He took wigan from the relegation zone one year to one game away from the grand final the next! Not bad that. I'm not saying noble didn't spend with the crusaders! I said he got the club to the six in there second year in Superleague which is pretty dam good IMO. He didn't bankrupt the crusaders the people incharge did. People can say what they like about Salford on here, I can reply how I like on here as well.

St Helens 2014

1.Jonny Lomax.. a legend to the Saints fans only a bit like theo at Salford more the fans wanting him to be great rather than actually being great.

2.Tom Makinson.. hardly an Antony Sullivan nothing great imo more down to the quality of super league lowering being the reason of him doing anything in games.

3. Jordan Turner.. Average player was at Salford was at Hull still is at saints wont be ripping any trees up.

4. Josh Jones.. Meh

5. Adam Swift.. Meh

6. Lance Hohaia.. WAS a decent WORLD CLASS player 5 years ago now he's nothing more than an average fullback playing stand off, saints fans slagged him off something rotten last year what's going to be the difference this year?

7. Luke Walsh.. supposedly a good player according to the expert saints fans, fact is I've never heard of him being spoken of in high regard is Australia if he was that great you'd have countless NRL clubs cuing up to land him fact is there wasn't.

8.Mose Masoe.. Big lad Could be a good player don't know yet though.

9. James Roby.. good attacking hooker probably the one world class player saints have.

10.. Louie McCarthy-Scar..oh cant be bothered.. just an average forward no better than any other forward in SL.

11.Sia Soliola.. had an ok world cup got dominated against England Knights at aj bell in samoa's warm up game, not exactly Simon Mannering quality anymore.

12. Jon Wilkin.. Been there (not there anymore) passed it

13. Willie Manu.. another pacific Islander type player similar to what Hull FC would sign.

14. Anthony Laffranchi.. another NRL player who wanted one last payday so headed for SL.

15. Mark Flannigan.. meh

16. Kyle Amor.. the experience this guy brings is just what St Helens need I mean all those big matches grand finals Challenge cup finals what a world beater that guy is.

See its easy to pull a team apart and give a supposed expert view into how good or bad certain players are going to be.

Please tell me this is a wind up of some sort? Otherwise, you are literally clueless.

Saints fan I presume? obviously not totally serious just pointing out how what you write can pick fault with any player.

Saying meh is hardly "picking a fault' with a player. Also you're plain wrong with several of the things you said (roby is one of if not the top defender for the last couple of years for example) but I'm not going to be drawn into that.

What's frustrating is Salford fans jumping down the throat of anyone who says anything remotely negative about their team this year.

Plenty of people have doubts how far saints will go this year, that's fine, if people want to question how Walsh will go, that's their prerogative

It's one thing saying how Salford will go and another being ignorant and coming out with stupid remarks about players they have barley even watched on a regular basis.
Let's just keep our negative opinions to our selves and see how the league pans out because I'm sure quite a few people like Roy had Hudds down in 6th place last year, so on that basis and expert review Salford should finish in 7th place.

By that argument no Salford fan can comment on their own team because you haven't seen your players regularly! In fact by that argument no one can make a suitable prediction because no ones seen enough of everyone else - it's called a predictions thread.

As I said, my guess is the views were inflated to make a point. Though whilst his views were potentially misinformed which were actually wrong? (Like yours on the saints team) - even if not, he made his prediction, and the Salford fan got flustered with grand "better tell the doc his investments worth blah blah blah" - and it's happened in other threads too.

Also, show me anywhere Roy has claimed to be an expert? If that's his analysis, there's nothing to say Salford won't be as he predicted, there's nothing so say saints won't be in the bottom 3, but as I said, no ones been asked to defend when they've predicted Salford to be doing better than expected.

Its not just Salford fans defending there team who are being slagged off before a ball is kicked. I think you will find on every negative post concerning a particular team you'll get a fan of that club defending their side.

so a saints fan calling another fan clueless for stating his opinion is ok then? Its not just Salford fans mate, we are all entitled to say what we want and also reply how we want. Thats the whole point of a fans forum.

Well I can't find any in this thread - there's a few "I think your underestimating ... " or equally "I think your overestimating ... " but there's only a 2 incidents of "your going to eat your words" and both from Salford fans

As I've said here and elsewhere, I expect Salford to be battling with 2 or 3 other teams for the 7 and 8 spots - and a little lower if they have a bad run of injuries. If they get higher, great for you guys, a little worse than that isn't out of the question entirely (which is as Roy predicted) - that's not "slagging off".

Blimey, I didn't realise some Reds were so sensitive.

It is a thread called "league predictions", so I was just giving some predictions. Let's be honest - if any of us knew exactly what was going to happen, we'd all be picking lottery numbers and laying down accumulator bets, so that next season we could buy our own teams full of NRL stars.

I don't disagree with some of Mike's assessments of Saints players, by the way. I think our threequarters are fairly unexciting, and Hohaia and Laffranchi are clearly unimpressive occupants of overseas spots. But in SL, it's not whether all your players are excellent, it's whether they are better as a group than the other groups you're playing. Saints can carry a competent-but-not-great set of threequarters because at fullback and hooker they have genuine class, while they have a very strong pack with a good replacement bench. Last year a weaker pack, no halfbacks and both class players missing for much of the season, still saw them top 5. Avoid injuries, and nobody has strengthened more.

Salford's pack, on the other hand, are suspiciously weak. Either getting on a bit with best days behind them, or a bit below-average. The threequarters are again either past-it or below-average. The halfbacks are probably above average, but as Chase has found at Cas, you can't win games with just a good half playing alone.

Noble's done some good things with average squads in the past, but he's got his work cut out here. There are some right characters in that squad. It's like throwing sulphur, charcoal and saltpetre into a dressing room filled with pyromaniacs.

Anyway, no need for anyone to get upset. I hope Salford do really well. We certainly need more competitive teams in SL, and for me the best thing about SL 2013 apart from the World Cup was the emergence of Huddersfield as a genuine contender. Maybe this year will be Salford. I just hope no Reds fans are betting the house on it.

Weak pack! You are joking! People are entitled to there opinion so what ever you think pal. By the way I think our pack is stronger that yours. But hey! Opinions opinions.

And before you say it! No I don't think our squad is better than saints, neither do I think we'll win the league or think we will finish above saints!

I'd be chuffed to bits to finish in the playoffs! But starting 2015 in Superleague is what I'd be happy with.

Exactly we can't comment on our new team as we've not seen 95% of the players play before, but you won't see any Salford fans predicting us to get into the top 4 or even 6th 8th would do us all fine, well more than fine actually, from bottom last year to 8th is a massive step for me.

Saints fans predicting to win it this year are IMO just setting them selves up for a fall and a lot of disappointment if you don't perform,

And yeah it is a prediction thread but you can't use that as an excuse to tear opposition squads to pieces as that too will make you look very foolish if your proven wrong, (ala huddersfield).

Saints will be there or there abouts. The only thing stopping them winning will be Nathan Brown.