I for one hope that Widnes do well in the next couple of years otherwise there will be no hope for any English club gaining 'promotion' to the top table, we'll only have the leftovers unless your from an expansion region.

Pretenders ! You performed poorly in our league and I see nothing to convince me that your team or coaching set up will perform any better in top flight....

Will struggle for the next 3 years in my opinion never making it out of the bottom 4

Do you know what Fred I think it would have been easier for me to swallow Ian leaving if he had gone to Widnes. I'm still in a state of mourning.

Can you imagine what Vikingman would have been like?

Saying that, the Cas fans have been so ungrateful and bizarrly big-club minded I don't know what's worse.

Wonder how long Betts will last in the job.Widnes fans want his head already.

Widnes have not been promoted , they have been granted a Franchise

there is a difference.

So, are Widnes the worst team to ever be granted a franchise?

No - that was Celtic

Not too sure about that looking at the Widnes signings so far. Looks like he's 'saving' as much as he can of the Sky millions, a little reminiscent of LS at Celtic Crusaders

Too true. You would have thought that they would have made a go of it in their first season back. Especially as they have had a head start in recruitment. If I was a chemic I would be decidedly disappointed with the announcements to date. They have signed players with no experience, players at the end of their superleague careers and average NRL players. You would have expected two or three "marquee" signings to give them a chance of avoiding the wooden spoon next season and building on the foundations Steve O'Connor has put in place. It just seems that they have taken the same type of recruitment policy they had for the Championship into the Super League.

Worse this year? Certainly, no argument.

Except its not on one years performance is it? By rights they should already have been there.