I read this in a Darth Vader voice.

Cullen, TS and Price were all backed by the board in terms of being enabled to make big signings - Powell's incoming signings don't look out of place with the type of player we've been bringing in for a while.

Where Powell is different is it seems like the board have given him a remit (or at least endorsed his approach) of clearing out the vast majority of the underachieving Price squad and have been willing to tolerate everything falling apart during the transition.

As an Arsenal fan I've seen this situation with Mikel Arteta who was backed by the board through a lot of sticky times and backed when he created unrest by going up against big name players but on the evidence of the start of this season now he's built a squad to play the way he wants with the type of characters he wants he seems to have reset Arsenal in a much more positive direction. This is the blueprint I'm hoping for with Powell at Wire - but it might take a couple of years to get there so I'm not expecting us to be ripping up trees next season, I just want to see more stability and being competitive more consistently (which should enable us to compete for the playoffs).

I think we are more or less done. There cannot be much cap space left to play with, with the signings of Vaughn, McGuire, Dufty, Kasiano and Dudson. I can see Wardle (or another centre), and an extension for Minikin but not much else.

Minikin has already been quietly extended, guessing there was an option in the clubs favour.

Other than that I’d expect Wardle or Luetele to come in.

You make an interesting point, what is the minimum Powell has to do next year to remain in post. If it's finishing higher than 2nd/3rd bottom, will 3rd/4th bottom suffice? Probably one for a new thread tbh.

Arsenal finished outside of the top 4 last year on the last day or last few games was it (dont follow avidly) were many gooners calling for his head then or have they bought into the plan or as Powelly puts it "process"?

It has to be playoffs surely? We are only 8 points off the playoff spots now, if we aren't 4 wins better off at this stage next season I sincerely hope that we have a new coach in place.

Regarding the players leaving I wish them well, they're all honest professionals and I hope they find a good contract elsewhere.

So if we just make the playoffs next year then where is the progress under Powell?
We were doing that consistently under TS & SP without the accompanying dross in between.
Are you saying we have to wait until 2024 Sally?

We should be up there with the other clubs that spend as much as us.

Top 6 then? I always thought that Wigan, St Helens, Leeds, Catalans, Hull were at the cap. Maybe even Huddersfield.

To be clear, I don't think just making the playoffs is enough, if we lose to a better team on the day then that's tolerable, but we absolutely can't have a playoff performance like the last 2 playoff games we were involved in. I'd want us reaching the end of the season in the sort of form Leeds are in this year so we feel at least we have a punchers chance of making the grand final. Scraping in on bad form, knowing that the final is unlikely won't be enough IMO, we will need to have shown we can consistently compete with the teams at the top. There won't be much cap space available for recruitment in 2024 so the 2023 team simply has to perform.

Gf for me next year, obviously a gf win is the aim, but after all this, I'd be expecting a gf appearance as minimum.

It has to be seen in the context of doing a mass rebuild which is something we haven't done for a while, so it will naturally take longer to get the new set up bedded in. Powell is bringing in entirely his own players to play his own system and those might not suit a new coach so if we change coach again next season we'll have to accept we're resetting the clock to zero again and give the new coach his own grace period and new money to pay players off/bring in new players which might not get us where we want to be any quicker.

As long as I can see a coach is moving the team in the right direction I'm on board with keeping them, where Wire need to improve is spotting the plateau point where a coach has taken the team as far as he can and they are just going to tread water from that point onwards. You could argue that Cullen, TS and Price all reached this point about 2 to 3 seasons before they left.

GF is my expectation every year. It's only happened 4 in times 27 years. I suppose it's really 4 times in 13 years of realistic expectation. Still not enough.

Far better than the previous 20 odd years though isn't it? A couple of hub caps and 4 challenge cups mean it's been a good time to be a wire considering previous history. I'm hoping for another decade like that starting now with maybe a GF win to Complete the set. It would be nice to come away from old Trafford smiling for a change.

Tough crowd FMC.

IF the team gels it could be on the cards though, IF our new pack plays to its potential then we should make plenty of metres in all games and be playing mostly on the front foot. Ifs!

Agree with all of this apart from resetting the clock to zero.

Leeds changed coach in April when they were on 3 points (P9 W1 D1 L7) and in 11th position in the league (below where we are now) .

Lohan Smith has not had the opportunity to bring in his own players. Leeds haven't made the argument of resetting the clock, time to bed in etc

Instead they have got on with the job of qualifying for the playoffs.

I guess that's what champion sides do - not make excuses.