Another one is Tony Smith's two runs at English clubs. At Leeds he took a team of runners up and turned them into champions and at Wire he took a group of superstars that never delivered and, so far, has got back to back Challenge Cups.

As for the club "looking at players"? Well ofc they are. I believe it was stated at one fans forum, that even though there's the anti tamper deadline you'll normally get agents touting their players to clubs at the start of the year. That's their job, to ensure their client has a club to play for next year. So IF a player is available then his agent will offer him round to clubs where he thinks he'll get the best deal for him. Which is another reason why it's sensible for chairmen to suggest they've got space to spend under the cap, after all, if an agent thinks he's more likely to get a good deal at club A rather than club B then that's where he's likely to recommend his client goes.

So far we've had two very bad performances and the rest have been pretty much what might have been expected at the start of the season. A bit disappointing that we didnt manage one "shock" victory against Wigan/Saints/Giants/Leeds.

As far as the new signings are concerned, I think we're getting what you might expect from the pool of players that are now our target market. Some decent performances but an awful lot of inconsistency. The players we've signed are available at a salary that we can afford because they have some talent but are unable to turn it on week in week out.

Despite our league position I have slightly more faith than this time last year, but until we can afford some genuine quality, or the younger players fulfill their potential, I cant see massive scope for improvement.

I would like to see Lionel Messi at scrum half.

This season was always going to be about reasonable performances at home and a good cup run. I think we signed a lot of players on one year contracts asking them to prove themselves. The fact that we signed so many always meant we had to be fortunate in having a lot of those gambles paying off. My worry is that we now have to replace most of them at the end of the year as they have not really impressed thus meaning next year will be another of transition making our seventh. This will then be followed by Potters departure after his two years meaning another coach and yet another transition year. After a while you have to start believing ypu are a mediocre club and no longer in transition.

The thing is, the club are in talks with OOC players and this should hopefully mean there'll be less of a player turn over this year.