Says on twitter that we've shelved the planned U23's due to the cost. Anyone deny/cpnfirm?

I really hope not.it was the most sensible move to come out of the club for years.
Cant see a massive cost increase for the club outside of travel.
For me it would have been better to have a joint under 23s with HKR rather than the academy.Home matches could have been played at HKR and less players would have been needed.

I spoke with a senior official at the club very recently and they stated that this would be going ahead. I certain gentleman from the other side of the river is far from happy, but who cares about him.

It has to be the way forward for some of our developing players. They are not developing (imho) as well as they could / should at duel reg clubs.

Who are going to be playing against if no one else does it

From memory I believe there are 8 teams who wish to go down this road. I can't recall who they all are, but know Leeds are not one of them. I do believe they have been officially santioned by the RFL though.

Leeds have stated they are not going a head with the under 23's they already have Hunslet to bring on and develope there youngsters.

Radders has confirmed on Humberside that the 23s will go ahead. I think he has said previously that the side would cost 150k per annum to run so i think it is reasonable to asume that talk of money issues at Hull are wide of the mark.
I hope that some of the lads who have left Rovers get a run out. 19 is too early to have to make a decision on a player and you may end up snapping up a couple of late developers.

Sure. Maybe we're using fees for Westerman and Lineham to fund it.

It was bollox.

Richard Horne confirmed as coach of the U23s.

Horne seems to have done a good job with the 19s. Interested in who the other teams are - any indication?

Not heard anything from other clubs. Strange given that Hull are often accused of keeping their fans in the dark yet they seem the one club talking about their plans for youth development.

Radford said he got the fixtures yesterday!

It is strange. It has to be a good thing provided there are reasonable opposition teams, but I'm a bit surprised by it tbh, in a good way. Vital to provide a pathway for players not ready for SL at 19 which is likely to be the vast majority of the merged academy graduates.

I'm amazed the club are doing this when we've been told they're on their knees financially, have zero credit rating, 9 grand in the bank and owe £2.2m

It is good that there will be another path, obviously for the SL clubs involved, but also for young players. It'll be interesting to see how they approach it - will u23s and and the possibility of a run out in SL be better/more attractive than playing in the Championships, or even dual reg (and possibility of a run out in SL)?

Lot's of variables will influence the decision. Getting players to make up numbers might be the tough part. The ones who are getting the idea they're not going to be SL players, are thus not paid much, but are at the point where they could play first-team for a second tier team. The standard within teams could be pretty uneven.

There is a significant risk that players are lost, who could have made SL, under the current system. But we have to be realistic about how much of their early manhood players can hang about waiting for something that in most cases won't happen. In some ways the Championship is the best path, imo. PITA commutes from Hull for part-timers though.