IF we keep the squad together I think it's marginally better. That means we're looking for teams in the top 8 who will fare less well. The 2 obvious candidates are Hull and HKR. HKR have lost Dobson but Sandercock seems a decent coach who knows what he's doing. Hull finished 8th and look markedly weaker.
Being positive I'm tipping 8th

Anyone who predicts we will finish out of the bottom three must be truly stark staring, raving, bonkers on some sort of optimism drugs.

I concur with Bugsy that we'll be 8th.

With all the comings and goins.

Unless London are given a huge dispensation to sign a team of aussies or islanders (which considering its P&R is unfair on the other teams) they are going to be 14th i think, that leave 1 more position to be filled from one of us, Cas, Wakey, Widnes, Hull KR and maybe Hull - only as they dropped of horridly last season.

Salford will most likely make the 8, the top 5 will be the same as last year, so there will be a great scrap for the last of the 8 spots, i predict 9th or 10th for us again, we have a stronger squad than last year (marginally) and i think we are stronger than Widnes and Wakey, maybe KR but teams on paper are not always as good on the field.

Long as we can make the start and keep the squad together i am looking forward to this season.

If we manage to keep the current squad im going to go with an optimistic 6th

There's a lot of cowardly defeatism going on here. Pipped to the league leader's shield by Salford for me and then not enough in the tank to win a single play off match. Civil war on here about whether it's a disaster or not.

I would include Les cats and salford rather than the 2 hull teams, now their form has realy dropped off and where I their recruitment?

Looking at how other squads have recruited I think that if we can hold the team together then we'll end up in a three way shoot out with both Hull's for eighth place. Even writing that feels optimistic mind you, but we are better than those we finished above last time round.
I would tip the league to look like this...
1. Wire
2. Wigan
3. Giants
4. Saints
5. Leeds
6. Salford
7. Catalans
8. Bulls
9. KR
10. Hull
11. Widnes
12. Wakey
13. Cas
14. London

Clearly this is my heart talking, so to put things another way, if we finish above KR we'll be in the playoffs, but honestly, I'd take 11th if it meant we could build for 2015.

skoda's are also better than Bentley's then Roger?
I hope the Bulls are successful this season by the way

This.

Bateman has been touted as a great "potential" star. But really, he's not shown that at SL level. I mean, how many games last year has anyone said or even thought "if only Bateman was playing, we'd have won that game"

Ferguson is a more rounded, more experienced player and will be more beneficial to Bradford as, rather than Bateman's if only potential.

Thank you GiantDee and Roofaldo,that was exactly what I meant

Have to agree the squad is better than last season, and if it stays in situ we would probably be OK, however "IF we keep the squad together", doesn't that leave us hurtling towards that financial 'black hole', somewhere near the Doo Doo galaxy?

Heaven only knows Bulliac. There's so many things we don't know despite a great effort by everyone on here to run through the possibilities. My guess is that the 'black' hole isn't so very black. Anyone could look at revs v costs and see a gap. Calvert's trade is about applying pressure and taking matters to the brink. He'll be one hard faced mofo that's for sure.

On the squad we're in a double bind. Lose good players to London and/or Wakey and we step inevitably closer to the galaxy of which you speak. Very hard to call it right as London and Wakey are probably playing poker. Clubs, probably including us will be trying to offload fringe players, which they don't want. In our case they'll be hoping we have to blink first. We're maybe the loss of 2 or 3 players away from significant danger.

The variables are virtually impossible to permutate. It's all about "if"isn't it? The fact we haven't the stability that London and Wakefield seem to have, is baffling to me? Agreed they are also backs to the wall outfits, however , all our plans, unlike theirs, seem to have been stymied once more! Maybe the crucial and significant difference,is the fact that £650k per year we are down over 2013 and of course 14. Those clubs not penalised by this situation are guaranteed £1.15m in 2014 which in essence is just income not turnover. Therefore I agree with everything said.
Level our playing field a bit more, and then we can assess our true prospects.

nothing like being optimistic