From what i've heard, EoC has his work cut out with some of this squad and its starting to show in some of the decisions he has/is making. That includes Flanagan going to on loan and Blackmore being released.

EoC hasn't left France to come and coach a side in the Championship... he wants to be coaching at the highest level. However he faces a clear split in the camp.

On one half you have aspirational players who want to work their way into SL. On the other half you have a group of seasoned Championship players who would either struggle to take the step up (either through age or ability) or simply don't want to (i.e. they have good solid careers away from rugby and being full time professionals would not work for them financially).

I've been told more than once that the way the team train is much more suited to a full time environment. Tougher, higher intensity training (especially after a full days work) is being blamed by some players as a cause for the lengthy injury list, whilst others just aren't enjoying it as much and think the fun is being taken out of sessions. And this apparently is causing friction.

If that is true, I'd expect to see quite a few leaving the squad over the next couple of months, with a major overhaul coming in for 2025. I cannot see EoC changing his philosophy and the club have backed themselves into a corner with his long contract so they cannot do anything other than to back him.

It was also our problem in 2015 and 2016 before we went part time.

We'd regularly come up against part time teams that contained part timers that were on their day better than what we had as fulltime

Unless recruitment is really smart this is what we could risk again.

I'm still not sure how you sell this to prospective players and how you keep anyone who gets genuine interest from a SL team.

For me you're either full time or part time.

I’ve heard similar to BIEL above although I don’t have sources that I’m sure they have but rumours of fall outs are matching up. Certain players blaming EOC / EOC deciding a player wouldn’t be at the club if he was here when contracts were sorted last year. All makes for interesting watching but we know something has to give because this valiant display against decent sides and undercooked showings vs everyone else is dull for the fans who keep dropping away.

The club need to back EOC. We’ve got no chance until we go back to full time whatever it takes. Unless we decide to forget all about it and stop setting these targets of promotion

Some worrying signs there if those reports are correct.

It's also a very difficult place to get out of once those divisions have started, which is why across sport we usually see the coach / manager go (it being easier to remove one person rather than many).

I'm with others in that we probably need to stick with EoC and let him bring players in the fit with and believe in his ethos.
You can't really grumble at any of the signings made on his watch. Fulton being a real stand out.

Maybe if we want training to be more fun, we can go back to the days of Crossley, Walker struggling to fit into their shirts and plodding around the field again.

Apparently some of our recent ex-players used to take the mickey and abuse teammates that did extras at training and stuff like that. I suspect there is still some legacy of that pub team culture knocking about. While I can understand the need to handle part time players differently to fulltime players you have to have high standards. The challenge is where you pitch it.

EOC will need to keep the dressing room on side but at the same time raise standards and weed out those that aren't up to it. It's a fine balancing act. Is he up to it? We'll soon find out. Nobby and Greenwood got a tune out of this squad late on last year (albeit with fewer injuries and some better players Segeyaro/Baitieri etc). Did they handle the man management better or were they just luckier with the resources available?