Completely agree with all of your post.

+2

Anything that helps more teams spend up to the cap is a good thing and improves the competition as a whole.

.....except put season ticket prices up

Spot on! I quite like the Dr, he seems very passionate and is desperate to make a success of things which can only be a good thing for Salford who could have ended up bust without him. Our game needs people like this involved and he is definitely a character and has created a lot of attention in the media for SL which again can only be a good thing.

For Chase read Koukash

Rangi Koukash?

Is this why he was so keen to buy into Rugby League? He's Rangi's father?

Cas say they've rejected a bid from Salford for Chase

And yet people have been insisting for weeks that it is a done deal.

What I don't get is where does Rangi get a say in this????

Salford can offer Cas £400,000

But if we are offering Rangi £50,000 to £100,000 more, then the transfer fee is irrelvant surely. Cas can't force him to sign for Salford. Both club and player have to agree terms.

Saints should at least force Salford to pour more of their Salary cap into Chase. Whilst we may not get him we can make them pay through the nose for him, leaving them less for the rest of their squad.

If Cas don't accept an offer from Saints then we will never get to speak to Chase at all. So assuming Salford are the only club who have a bid accepted, then Salfords contract offer is the only one up for discussion, ours is irrelevant. Technically speaking, until we have an offer accepted by Cas then there should be no contract offer from us for Chase to even consider.

Apparently Salford are offering a massive £360000 a year deal to Chase. Which he's accepted, he's trying to force the deal through being an extra 50% of what he's earning now, but Cas want a decent transfer fee for him, and their within their rights to make the most of it.

Chase is in contract so what he wants is irrelevant if Cas don't want to sell him.

If there are massive fees being bandied about, Saints won't be in the hunt.

Having said that - if you do a bit of an investment appraisal - assuming 13 home games: would Chase bring in an EXTRA 360 punters per game over three years? If the answer is yes it makes sense at £25 a ticket.

I suppose it then comes down to cap room - would we be willing to upset the likes of Roby/Lomax by splashing so much on Chase and not matching it for them? If we do match it for them, what sort of a squad would that leave us with?

Lots to consider. Smaller clubs with oodles of cap space will always find these "marquee" signings easier in the first instance, it's building a squad around them that is difficult (just ask the Cowboys in the NRL how they fare building a squad around JT . . . . )

It's amazing that Melbourne manage to build a great team around Slater, Cronk and Smith, considering the amount of cap space they must take up.

Agreed, doing an incredible job bringing players through to complement the big names. Easier to come into a team with a spine like that though!