We don't. In 2008 we finished 11th, in 2009 we finished 12th. In 2010 when he first had the chance to start improving things, we finished 6th.

He's not, that's the point. His new deal was agreed last year, reduced from the mega bucks 3 year deal Sharp gave him.

At the same time Rich & Steve were demonstrating their in-depth knowledge of the game by signing Long & Orford, Brian Noble managed to bring in Witt, Hanbury and (a bit later on) Sammut. That's not me plugging for Noble again but it just shows the nous that a proper coach can give you.

Then this off-season the club spent it's time promoting the ludicrous idea that all we needed was 'cover' for Long & Horne, three games in and that's already been proven to be a fallacy. We should have been throwing our money at Chase and Sammut way before we were worrying about signing up Westerman to play as yet another 2nd row.

Agar re-signed Yeaman (rlhttp://www.hullfc.com/hullfc/contents/?p) and I agree, I dread to think what 'superstar' wages we are paying him.

Long has been a disaster, legend of the game...but he isn't going to be remembered for this 'blink and you'll miss him' stint at Hull.

Westerman has done nothing so far, and by all accounts didn't do anything for Cas last year either. Far to early to call him a success.

Radford would be ok as cheap backup for this year, but being a regular starter on a 2 year is ridiculous.

Dowes should have been thanked for his many years loyal service, paraded round the KC and pointed in the direction of the nearest Championship club.

of the others: Lauaki is yet another over hyped, overpaid waste. We've had 1 great performance (Saints away last year) and what else?

Moa, Fitz, O'Meley and Briscoe have been great signings, and his development of Houghton has been good. But that really is about all.

Yeaman took a pay cut on his new contract to stay with the club

Even if that were the case, I repeat the point I made earlier. Since Agar has taken over he has consistently failed to get the best out of the players he has had. Regardless of whether they're his signings or not, he should at least be capable of this.

Well, I suppose i could mention the quota issue. Made Long pretty much the only target. Unless you didn't want to keep Moa?

The quota issue only came into it because we signed Fitz & O'Meley, I think they are both great but a half was a bigger priority. And yes I love Sammy but if we could have let him go and got in a Witt/Sammut type signing then I'd have been happy with that. Agar doesn't use Moa anyway.

If you want to say Agar inherited such a big mess because of the poor squad planning of his predecessors, then there's an example of Agar planning just as badly.

Not really, the fans wanted a big name 7 after Thorman, they got possibly the biggest. Our fans wouldn't have been happy with a Hanbury or Sammut at the time.
All 3 were signed because of the squad needing leadership.

So Rich was selflessly giving the fans the big name signings that they supposedly craved at the expense of his chances of success?

or was it just that the board knew that Long would sell more season passes than Hanbury or Sammut?

Whichever way you look at it, while Agar may have had to spend time sorting out problems with the squad created by his predecessors, he's certainly created quite a few of his own.

You are extremely hard work East Hull but I'm starting to like you