You good wishes are appreciated. Let the haters hate.

Not a hater i dont think, just maybe hes getting a bit fed up. I really hope they can grow and they had a good season last year. I just dont want it to be another wasted experiment by the RFL. If they are to compete in SL they have to be sustainable and be reliant on the RFL, lets hope they can do this from now on.

I agree, they shouldn't let clubs who have had financial difficulty into Super league should they?

Thats why half of the clubs in SL shouldn't be in there and we should as in our current position, are one of the most professional, organised run clubs in England.

Crusaders might say that this time next season, bar the England bit.

And what happens when Steve O'Connor stops financing Widnes?

And what proof have you that this will happen? he's been here 3 years and put more into this club then what some SL chairmans have put into their own club. He's here, he is ambitious and he wants to stay. So i will look at it from this prospective and until the situation changes, which will not be any time soon i am fully confident we will do very well once back in SL.

Crusaders may become a sustainable SL club only time will tell and i hope they do but until they stop relying on the RFL bailing them out, its never going to work.

What proof do you have he will stay? At some point he will leave the club. Be it 5 years or 20 years. But at some point his financial backing will not be available to Widnes. Obviously the hope is that the club will be self-sustaining by that point. But what if he leaves in 5 years time? Could Widnes, with the advantage their heritage and history brings them, be totally self-sustaining with Super League costs in 5 years time? A lot can happen in 5 years.

In the end you have only the same assurances that Leighton Samuel gave re Crusaders. Why should the RFL believe Steve O'Connor and not the new Crusaders owners?

I make no comment on the current state of your club running/finances as I know nothing about it. However many years of observation have taught me that every time a fresh broom comes in at a club it makes ringing pledges of future solvency, prudent dealings and vows to have learned the lessons of the past. [iEvery[/i new administration says the same things, and their local press proudly proclaims it as if JC himself had arrived. Forget the past. All will now forever be well.

Sadly, in pretty much every case, sooner or later, it all isn't well. Again.

I have nothing against Widnes, indeed as I'm old enough to remember them in their pomp. I like Widnes, and don't begrudge them a place in SL if available, and I wish them and Steve O'Connor every success. Therefore I sincerely hope that the usual fate doesn't befall them. But it ill behoves fans of a club that was in administration as recently as 2007 to be claiming financial bragging rights. And if you did get back in SL then you'd need a massive and improbable increase in base support if you wanted to be both competitive and operating in the black. If your argument is, "we don't need to do that, as we have a rich backer so as long as he keeps chucking it in then we're OK", you might be right, but that doesn't support your argument at all, on the contrary, it contradicts it.

Can we try not to turn this into another Widnes Vs Cru & SL debate please?
Let's just move on SO'C is doing a superb job at Widnes off the field & Cru owners have been given another chance from scratch to see what they can achieve with Crusaders. This time next year may paint an interesting picture all around but for now we are where we are.

Hate? Where's the hate? Is it because I'm a Widnes fan that all Widnes fans are assumed to be haters? I bear no malice on the Crusaders, only pity for the utterly comical way that they have been ran into the ground year on year.