Who's the cast off championship prop you mention out of interest?

Don't see an issue with it all personally?

It certainly doesn't seem to have done him any harm going on loan to Leeds? At that time we weren't desperate for props...in the 2 games he missed...HKR (a) and Saints (h) we fielded Fifita, Arona, Whitbread and Bowden in both games so weren't desperate by any means....maybe the thinking was trying to do Leeds a favour and helping them over in Toulouse when they were decimated by injuries...never came off because they didn't play him...

He's come back from that loan though and played in 3 of the 4 games since so even if he had felt he'd fell down the pecking order a bit he's responded in the right way and gone back up it...that's how it works...we don't know if he was coming up short in training etc...WP is the man who makes the decisions and like with Tanginoa earlier in the season he's shown no-one is above being dropped.

He's been offered a contract for next season...that was confirmed just after he came back from the loan...maybe 3-4 weeks on and his improved performances and our safer position might mean an improved offer?

Who’s said he’s going anywhere other than a bit of gossip on here and Sky, both of which are more often wrong than right.

Just like Batch it’s all very simple, if someone offers Aydin more than we can then there is nothing we can do. It’s Aydins choice not ours.

Also what front row crisis? There isn’t one, we have more props than you can poke a stick at. Whether you rate them is purely an opinion.

Who is this championship standard prop and since when was Aydin a SL certainty, he’s a long way to go yet.

Talk about making a drama out of a non existent crisis.

Of note we currently have the following props on our books.

Fifita
Whitbread
Arona
Tanginoa (if needed)
Bowden
Aydin
Battye
Butler
Shaw
Eseh

All but two available, where is the crisis?

These rumours may or may not transpire but at least wait til they have. It’s not like anyone can do anything about them unless they have a spare million.

Remember it’s not just a loss of revenue, it’s also now inflationary pay demands. Any club running as a business and not a millionaire plaything is under severe pressure. People need to smell the coffee.

How clubs like Salford are still going is beyond me. And even the bank balances of suger daddies are taking a beating. Some clubs are in a far worse state than us and as the crunch gets worse they will have there legs kicked from beneath them sooner than people think. IMG can do many things I’m sure but solve rampant inflation and thus higher than payable wage demands isn’t one of them.

The story reported at the fans forum was that we were working to get a certain player right up to the transfer deadline but his club wouldn't release him unless we did a swap. We weren't prepared to release the player they wanted. No names were mentioned but you could easily fit Dwyer, Leeds and Aydin into that scenario.

Fifita - Off contract
Whitbread - signed for next season
Arona- off contract
Tanginoa (if needed)
Bowden - only on loan
Aydin - off contract
Battye - here another year but not the player he was
Butler - here next season but looks like one of our panic buy
Shaw- inexperienced unlikely to endure a full season at prop
Eseh- inexperienced unlikely to endure a full season at prop

All but two available, where is the crisis?

The crisis is that most teams go into each game with four props for rotation, therefore if we do not resign any out of contract players which is possible then we have:-

Whitbread
Battye
Butler
Shaw
Eseh

It’s now not looking quite so positive and definitely appears more of a crisis.

The trinity press release announced signing Bowden with immediate effect until the end of 2023…

Yes. Both Butler and Bowden were permanent deals, just short contracts until end 2023

No it doesn't unless you're determined to view it that way.

So again, where is the crisis other than your imagined version?

I did not realise he had signed until the end of next season, it will alleviate the problem slightly but based on known contracted players we are still short at prop and would still lack size but we shall see.

Well I guess you can worry about it if you want to.
There are 3 games left of this season and 6 months before the start of next, so forgive me if I'm OK with it for now.
It's just how contracts work.

Willie must have some faith in Butler

Does he know him from his Warrington days?

He's a big strong lad, and he has one good season with London under his belt. There is definitely something there.

If Aydin is the top of the youngsters, above Shaw and Eseh. The Butler is on the bottom rung of the established players. He has experience and a bit of age in his side but is as yet to find any consistency n his game. Not unusual for a prop.

A good pre season and then I think we will get his true measure - let's be fair on the lad, he did not arrive at an ideal time.