They said that last year though too, and its blatantly obvious looking at squad assembled that we didnt spend much more than 1-1.2million of player budget. excuse used last year was that there want anyone left worth signing by time we able to start offering contracts. Think we were all expecting reduced budget to apply this year too due to reduced sky money and it was understandable. Cant help thinking Ryans put his foot in his mouth with this comment, especially if we dont now see several new signings materialising.

Can't for the life of me understand Whitcut's comments if taken at face value. I suspect there's more to it.

Yeah, fully agree with much of that. Like you I can't imagine that this year's squad was "full cap", unless Franny really does have a lot to learn about haggling..

Next year's is hard to judge from here though; it is going to be a mega important season and our future from the season's end, SL or oblivion, is going to be decided by where we finish. With that in mind it's not too hard to think that Omar and team have decided that, if we drop out come the end of 2014, then the whole of the finances, not to mention the future of the club going forward are up the spout, and have decided to [if you'll pardon the pun] take the bull by the horns and put some money in to cover the shortfall. There would be a fair bit of fairly pragmatic business sense behind that with some short term speculation hopefully securing long term profitability.

Got to admit it's hard to square Ryan's statement with Franny's earlier one about no "marqee" players, though I do realise you can spend the cap without getting any single big earners.

FC mentions no marquee players, Ryan mentions a much larger squad than what we currently have but still spending a significant amount. Those statements back each other up in my book.
Trouble is, all that's left to bolster our squad is a load of guff.

Well, if that's true, then we'll be OK, as nobody else will be able to sign owt but this load of guff either.

Why is it being reduced to 12? What is the reason for the change?

Ok if we kept Langley, who would you put at centre?

I would like to keep Langley, but I think we a strong in the back row and he isn't really a prop. I would look at improving out back line instead which is what Franny is doing.

I am very concerned why he has only offered Donno a 1 year deal. Cannot see he logic in that at all.

only reason I can think of is if there are still concerns over his injuries long term. Presumably clubs medical staff will know a lot more than us on here about his fitness and how he recovers after games and any ongoing niggles. Possibly they want him to prove himself over a full pre-season (which he missed last year) and early part of next season before comitting to a long term deal. Other clubs offering him a longer deal are taking a bit of a gamble, albeit a lesser one than we took retaining him last year.

Well, yeah, "guff" or not, we're at least in the mix to sign some of the better"guff" this time round so we must be better off.....I hope!

I've been watching Bradford for a fair few years, and many of the very best signings we ever made were "guff". I remember Big L es playing at Wakey and their fans chanting "What a waste of money"

Oh for a man-motivator like the great Peter Fox, who signed up loads of over-the-hill guff which turned out to be some of the best players we (or anyone) ever had.

Also, out there somewhere are the stars of tomorrow, who are not guff at all. A chap called Escare would have been no doubt described in the guff category until recently - "Why do we want a small Frenchie who's only ever played semi-pro in the ty French leagues, if he's not made past St. Esteve at age 20 he must be crap", it would have gone, or something like that.

You rightly say that we do not have the information about the players that the coaching staff have.
They train and test the players on a daily basis & are aware of their physical and mental application.
Decisions about retention or term of contract will be for them to make. That's their job.
We must rely on them to make the right decisions for the club.

Further we do not know the salaries of each player nor their expectations at the Bulls or offers from elsewhere.
We do not know for sure what the playing budget was for this year nor know what it will be in 2014, 2015
Whatever it is then management must work within this constraint to do its best in recruiting players. That's their job.
We must rely on OK to create finances to put a competitive team on the field and make the right decisions on how money is spent.

Don't see why Langley is linked to who plays centre, especially after todays claim that we have full cap available.

How do you know FC is looking at improving the back line? We've signed 2 forwards and we have Potentially up to 4 departures in the backs.

Sorry if I'm sounding like ME lately, but with Donno getting a 1 year offer and Langley getting no offer it looks to me as if FC doesn't know what he's doing. I'll give him a fair chance next season with his own squad, but I will be very sad if Langley or Donno go, never mind both.

Possibly done to suggest to the supporters you tried to keep him,as i believe he is heading over to Hull.

Not one I've heard yet, but I'll be disappointed wherever he ends up if he's not staying with us.

You don't sound like me he thinks langley's crap