From web site

Some of you may have heard that the club is looking at making cost reductions in preparation for the season in Championship One. This is true and it is necessary in order to ensure that the club bounces back immediately into the Championship and does not repeat what’s happened in the past. As a result, the focus of the club next season will be success on the pitch in the most cost effective way it can manage. We aim to be the Champions of Championship One next season and this will only be the start of the 5 year journey which will, if my aspirations come true, end in entry to the Super League (which will be the start of a new journey). The town deserves it and the club, and its loyal and long suffering fans, deserve it! To achieve this goal we need to retain our key players and this has had a knock on effect into other areas within the club. Rest assured this has not affected the strength of our team for next season but in order to ensure we get to this exciting point the club has to manage its costs in a sensible and appropriate way.

Let’s all look forward to 2011. I want all fans and the Keighley community to be fully involved in the close season activities the club is going to run and I ask all fans to buy season tickets, at the Early Bird prices, as soon as they can (offer ends on 31st December 2010). Looking forward to next season the club needs all fans past and present to attend our matches and show our support for what will be a winning team. As we are soon launching our new highly desirable kit (home and away) I am encouraging everyone to buy it for Christmas and wear it at all our matches. It will be the most sought after fashion item in town!

Next season is the start of what will be an exciting journey! Don’t miss out - get your season ticket now!

Gary Fawcett
Chairman – Keighley Cougars

is the aim for super League in 5 years a joke? Anyway all the best for the future

No, he's been saying it ever since he took over the club.

I don't know any Keighley fan who buys in to his vision. We need 4 times as many fans as we are getting now, one hell of a team, a hell of a lot of luck and a new or completely rebuilt ground.

Back to the OP. I'd like to express my thanks to all those have had to leave the club, your hard work and effort were most definitely appreciated and I for one think you did a fantastic job.

I hope you all find new employment soon.

I wish he would stop saying this, as it is totally unrealistic. He is either completely deluded or he thinks Keighley fans are too stupid to realise when they are being fooled. So far all we hear is talk, there has been nothing to make anybody beleive we are going anywhere. If this was serious why were there not any signings when it looked like we could avoid relegation, With one or two players we could still be in the Championship and two years ahead in this five year plan.Look at what has happened to the team since the beginning of the year.

George rayner - Out
Daly Williams - Out
Jon Presley - Out
Carl Hughes - Out

Luke Helliwell - In

Luke is a very promising player , but (no disrespect to him) he does not make up for the rest. Maybe I will eat my words and we will see the signing of two or three top-class players in the next weeks. It will need that to make people confident enough to buy season tickets in the numbers he is expecting. I'm afraid a couple of players that have been rejected by Hunslet or York is not going to cut it.
This is not being negative just realistic.

I agree to an extent. Carl Hughes and George Raynor were on the fringes of the team and we have better at the club in their respective positions. I don't think we had the money to bring anyone in to bolster the squad we needed otherwise we wouldn't have needed to make redundancies.

Our season's only been finished a week and there's still teams in the playoffs. Hopefully Barry's talking to players and agents and we can bring some quality signings in the near future.

I think we need a couple of big centres, another prop and a big 2nd rower to see us right.

I for one am hoping he is right. However i for the life of me cannot see how it can be done.

If we say we can't - we wont

If we say we could - we might

I am not stupid to think this would be easy

but it has been done before by people with vision

we must believe or what is the alternative?.

There's a not so fine line between being optimistic and delusional though.

If this was a 10 year plan that had been outlined in detail as to how it was going to be achieved I'd be more receptive.

It isn't though, it's 5 years based on the assumption that if you put together a winning team the fans will come and we'll borrow a shed load of money to do the ground up.

As you put It's definitely not that easy though is it?

Who's going to lend us the £20m or so needed to develop the stadium with our history and the current financial climate?

How are we going to compete with the Dulls undercutting us on season ticket prices for fans in roughly the same catchment area?

How do you solve the chicken and egg scenario where you need a better team to attract more fans to bring in more money when you don't have money to buy better players start with? Potentially jeopardise the future by borrowing more money like we have in the past?

I'm not buying it because I've heard it all before, the same old pipe dreams followed by it all falling apart like a house of cards. If we're going to improve things, we need to look at how Batley have done it, slowly improve and based on financial prudence.

We must simply just sit tight and see what the future holds,who knows what gary has up his sleeve,he isnt going to spout out loud his plans because this has also been done before by previous directors and ultimately it has cost us dear,for me im happy to trust in him although it does seem very very far fetched at the moment,cougars till i die for me,no matter where we are in 5 years time.

I'm a believer...

As a famous man once said... 'we'll never find out until we try'

Out of all the criteria specified for achieveing a place in super league, I don't think we meet a single one. That's from having at least at 10,000 capacity stadium, operating on average at at least 50% capacity, having sound finances (we don't have the best track record), not having another club within a 20 mile radius or having won the trainspotters cup/championship.

Why do the club have to make unrealistic announcements to the fans, we aren't stupid. Why can't we just be satisfied with just being the best club we can be, playing the best we can and having some of the best fans in the country? I think the clubs most likely to be in super league in 5 years are South Wales, Toulouse and Widnes anyway. Shame our little town isnt based in the Highlands, we'd be in super league in no time...

If Gary wants to come out with this kind of statement so be it. But as everyone knows any business that needs investers (in this case suporters and sponsers) has to take a business plan to the investers for them to see how viable it is. Well Gary to get the town behind you bring this plan out to the front and let us see it. Maybe if its as good as you think it is suporters and companys might start to think the same as you and get behind the club.

I think we all know SL in five years is unlikely to say the least, but you can't knock the guy for having ambition - we'd probably knock him if he didn't! I know we've lost some decent players, but we've got a few in too - Hutch for one, Helliwell, Belcher is coming on nicely and so are a few other new faces. Changes in personnel are a fact of life in any sport so I don't think that's a cause for griping. Just look at the ones we've kept, and of course Barry Eaton himself.
My tip for a cracking player next season? Gav Duffy, and Hutch...
Bring on the new season!

There might not be another club within 20 miles in 5 years time

Why? Then there will be no Rugby League.