The last six days have illustrated better than most the harsh realities of the life that faces our club and most others.

If I may, I'll demonstrate this with the tale of two young Trinity Academy products.

Yusuf Aydın is NOT the great young player the drama merchants on here will have people believe. IMHO Yusef will, injuries permitting, have a promising, maybe great SL career. Partly because he's a good player and somewhat shrewdly, IMO, because he's joined a club that may be on the up next season.

IMO what he won't do is win HKR any games on his own. He's unlikely to top any SL statistics as a prop, and I personally doubt he will ever play for England/GB at senior level.

Lewis Murphy is already an EXCEPTIONAL player for his age. IMHO Lewis will, injuries permitting, have an astounding SL career.

IMO what he will do is win us 2-3 games a season almost by himself (not a literal statement, obviously). He has every chance of topping several SL statistics, and he will probably play for England/GB.

Trinity has a small pot of money. We are not totally skint, but frugal has to be our motto. So for those of you lamenting the loss of Aydin, think on. If it were your money you were spending, where would you spend what little you have?

We probably have a 3-4 month window to come up with a deal to extend Murphy's stay, and the money saved on paying Aydin what HKR will be paying him may be the difference.

Put simply, Murphy will win games and put bums on seat, he's the kind of player for Trinity to go for every time, IMHO. I know you need foot soldiers but a good coach will find those, pure class is much harder to replace. We were luck with Murphy for TJ but I can't see lightning striking a third time.

That is the dilemma with youngsters, like it or not; you can't keep them all. In our case, we can only afford to keep the exceptional because, for us, the gamble is too great to risk on too many maybe's. Murphy is a match-winner, and we don't have many with TJ and Tupou gone. We can, however, find players similar to where Yusuf is right now reasonably quickly. Where he may be at in a few years would require a crystal ball, and we don't have one of those.

The truth is money alone may not be enough to keep Murphy, but we have absolutely no chance without it.

It isn't as black and white as that though is it.
What happens if Murphy gets such a big offer that to match it we also lose Hall and Kershaw.
And we need to replace Aydin too. He wasn't first choice but was a first team prop.

Anyone who does fantasy football knows how hard it is. And you can't do weekly transfers in real life unfortunately.
I don't envy Willie and MC working this out.

Obviously all that matters, but it's still exactly how it works.

Of course there is a limit, you still need a team and if I could help us keep Aydin I would, I'd keep them all. It's not about the rights or wrongs it's how you spread a very thin budget.

There would clearly come a point where we couldn't offer Murphy any more without damaging the team so much that even a talent like Murphy couldn't function. My point is that of the young players coming through, I can understand why the club would sacrifice Aydin (not necessarily saying that's what happened) if it meant we kept a genuine superstar. It's harsh but that's is how it works.

So to further the debate, if we are not willing to risk losing the likes of Kershaw and Hall then what do we do. If we can't get him tied down and won't/can't compete when he's OOC what do we do? We may as well sell him and capitalise whilst we can. It's a massive dilema and I really don't think many fans understand just how difficult is is for a small budget club like us to get it right.

If Murphy were at Shudds Ken would have put his hand in his pocket and taken a flyer on Murphey, purely because he can afford to.

Finally, you don't need to be well connected to know Murphy is probably the hottest young players in SL, and people will already be getting into his head, even more so when he plays for England Knights

Indeed. I think I'd be trying to extend his contract before he meets up with the Knights.

Bet Davey wonders how they missed him.
Good common sense post.

We can all agree he needs signing to a long term deal but just remember that if we don’t have a team capable of avoiding relegation his contract will be void, I guess but not sure we would be eligible for a transfer fee however this would also be an harsh reality of life.

If what I heard is true, Murphy got in some bother when he was younger. I think Trinity were one of only a couple of clubs interested in taking him on.

Hello mate, I'm just a bit confused about the 3 to 4 month window. How much longer is he contracted for?

Murphy is contracted for next season.

Thinking about my post, I’ve actually over egged what I meant to say. I now have a far simpler statement to make my point.

If you have a small cake cut into 30 unequal slices, some people will get what they believe to be a very thin piece.

That’s the harsh reality and there is very little anyone can do about that.

I’m assuming the club are going to replace Aydin internally in the squad with Eseh.

If you have 2 or 3 offers on the table which are significant upgrades on a contract with your current club and you are aware people have been brought into the club on significantly bigger salaries but in a lesser squad status then sadly there is only one realistic decision to be made.

It’s a real shame to lose a lad who I feel could have been a long term successor to T, however sometimes you have to go away to earn what you are worth.

It’s the short term nature of moves like this due to the financial restrictions on the club that prevents us from growing but sadly it is what it is at the moment until we can generate large revenues.

I’m regards to Murphy you would think there is interest there already after the season he has had and how he starts next year will be key for him.

Pure speculation on my part but there are/will be a number of clubs looking for wingers in the next 2 years and he is going to be high on peoples shopping lists meaning we may be fighting a losing battle anyway.

It’s a thankless task trying to build a squad for long term improvements with a short term budget.

If I remember rightly (no guarantees of that, though) didn't we face a similar scenario with Ryan Atkins, and Atkins agreed to a long contract that effectively ensured we got a good deal when Warrington came in for him? I'd hope we'd look at doing the same with Murphy and one or two others...offer them a long deal with 'get out' clauses that benefit both parties.

Sums it up.

The truth is that we will have a few more lean years unless we strike lucky with injuries and new signings - but that is not a science you can rely on.

I believe the club have decided that they must turn the clubs structure and especially BV around before we can move forward. It's obvious to me.

We could have limped on with the old floodlights and pocketed a 200k + for another player.

We could have shelved the new pitch and put the cash into the team, it's not like it was gash.

We could have done a bodge repair to the Cats bar.

We could drop the Academy, I know we get central funding but its still costs us and as noted we struggle at present to keep what we produce.

Yet all those things will eventually bear fruit. A good income from a pitch that will be of international standard, lit up by lights that actually work. We will have extra changing facilities for women's teams, kids teams and so on. We will have a main stand that if run correctly will generate cash from day one.

I know it's risky but without a free cash injection it's the only chance of long term success, rather than the odd short term thrill.

Murphy is slightly different to most other players at the club, it won't just be cash with him. He will be wanted by every top team in SL, most notably those who win things. It won't just be about money so unless he's another oddity like TJ he will leave at the first chance to join say Saints. In mitigation that would be the same if he were at HKR, Cas or Salford for example, for me if he maintains his form it's Leeds/Wigan/Warrington or Saints (has Saints player written all over him).

I know it's a heresy and I'd not normally say this but if we can't tie him down in the next few month to at least another two years then we should sell him, there will be buyers. A player cash deal would in this case be better than nothing. This is totally contrary to my every belief but odd as it sounds Murphy has probably arrive two seasons too soon.

Just my opinion and it doesn't make me happy, but that was my starting point, at the moment our cake just isn't big enough bit hopefully in a few years it might be

The thing for me is who the F would wanna run a pro Rugby League team with them stresses. Talk about gluttony for punishment.

So we would be back to the days of being a club bringing players through to sell on. This is not much of a strategy even with the hope for Devine intervention or the famous back up of fingers crossed.
I don’t think the club would be long in SL with the strategy suggested by Vastman which would exacerbate the current financial constraints. It is always best to stay in SL than try to get in and yes we could survive years in the wilderness but how many supporters will stay for the journey is highly questionable.
It is quite disappointing that after 25 years in SL this would mean we are back to square one possible even minus one if this was possible.