Quote McClennan="McClennan"Also in 2003 there was no Catalans Dragons although their reliance upon imported talent isn't as strong as it used to be.
How does that belief apply to coaches? Don't they fear failure and its consequences? Are you suggesting that they don't and that the only way to instill dramatic improvement for teams is to re-introduce promotion and relegation? If anything scorelines before P&R were abolished were worse than they are now e.g. 9th placed Salford conceding 96 at Bradford.'"
I was replying to a poster who tried to defend London's continuing presence by questioning whether Wigan should have been kicked out when they were c&£p. As I Wigan fan I say, if they'd finished last, yes. For a town like Wigan, even bankruptcy doesn't scare me like its supposed to terrify us all into thinking the tiny cap is a good idea - Wigan would find a way to get a new club going from the ashes, I'm certain of that.
The occasional blowout score doesn't bother me so much ( it happens in RL) as carrying a core of clubs who enter each season with nothing to play for ( finishing eighth is more or less meaningless if you don't stand a chance against a big club that's actually trying). At the start of the football season, every club has something to play for, even if its just staying up.
Without a protective financial structure such as parachute payments, P&R is tricky, we know, but if we stick with franchising we need to put more heat on clubs like London, so that there's a genuine threat of being kicked out should they fail to meet minimum targets. I'm all for bring supportive and giving clubs time, but that doesn't extend to tolerating the same people delivering the same c£&p over and over with no sign of improvement.
