Smailes: “I’m told new Hull FC signing Lewis Bienek did a tour of Wigan, Saints, Warrington and Hull within 24 hours before settling on FC. Club confident he’s going to be a star, but he’ll need time to adjust and find his feet. Certainly a young front row at FC coming through.”

Is this the fantastic youth system that was develop such a wealth of talent that we were bursting at the seams with them?

Apart from Cooke & Horne who have we as a club really produced of note pre Houghton? Hardly anyone in fairness, even post Houghton both Shaul & Lineham were disgarded under Gentle though to be fair I think was shafted by McRae in player signings etc. So the only players of note since Houghton have been with Radford involved

Even AP himself said the youth structure was poor and had been severely underfunded and he made significant investment in it. He also stayed if would take time to see any results due to this.

I was a big critic of Radford at the time but he has proven me wrong and I'm honest enough to admit that.
One thing you can not fault Radford on is the youth and his faith in them.

The only clubs that you can safely say produce home grown players with consistent success are Leeds, Sts & Wigan and there's no surprise in why they are the most successful clubs.

Brought Green on massively as well.

Not that it'll stop the posting.

There’s absolutely no point in trying to debate this point with Bumpy. He’ll ignore your points, not answer your questions, then regurgitate this nonsense in a post in the not too distant future.

Of course, he’s well aware that Radford had to deal with the legacy of the academy being neglected under Hetherington, which is why there was a large gap between the Green, Bowden, Shaul & Hadley crop, and the current crop of Turgut, Masi, Fash, Lane, Abdul & Logan.

All those mentioned above have improved under Radford.

Also as mentioned, we have a very small catchment area in terms of player pool, and we have to share that catchment with another SL club.

Ewan Dowes?