I think this hits the nail on the head.

I wonder if there was a search for elite business leaders with a proven record of delivering success, or was it one of those job adverts where an internal candidate has been given a nudge and a wink that he's a shoe in for the job.

We have really missed Andy Gatcliffe.

A shrug of the shoulders. A maybe, a maybe not. That's the club we appear to have become of late. It's like we're happy with what we've achieved over the last seven or eight years and have just rested on our laurels.

Our off field activity just mirrors our on field activity for me. Lazy, blasé and complacent. Appointing Fitzpatrick was exactly that and love or loathe Tony Smith it's appointments like that, that just strengthen his position. Can you imagine Fitzpatrick getting Smith in and saying something needs to change? Shake it up Tony or else. How about you get rid of Agar and bring someone else in? No chance.

We've gone from Andy Gatcliffe, a man who alongside Simon Moran made the right noises and made things happen. Then in came survey mad Draper, a man who used us as a stepping stone for better things within the game. He changed the badge, that's about it, and that's rubbish too. So what do we do then? We appoint from within, an ex player whose CV boasts a previous role of Player Welfare Officer or whatever he was. Lazy.

Every man and his dog, apart from the club apparently, knew Sandow was off in October. What do we do? Wait until January and panic buy the second best half back at Widnes. Don't worry though, we're holding onto Sandow's registration. That'll help us.

The player pool from what we have to choose from isn't what it used to be. That's obvious for all to see surely. You won't see another Matt King or even Trent Waterhouse over here for a while I don't think. However, there's been blatient improvements available between last October and as near as last week and what have we done? Nothing.

Yes we've tied our best players down, that's great. But there's been some players available who would've improved us, whether we went for them now, or back in pre season. Barba, Kelly, Hardaker, Mamo, even Turner would've been better than what we have at present, but no, let's settle with what we have.

Tony Smith might be an issue, I don't know, but the club just smacks of complacency and mediocrity right now and has done since last October from board room level, to pitch level.

You have changed your tune The quotes you refer to were in response to people's moans about performances and Tony Smith even after we'd won matches. But then again, you'd know that because you've actually been bothered to trawl the archives to find them in the relevant threads.

Just because I've defended Smith and the players during the season doesn't mean I haven't had concerns about our off field activity since Sandow left. These concerns for me are as evident as ever now teams in and around us have strengthened mid season and once agin we've been left wanting and sticking with what we've got.

We have a lame duck chief exec who wouldn't sack his former boss.

Ambition lies with the directors, and it's them who have the power. It seems it is much easier to change a club badge than coach. We've sleep walked into this season. We all learnt how much Sandow enjoyed the local social scene. Was it such a shock he didn't come back.

Gidley and Brown aren't winners. They ain't gonna be around in 12-18 months. There's all the ambition you need.

Hey keep the duck out of it.

Yeah totally! The problem is I can't see your footer! Where has it gone? Did you delete it? I want to add the comments to my footer so we can immortalize your stupidity.

Well Gidley isn't utter garbage - he's just not very good and I fail to see how Sandow was a disaster? He was the best player in SL by a country mile up until his injury. He also played in the only 2 finals we have. I don't see how him beggaring off makes it a disastrous signing? Was Segeyaro a disaster? You may well have gone down without him.

You just carry on getting giddy about one of the most ordinary (and tryless) full backs i've ever seen.

Well i for one hope O'Brien has a massive game tomorrow.
As for ambition, we need look no further than Mr Koukash who doing more than being just a loudmouthed ,wealthy club owner. He has got people in to build his team up & kicked out the dead wood. He is controversial because he knows bad publicity is better than none at all, as long as it gets the club noticed.He is an ambitious business man who is treating Salford as a business & not a sporting club.

I just found it amusing that you were having a go at me, and others, for "moaning" and being "pessimistic" a few weeks ago and then penned an eloquent seven paragraph missive which could quite easily be described as a "moan".

Anyhow it seems the rump of the forum is coming round to the idea that we are dog and that fundamental changes need to be made. Just allow a bit of fun for for the early adopters who saw it a mile off.

Just looking through The Bet Fred Superleague twitter & saw that Jack Johnson scored a great try against Castleford on Friday

Left the England FB having to buy a ticket to get back in, great hand offs & footwork

Would put the link on but don't know how to