To be fair I hardly ever agree with Smokey, but his opinions here are fair enough here...

That would be the opinion that Wakefield will struggle because of the huge turnaround in playing staff, but Widnes will do OK as they are newly promoted (I guess they have the same team that was crap last year do they, or do they have a massive turnover of playing staff too?).
The same opinion that has Salford as much more settled even though their coach left them in the lurch 3 months into his contract and left them with a coach they didn't deem to be good enough when interviewing previously.

I'm not rose-tinted enough to see us make the top 8 but I would still put us above those 2 in the table and probably London as well, and maybe Cas depending on how fit Rangi Chase stays.

There are 7 sides who will definitely finish above us. Those being Warrington, Wigan, St Helen's, Leeds, Catalan, Huddersfield and Hull.

After that there's nothing much between the rest barring Widnes. And it's a case of which club fairs the best with numerous factors. It's quite conceivable that we could finish 8th but also just as likely we might finish 13th.

So long as we're competitive and don't fade away at the back end of the season as we use to under Kear then I'll be happy

Beat me to the punch - SmokeyTA has reinterpreted reality to suggest that WTW will struggle next season, then summarised competitive sport in general to emphasise his point. Within a few posts, he'll be split-quoting as if his life depended on it and eventually, will disappear in a puff of logic.

New year, same 5hit.

It doesn't really matter what supporters of other clubs think of us, where we'll finish, who we'll beat or our recruitment policy. Year on year they've come on here with their predictive tables and 99 times out of 100 they have us in the bottom 2. What happens year on year ( barring last year, granted ) is; we consistently challenge the top teams always beating a few, lose a few we should really win against sides below us and around us, but have in the few seasons before last season regularly challenged for the play offs. We know we're not the greatest team on earth but we are rarely, if ever in that bottom 2 slot those blinkered fans seem to think we belong in but I just love it when we stuff it up 'em in the great Wakefield Trinity style!

As an outsider looking in I tend to agree that it will take time before ur sides playing its best, which IMO means you may make a late push for a playoff spot, I think id look at this as a season of consolidation, how pleased are you with the players you've signed?

Your insecurity is ridiculous, I didn’t say Widnes would do well, I said they would be up for their first game back in SL which will probably mean they play above themselves in that one game. That isn’t a particularly controversial opinion nor is it any anti-wakefield rant.

Nor have I ‘summarised competitive sport’ just a simple observation that you play a lot of the teams around, who you would be looking to beat early in the season.

The funniest part of it is that I said that Wakefield will be around 11th, predictions from the next two Wakefield fans ahead of Salford, Widnes and London, and possibly Cas, which translates as 11th or 10th in the table, the next one, between 8th and 13th. Yet because I said it somehow the collective insecurities of the Wakefield clique has sent them into some strange group hissy fit. Its odd, but quite funny to watch

I'm not insecure in the slightest, I just don't buy your holier-than-thou, pseudo-intellectual brand of noise, that usually wins you arguments on the VT by virtue of the other participants losing the will to live and beginning to harm themselves.

Aside from that, you're probably alright.

Well seeing and taking offence at none-existent slights usually highlights insecurities, as does shoe-horning a word like pseudo-intellectual in to the conversation in my experience but if there is another reason for this collective hissy fit, then so be it.

I didn't shoe-horn it in - it's a very common expression, down our way.

You should try to mix in more erudite circles, then you wouldn't get all uppity when people use big words and that.

It seems an odd thing to be commonly calling people, especially in your erudite circles. Though i cant imagine they are particularly erudite if pseudo-intellectual is a big word......and that.

Now you're getting the idea!

We now have a whole page with not one comment on the thread title.

If you two wish to continue try Pm's or meet up and have a coffee, cos its just stopped in this thread.


End of.

I'll tidy and re-open this later, after i have taken out the trash.

Thanks.