Glad you out bid us for Widdop and we got Sezer

Those two are not going to bring "heart" back by any means.

It's not like Patton was an overly passionate raw talent who was hit and miss, like a younger Briers. He was the definition of average. How many games when we were struggling, did you see him grab the game by the scruff of the neck and try and inject something. He was prone to being anonymous, game after game. Which is why his reputation always grows on here when he's out of the side, and sinks when he comes back in.

Now you can say, better to have a home grown player on a more modest wage be anonymous than a big signing on executive pay be anonymous, but that is different from expecting him to come back and revitalise the passion in the team.

Livett is a player who has shown talent in bursts and is just inconsistent, but again I'm not sure he's Mr heart and soul of the p&b....he seemed to coast a lot after a bright start.

We've seen enough from Patton to know what he is - back up quality at best. Livett: the jury is still out. There's possibility that he could come good, but at the moment I fear he's a less talented version of Westerman.

I’m giving Widdop until 12 games in before I pass judgement on him.
However I’m gunning on Austin... I took a backlash for the mere question that he wasn’t putting in a £10k per game performance.
Well he wasn’t...and he still isn’t but a few of you are seeing the woods behind the trees

He came here with the reputation he switched on and switched off and coach’s got fed up with it, and dropped him or played him off the bench. A running self creating back not a creative hands back.
Has the rain washed away the magic on his hat to reveal leopard spots beneath?

yet Austin is still 10x the player Patton is.

he isnt playing well, but we have seen he CAN play well..... lets be honest, no one is playing well in this current price regime.

At the moment he is cutting a pretty dejected and frustrated player.

I will judge him when we have a competent coach.

My god he's 3 games in, the whole team have been poor for the past 3 games so you can't point a finger at Widdop and say he's not pulling his weight as the whole team isn't. I watched him against Toronto and he played really well, great reads, good defensively, took the line on and some good kicks. Point the finger at the forwards, as a side from Philbin our forwards haven't really kicked in yet. Once we sort our attitude and forward pack Widdop will come in to his own. Austin hasn't done anything so far this year so where's his thread?
On another note i don't understand why Burrell keeps making the team, other than we're paying him a big wage. Give Kibula a go or throw Latu on the bench they can't be any worse and may actually be better?

Forgive me for sensing a touch of deja vu here, but I'm feeling vibes of 2009 here...

'That Monaghan is rubbish, get shut'... 'King??... absolutely stealing a wage - get shut'....

I get the feeling it's going to take a similar solution to rectify things too. Sack the coach, fetch in a decent guy, with a successful pedigree and start getting a tune out of a squad which should be performing far better than it presently is.

One can only hope the change is made in time to actually keep this season alive.

It's ok to blame Widdop and Austin, but no half back looks good behind an ineffective pack. I don't care who they are. The close call at Wigan and the nilling of Saints showed that we had a team who can play and show passion and commitment. Where has that disappeared to in recent weeks? Seems to me that there is unrest and disharmony among the team since the opening matches? Odd that the downward spiral began when Ashton was replaced by Widdop. Am I on the right track here?

It's ok to blame Widdop and Austin, but no half back looks good behind an ineffective pack. I don't care who they are. The close call at Wigan and the nilling of Saints showed that we had a team who can play and show passion and commitment. Where has that disappeared to in recent weeks? Seems to me that there is unrest and disharmony among the team since the opening matches? Odd that the downward spiral began when Ashton was replaced by Widdop. Am I on the right track here?

Spot on, this 100% Smith came in and made the players play to their potential, we need some of that now. If there are players who are causing an issue then the coach needs to be ruthless with them. Smith very quickly set his stall out and the players quickly got on board with it. I wish now he had left us before it went sour (he always said coaches had a shelf life and was spot on) and we could have brought him back in again in the future once he'd refreshed himself.

Maybe. Equally, you could argue that the downward spiral began after the Gelling business happened.

Widdop was interviewed by sky after yesterdays embarrassment he looked as tho he was off to a photo shoot not a spot of dirt on him...lazy uninterested so and so...should of got hastings instead of this mercenary...

Widdop was supposed to be the icing on the cake / the final piece of the jigsaw. Currently we have no cake and half the pieces of the jigsaw are missing

I think only 1 piece of the jigsaw is missing...and that is more frustrating than half!

And currently the lid of the box has a picture from a completely different jigsaw on it

Langer and Briers managed to shine behind a pack of

Gee
Farrar
Nutley
McCurrie
Knott
Nikau

Other than Nutley, which of those is better than what we have now?