I can't believe we could ever have been seriously in for Barba if we were unable to offer him a marquee spot.

I agree to a point speculation can be interesting but I'm sorry RD all the "done deal" stuff doesn't help your case if of course you are bothered/interested?

I don't know about "social media secrecy" if this one doesn't come off it'll be 'social media idiocy'.

BTW I think that on the whole we are ambitious they may not have all come off and perhaps we should be higher up the table v money spent but that kind of proves the point, ambition doesn't always equate to results

For me, one thing that can't be levelled at the club is lack of ambition. We've recently acquired some of the best players from other SL clubs including mos Clarke. Barba is the first noteworthy signing saints have made for quite a while and I can't see where any club has been more proactive in the transfer market than ourselves. Some of those transfers, so far, haven't lived up to expectations, but it sounds like the board are going out again to find us some top players to give us, once again, the best chance possible.

Barba was the most talented player available players of his age and quality are not available we have missed out big time we will replace gidley and Sims for two more past there best Aussie's​ is it only me that thinks we are dull ?

Players are more likely to earn a more money at Wire without a marquee spot than at Saints within one.

With the new salary cap rule on returning players from RU I reckon we could.

A quality half back is going to be very hard to find. No home grown ones and quality aussies already tied up on long term contracts

Theres no doubt we are an ambitious club, the doubt is with some of the bog standard players Smith keeps signing. Clark and Westerman are brilliant signings, Lineham is proving his worth again now and home grown players like Currie (only a month a way from playing) and Harvey Livett, morgan smith etc are exciting prospects. But we need some quality signings at the club while these players develop which we just aren't signing. I'm just hoping we sign a couple of real quality signings for the new season and not pick up some more players that are risky and we're taking a chance on. I would rather sign consistant players that aren't world beaters then a couple of chance players in the hope they are awesome.

Patton could grown into one of the best English talents in the game if he was just given the time to develop and allowed to grow into the role and the shirt. every halfback needs the time to be able to put their own stamp on the squads game.

I don't think the club's ambition should be in question. On paper the squad is as good as any other in the league, we've yet to put out our first choice 13 this season but for me this squad is underachieving. For me that means the coaching staff aren't getting the best out of the team and questions should be asked of them. Perhaps it's time for Smith to freshen up his coaching team again.

We had a class half-back. Sadly he buggered off to fight people on the streets of Queensland. Nobody in SL is anywhere close to bringing us what Briers brought when he was playing, maybe Williams but that's not happening.

What do contracts have to do with it these days though eh?

I can't help but think we'll have had serious discussions with Barba, and that of we had wanted we could have offered more money than Saints. For whatever reason we either didn't, or did and he still chose Saints anyway.

I would have liked Barba here, and whilst it's good for SL I'm disappointed one of our biggest rivals have signed him. However, being objective about it, we need a half much more than a FB, so if there's any chance we can use our marquee on one, it would IMO likely be money better spent.

We keep telling ourselves this don't we. The truth is our backs are pretty average and we lack pace across the side and we don't know what our best team is.

We play full backs on the wing, half backs at full back, half backs at Hooker, defensive second rowers at centre and today I read in the guardian we will be playing a non-ball playing forward at loose.

We've been unlucky with injuries, we started the season without 3 of our 4 best players in hill, ratchford and curry and Clark has had quite a lot of time out as well. That aside we've still been far too poop though that's for sure.

Our backline is paper thin but ratchford, atkins, Toby King and Lineham are all good in my opinion. I don't think too much of the rest though. Johnson could be good in time and I'm sure there are other youngsters. If penny was fit I would play him over Russel.

If the clubs ambition is not in question, should the players ambition be in question?