Hindsight is a great thing. Right upto the start of the season the general feeling on this forum was that we were in fine shape. We had a bigger pack and had recruited well. Sometimes things do no go as we thought that they would. I for one would not have questionned our recruitment and to some extent we have to live with that as we cannot just tear up contracts. I realise that some players will be leaving and so can free up some cash but great replacements are hard to find. I Wonder when those clubs, that have announced signings, started to put feelers out. Finding the right fit, as opposed to the desperately feeding on scraps as they become avaliable, takes a longer view, unless some catastrophy suddenly drops some world class players in your lap as happened to us in the past.
We carry a big squad because we give the youngsters a chance, otherwise why bother with an academy, and I do not want that to change. Yes, a big, hard running forward, with good hands, who tackles like SOL would improve our squad, but they are rare. My gut feeling is that the club are still looking at what will happen to SOL next year before they flash the cash.

Although solid in the role im not a fan of Bateman in the centre if cover is needed I would use Tomkins, although moving position around is not ideal, Tomkins is just getting back to his best at second row he looked hard to handle last night I just think he offers a bit more as a centre in attack.

Well that's very strange. After the game at Hull everyone was saying that Gelling was a natural left centre when he gave that brilliant pass that put Burgess away.

He was chopped and changed last season, often on the left if Goulding was selected as the opposite centre or the right if Sarg was. He then seemed to settle on the right, but now Bateman is being used as a makeshift centre he's been changed again, which seems odd as you'd expect JB to be more comfortable passing to his left.

Maybe we are holding back on announcing new signings until the season is finished to avoid putting some players noses out of joint?

And maybe some of the clubs players are coming from don't want it announced... Just because we don't know, does not mean nothing is happening...