Million dollar question

Quote: Ave It! "I have no idea why your bringing the stupid Kevin Sinfield rumour into it? And I don't know what the players are on, I do know that it’s a good wage though (Feka and Anderson especially). I can't exactly see any other super league clubs queuing up for their services can you? If Salford don't offer them a contract they will end up playing in the Championship or retiring. I fail to see how you cannot form that opinion, the super league coaches seem to have.

Ratchford and Smith both signing contracts is totally irrelevant because neither are here now. Both signed because at the time they probably weren't good enough to get first team rugby at any other club so they both waited to the time was right then moved on. If Salford were a club moving forward they wouldn't have needed to go anywhere else would they? So to answer your question, no the club wasn't ok, although it was good enough to offer some more first team super league experience, but that’s all we ever were to them a stop gap if you like.

And, yeah I bet Matty Smith is really gutted we sold him. What a ludicrous thing to say. He has the opportunity to play in a grand final again this year with the biggest Rugby Club in the world instead of stodging the rest of the season out with us.

Yeah, I know Patten is retiring where have I said any different? I said that Patten is not taking up the option of a third year, which he did have in his original contract by the way. And why do you think he's not taking it up? Because he can't wait to get out, he's said as much himself. I bet he's gutted he didn't take up the chance of going to Huddersfield. He stated that things going on behind the scenes at Salford are things he'd never thought he'd see at a professional sports club. He and a number of players both ex and present have said this, Salford RLFC has been like this for a number of years, Robbie Paul is the most recent player to come and say as much.

I'm glad these 3 have signed and that’s something that the club should be applauded on (you see I can give praise where its due), but my concern is what if they actually become good like Ratchford, like Myler, like Gleeson etc will we be letting them go? Remember they will both only be 23 at the end of the 5 years so are they just using as the 'stop gap' again? Well yes I think they will be if we don't start to show some serious improvement in the next few years to make these kids and more like them want to stay.

The fact that threads and debates like this are even happening suggests we're struggling. I speak to countless fans who have lost interest, can't be bothered going. The relationship between everyone at the club

Your reply encapsulates what I’ve been trying to say. You don’t actually [iknow[/i what the players you listed are on, but you [iassume[/i the player you spoke to does (why would he? Do you discuss your Ts & Cs with your workmates?), and go on to assume that those players won’t get offers anywhere else (who would have thought Ian Sibbit and Simon Finnegan would have ended up at other Super League clubs?), that Salford would offer them the same terms they are currently on (otherwise the terms offered by other clubs – if any – become better in comparison), terms you assume to be good. I’m just not seeing any hard evidence here.

What we have, then, is a forum with a small but vociferous group of people who seem to have decided that things are bad and then go looking for the evidence to support it. It’s significant that when I mentioned that not all players are leaving and that, in fact, some of the most promising youngsters have signed extended deals, your immediate response to that apparent silver lining was to go looking for the cloud. Yes, Salford are a stepping stone club. By my reckoning, there are ten such clubs in Super League. Nevertheless, to sign a five year contract at a club that is apparently delaminating before our eyes suggests, to me, that things aren’t as black as some paint it on here.

But it seems, everything the club does it does badly, and we have a lengthy post by someone who likes to use ellipses a lot (can’t remember his/her name, sorry) detailing that view. Fair enough, the club has made mistakes, but it’s easy to run a club when you don’t actually have to do it, and it’s even easier when you have the benefit of hindsight, something the people making the decisions don’t have. So, yes, appointing Shaun McRae was a big mistake, but I recall complaints on this very forum about Salford’s habit of appointing inexperienced coaches (Harvey, McCormack, Harrison, et al) and the club responded by appointing what the fans had asked fors[/is off in less than a year, leaving the club in no better state than it was when he came. Worse, in fact, because he became the catalyst for the upsurge in negativity on here.

And bigger clubs than Salford balls up. On the coaching front, think of Ian Millward at Wigan and Royce Simmons at Saints. On the general admin front, Salford have come nowhere near the gigantic clusterfu[ic[/ik that is Bradford. I think the difference is that people on here are now looking for the balls ups, which is a shame.

But that’s not to say everything is rosy, and we’re perhaps not as far apart as it may appear. I think where we disagree is on where the problems lie. For me, they boil down to a lack of finance, and this has two root causes. Firstly, John Wilkinson isn’t the bottomless pit of money that some club’s benefactors seem to be and secondly (brace yourselfcurrently[/i playing in Super League than there have [iever[/i been Salfordians throughout the entire fifteenish years Super League has existed. That’s why I believe we are fortunate to even have a Super League club. And, for me, that suggests things aren’t as black as some would have it.

Anyhoo, I’ll stop boring you now and leave it at that. I doubt you’re going to persuade me that everything is black, just as I’m not going to persuade you that not everything is, and I doubt anyone is going to persuade the excitables on here that pointing out that not everything the club does is wrong is [inot[/i the same as believing everything it does is right, and that you’re just an apologist for them . Far from it.