves even though he doesn't consider himself to BE a half. At any other time Saints would do just that when blending in a halfback. They did it with Eastmond. They did it with Smith. They did it with Wheeler. Gaskell hasn't had that opportunity.

Exactly.

My own tuppen'orth: I just don't think Gaskell is good enough to be the long term solution to Saints' #6 problem. Simple really. I got burned at the stake on the numpty forum for the heresy of daring to suggest such a thing when he was in most peoples' opinion the solution to all our ills 2 years ago, but it seems more and more are starting to see sense. He's shown flashes of potential and he has a good kicking game and a bit of size and pace, but his vision and decision making is consistently poor and showing no signs of getting any better, and he's not filled out enough to be a raw linebreaking physical threat instead of a creative one. And his defence sucks... He no longer has the "Unknown" factor that made him partially successful when he first came on the scene and has been mostly very disappointing (in his admittedly limited outings) since opposition defences have had notice of him. The fact that Hohaia probably is the better #6 option right now is all that needs to be said... He still has a future as a SL player no doubt about it given how starved the league is of talent, but that future is probably not at Saints and almost certainly not at #6 or #7.

If Wheeler could stay fit for more than 5 minutes in a row we wouldn't even be having this discussion and he'd be at Salford or Huddersfield right now... The major problem and the main reason we're all still clinging onto hopes for Gaskell is that if he doesn't make it then we need to find 2 new halves for next season with bugger all of the required quality available...

I don't think he's near Matty Smith in terms of skill, I was dismayed we let him go and it's good he's got in a top team (but why them!!!!). I think letting Matty go will come back on us, I'm really not convinced the same can be said for Lee.

Gaskell twice as good as smith lee won't need to drop down to a Salford to kick start is career he sign for a big club if he leaves saints

Really? I wasn't worried that wigan signed him. He's a proper scrum half, so will do a job, but I reckon he's as modest a player possible for a big club like that to accept, especially in a key position.

Gaskell has more physical attributes and talent than Matty, but Matty's undoubtedly the better player right now. I always said that, at the time, letting Smith go was the right decision. We had Pryce, Eastmond, Wheeler and Smith (plus Lomax bubbling under) and could afford to keep 3 of them - anybody at the time would have let Smith go from those 4. With the use of a time machine we'dve gladly let Warrington have Eastmond instead but at the time it was the right decision and **** happens. Smith is hardly a world-beater or match-winner, but he'd improve our team if we still had him and it's hard to see too many better options available at the moment...

And that's what it all comes back to. A huge player drain in the halfback position's. Whilst other clubs have been scrapping around for halfbacks we've been offloading them like there is no tomorrow and it has left us with a second row and a fullback in the half's.

I'll admit the Eastmond equation was difficult, but I still hold that it could have been hedged against. Lets not forget, we let Long and Smith both go, before Eastmond signed that 2 year deal. (not sure about Ellis) Even at that stage he was touted as holding out for the Union £.

Then come renewal time, we also had Pryce's contract due up.

If we ever get 2 halves back at the club, we need to be sure that we are not renewing both contracts in the same year. Losing one is unfortunate but the amount we have gone through is almost criminal in terms of talent drain.

Imagine this

Lomax FB
Smith 7
Leon 6
Gaskell centre or 13 or 6
Wheeler centre or 6

no need to buy Lance and some