Lineham has been shockingly stupid and it would be a kick in the teeth for Mamo, but I would prefer the flying pig to Mamo on the wing. Lineham's contract ends this year so perhaps we should be rather more hard nosed with any new offer.

Mamo to fullback then?

This is true, but I think back in the first half of the previous decade we looked increasingly likely to do it over those first 3-4 years. Maybe it's me but after a surprising 2018 we seem to look increasingly [iless[/i likely to win it. However, big changes are afoot in the off-season and our whole approach to success will be changing. We'll be focussing less on big player recruitment and former 'stars' and more on players with raw talent and hunger to be developed. I don't know if that means we'll finally win it but I bet we feel better after each match.

That said, we can't argue too much with what Price has done. He's delivered three finals and one trophy when he could have easily been a David Furner style disaster. He promised to fix the defence in year one, and he did. He just hasn't seemed to be able to turn this expensively assembled squad into a ruthless machine on a [iregular[/i basis. Whether that's him or a stale culture who knows? But I've no doubt Powell will turn it upside down; Have a listen to interviews with his players about how gets the most out of them - he doesn't just go through the motions.

Powell may turn it upside down, but he may also not be able to get it moving in the right direction quickly enough?

Don’t get me wrong, there was a period of relative success at Cas for a while, on a much smaller budget. And that is commendable, but it’s not a prolonged period of success. They won 6 games all year last season. They finished 5th the year before and while ironically they knocked us out, they got nilled Salford the following round of the play offs.

I’m not saying he’s doomed and destined to fail, it is a different beast being a Warrington coach. There is expectation beyond what has been earned. The club peacocks as a super club, without having actually backed it up. The last ‘great’ team was 2016 until Sandow/Currie finished their seasons, before that we were justifiably a great team in 2011-2013, aside from that were just decent challengers. It’s a tough job, but with that expectation comes money and a decent starting point by way of a squad.

But, there is nothing to say that he can replicate that in that environment. He had a budget at Leeds, signed players like Adrian Vowels, Ben Walker, Willie Poaching, Andrew Dunemann and David Furner. A list of decent players, and they all played a part (Walker aside, didn’t last too long). He also had a stellar academy to supplement that team, to his credit he put them in and stuck with them. But even then, they were shrewd signings.

But realistically, Smith took that squad of good kids and decent old boys and turned them into champions. Powell built a decent squad, but that list of signings in really uninspiring. The production of Sinfield, Burrow, Maguire, Mathers, Bailey, Diskin, Walker, JJB who all came in at the same time, really filled that squad with talent.

Since then he’s been on a shoestring, and getting a bit back from that, but the club expect more than a plucky underdog. Powell will have a huge budget, with Widdop and Austin likely to leave, along with Clark (2), Inglis and maybe Hill if rumours are to be believed. He needs to find some players to get us going from day 1, or he could be in trouble.

Fans get on the back quickly, even when we had the last huge squad purge, losing Briers, Morley, Monaghan, Hodgson, Carvell etc and trying to play the kids, the fans got on the back of Tony Smith. Even with all the credit he had in the bank. Powell won’t have that credit, Smith saw out a rocky 2014/15 because he had earned the respect, he bounced back in 2016 with a cup final, league leaders shield and grand final only to have ran out out that credit/loyalty 12 months on. If Powell has a “2015” style transition year, would the fans trust the project enough to not hound him out?

Is this good enough for a team spending so much on their playing roster and facilities ?

I've mentioned this on here before, 2014 and 2015 are remembered as being years where we were a mile below the 2010-2013 squads.

People do forget that we finished both those seasons in grand final eliminators, iirc it was 2014 that Wigan got to the final with the skin of their teeth.

We were absolute hot garbage in both challenge cup semi finals though

Nope.

No. Which is the point I was making. I was just saying that also it wasn’t the disaster that Furner was at Leeds.

But... a Wigan side with Bateman, Hastings, French, Hardaker, Gildart, Farrell, Manfredi and arguably the biggest selection of quality youth available simply MUST win something this year or Lam will be considered more of a failure than Price, no?

Only two out of St Helens, Wigan, Leeds, Warrington, Hull (what I assume are the big five English spenders) plus Catalans can win a trophy each year.

Yep.
I do get a bit fed up with the silly idea that we are the only ones spending top money. It is total rubbish but it keeps being regurgitated.

Yet that was still not good enough for the fans, even with the best coach in a generation at the helm. Powell needs a fast start, and needs to spend wisely. He’s already put himself on record for being solely responsible for signing players, the buck stops with him next year. New hand picked coaching staff, relatively blank slate with an open cheque book to start again, with a number of key players (Cooper, Currie etc) locked in.

The pressure, unless we crash and burn this year, will be massive. The best he can hope for is that we stumble and fall this season playing in a poor style.

Yep, Lam will be gone if he doesn’t win a trophy this year. 3 seasons without a major trophy is far too long.

Some Wire fans I speak to seem satisfied just making the playoffs, going out in the first round to a Salford/Hull/Cas standard team then watching the 2019 cup final on repeat all offseason.

That’s alright the Warrington board are too hence why Price is still here.

Rubbish. I don't know any Warrington fans who are not fed up with not winning the Grand Final. And I can only imagine that the Board feel precisely the same, but they are realistic enough to know you can't knee jerk into changing the coach every time there is a poor run of results or even if a small number of fans on a forum don't like the style played by the team.