very Poor for us, but from the sounds of the Bull's press release he didn't want to be at Cas. Interesting Signing for you guys.

Does the idea of players having a 'SL get out clause' have any basis in fact? I'd be extremely surprised if we'd allow our season to be totally destabilised by allowing players to leave as they wished. Sounds mad.

I doubt would want to allow such a clause in the first 12 months of a contract. That being said however, I would imagine that there are certain players on long term deals who will have a clause to allow them to leave if Bradford don't win promotion, the flip side of which would be that their contracts would increase in value should the club return to SL

I think, [i'if a SL club comes in for me'[/i, clauses are far from uncommon in in the championship but in our circumstances, certainly for the first year, it seems unbelievable that we'd sign players on that basis, given that the SL clubs most likely to come in for them would be our competitors in the eights. It would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we allowed such as Wakefield, for instance, to take any of our players.

I too would expect those clauses to be something along the lines of allowing them to leave for an SL team in the close season (for those on more than 1 year deals), rather than up sticks in the middle of the season.

Another thought is maybe we've signed crossley to prevent one of our likely rivals in middle eights getting him.

Think some are reading far too much into this signing. Ross Heppenstall has said none of the props are leaving.
I can't see Clough or Sidlow leaving mid season. Clough signed a two year deal and is playing big minutes in every game, after not playing much last year. Sidlow i think signed one, but he was one of the first to sign as i remember rightly. Doesn't seem like actions of a player who would sign for another club 10 games in to the season. I'm sure he would have had a few offers to stay in SL when we were relegated.

It sounds like Crossley didn't want to be at Cas, he is a home grown player and we have cap space. I think there is some planning in the future if we DON'T get promoted as then i'd expect Sidlow and Clough to depart if we don't gain promotion. 7 props seems a lot, but only 3 props played against KR. Injuries will happen, i'd be surprised if we have 7 healthy props going in to the middle 8's.

I know some would prefer a HB, but i'd love to know where they think these HB's are?

Welcome Steve back and can't wait to see you rip in

Reardon, L Pryce, K Pryce, Burgii, Bateman and Whitehead next...?

Ross' T and A article says, "The arrival of Crossley raises question marks over some of the Bulls’ current roster of props and he is set to make his debut at Doncaster on Sunday".

That sounds like somebody's on their way.

After paying top money for a season ticket I would be furious if the so called "top" players were allowed to leave mid-season. I expect to see the likes of Gaskell move if we don't get promoted along with about 5-6 others. But to go now ---- absolutely not ---- unless some have already signed to leave at the end of the season whether we stay down or go up and this is a replacement signing 5 months early!

When he played for Cas I thought he looked really average and am very surprised he has come back. Hopefully he has lost 6 stones and increased his speed off the mark so he can play at No. 7.

Maybe Jimmy is looking to have two "full" sets of props - 2 starting and 2 on bench (4 per set) so he can rotate them in the next 10 weeks giving a week on and a week off and not burn out Clough and Sidlow.

Still a strange signing though when Samir, Davis Lauaki and Fleming are not getting much time.

This leaves me with a slight worry as to what we are about to read in the next few weeks.

Lauaki not in the 19 for Donny. Could this be significant in the signing of Crossley? Lauaki never looks fit to me. Hasn't been the wrecking ball or firebrand I expected. Hasn't featured much I have to admit, when he is on the field he has often been the dummy runner, or even passing the ball! Perhaps Jimmy is a bit frustrated with him. Who knows.

Well Sidlow & Clough are both in the squad, along with our other top players so think we can stop worrying for time been.


Be about another month at least before Davies is fully fit. Lauaki currently out with a groin injury. No mention of Tahraouri so that is only 4 props for Sunday

Perhaps Tahraoui is a long term thing? I haven't heard anything about his injury tbh.

Well we clearly had a number of injuries to props otherwise we'd not have asked Cas if we could loan Crossley. Clearly, after signing Bailey, Cas need to free up some cap space and as weren't playing Crossley it seems everyone wins with him joining Bradford full time

Did we ask them though? That was my question on the first page. From reading Steve's quotes it sounds to me like he asked for a move away due to the frustration of not playing many games.
Maybe we just acted proactively and got another prop & home grown player back on the books.