Not been to Fev since the nineties. Can get tasty at times, must be something in the water over that way.

Think it was Eddie Waring who opened a commentary from Fev some time in the early 70s, with something like: 'It's a grim place. You wouldn't want to come here for your holidays.'

I also remember at Central Park from around the same time, when the psychotic Fev full back, a foursquare nutjob called Harold Box, launched a totally vicious and unprovoked attack on a young Wigan winger called Martin Sivori, knocking several of his teeth out. It kicked off, but within seconds became a whole lot worse when almost every single Fev player went for his opposite number.

Sorry, but they were a right bunch of animals and I've never had any time for them since.

A £300k hole could well see them off, unless something drastic happens.

I'm told that the narrow escape with paying the players wages earlier this year involved something like £175k, which if true means they've got a hole that equates to less than 2 months wages without even taking into account other overheads.

It's not looking great for them, unfortunately.

I was lucky enough to play at most of the old grounds from the in the mid to late 90s at different levels and to be honest they were all pretty intimidating places to play if you let them me.

The newer stadiums have helped reduce this in a big way due to limited accessibility to the players on the pitch in such numbers mainly due to seating arrangements rather than standing.

There was nothing worse than being stood on a sideline at kick off and getting literally spat on from large groups of people who were stood no more than 3 feet away from you.

Trips to Hull (both), Saints and Warrington were generally worse than Fev but given the lack of ground development and the mentality that takes over when a group of people congregate and passions are high added to the accessibility to the players on the pitch in the predominantly standing areas grounds like Cas, Fev and Wakefield have in pockets certain areas still have that atmosphere about them.

I actually these days prefer to go to a ground that is predominantly standing as I think the atmosphere is way better but inevitably you tend to get more grief as well.

I do think both Castleford and Salford are really at risk of losing SL status beyond 2024.

I like Salford as a club but something needs to drastically happen to them in my opinion to justify them as a top flight club moving forward.

For some reason, despite the recent success they just don’t seem to stack up.

Cas I’d be happy to see go. The ongoing stadium issues and excuses moving into the IMG era can’t go on.

Current budget of £2m won’t even resolve the bulk of the cosmetic issues never mind provide significant upgrades.

If they finish mid table next year though they probably deserve a final 3 year tenure to sort things out, but looking at current ins and outs I can’t see that happening.

This isn't how the IMG criteria works. Cas will remain a safe SL club.

Sorry mate, with you suggesting an alternative 6 I read French instead of Field. That said, I wouldn't want Field running around Superleague in anything but a Cherry and White shirt either and I think, with a full pre season under his belt, French will develop even further. He has far more tools at his disposal than Croft. It's only experience he's lacking.

I’d have Williams before Croft.

I appreciate there is more to it than that, however I’m not sure they will remain “safe”.

They are not exactly ripping it up on the other criteria either.

When Wigan have a fantastic player there is always someone (Wigan fan) looking for another player to replace the said fantastic player.This I dont understand,I for one wouldnt change French or Field certainly not for Croft.

They would both be in my team as well. My reference to Williams is not as a replacement for either of them it is just that I think he is better than Croft.

Peet was asked about French and how he's going at Stand Off yesterday and said he's really pleased with him and that he will be in the halves next year and that no signings will be made in that area. Hopefully that also puts to bed any noise on Field leaving. Saints fans were getting excited on Red Vee that we might let Field go and bring Owen Farrell in to play at stand off. I don't often agree with them, but that would be absolute suicide.

Thompson posted a goodbye and thanks for the memories message to the Bulldogs so he's definitely going somewhere

It seems from all accounts that it’s a done deal, guessing we are waiting until the end of season to announce it maybe?

I’ve been told by two people who seem to be in the know that it will be announced this week however, I would have thought that it might be as you say after the season has ended.
Still unsure that if we do sign him is he a player that we actually need and/or with his recent injury record it may be a very high risk
You’d like to think that lessons have been learned from the Burgess fiasco and maybe there are some potential exits still to be announced.