If Pearson is looking for a massive proven Head Coach and Radford is only caretaker, this doesn't fit in with the 'local team, local lads' philosophy the Mail is touting. Unless, unless... the only local born Head Coach (note I refrain from saying proven Head Coach ) is, oh God, McBanana.

If the local club comprising of Hull products is right, I guess it's Radford or McB. Not sure about this 'local' focus, it will prove very limiting. All HDM speculation, though. Although I do get the feeling Smailes has been fed this direct from the club to set the scene without having to do it officially - a statement of intent without without the ramifications an official announcement would engender.

Positive stuff is what needs to be happening.

The sooner AP wields the axe the better IMO, get the negativity out of the way then start again as quickly as possible.

I'd be underwhelmed if it was Radford and well really vexed off it was Cooke as his assistant. However we need some positive news, a glimmer of hope of some sort.

Me neither , McDonnell is a must , Horne should be better for a full pre season which should put the pressure on Holdsworth & Miller .Not to sure how far away Tyson- Wilson is away from certainly putting pressure on these though.

What needs to happen is fans to realise that a few dozen disgruntled fans that post on an Internet forum do not represent the fan base.
We're only 24 hours since AP stated there would be an investigation and already we've sacked the coach, appointed another useless assistant and brought the only person disliked more than Agar in the last ten years back to the club.

We're basing this all on a story broken by a two bit journalist at the local rag who also said we were signing Con Mika, then two hours later dismissed his own story.

Not saying all that won't happen, but asking for AP to come on some weird FC fan version of Piers Morgans life stories and bare all about what's going on and where the clubs going is a tad far fetched and quite frankly, stupid.

The idea of having a successful team made up of mostly local talent is flawed also. How many 'top class' players have originated from Hull? We have a thriving amateur scene, but we don't produce top class players in this city. Asking to produce the quantity needed in such a short time span is the stuff of fairies.

I think it's running deeper than a few dozen internet fans though , Catalans playoff game !

Agreed , That policy never worked for Yorkshire cricket did it . We want the best players , Regardless of where there from , Playing for Hull fc .

I wouldn't imagine there's a Hull fan that isn't pi$$ed off with how this season ended, but you only have to venture slightly outside of this forum to find people that, on the whole, think that this year has been an improvement on last and that Gentle isn't doing too bad a job.

I personally think there's far too much jumping on the bandwagon because people are too scared to stick by him after what happened with Agar.

When AP took over he would have had his mindset on this club now breaking records, I doubt he would have thought the ones that occurred on Thursday night. I have defended Gentle til I was blue in the face at times this season but what has happened since Wembley can't be defended. AP has invested in the club heavily and to see that sort of defeat is a slap in the face to him. 50 points down at half time in a do or die game is a disgrace and should be treated as such.

Last year we went out of the play offs to a Warrington side who reached the Grand final 24-12 in the same round. Gentle has lost it behind the scenes and he has to be accounted for, granted some players are to be held responsible too but ending your season with a 70+ drubbing IS doing a bad job.

If you take Wembley out of the equation, we finished in the same position as we did last year with four less points. If Gentle stays for next season (which I honestly believe is very very unlikely) I wouldn't be too disheartened as I still feel they is more to come from him. However I already believe too much damage is done and people at the club need to realize AP will not settle for those standards and for that matter neither will the supporters. To claim only half a dozen supporters on an internet forum are disgruntled is massive understatement, I can tell you they was probably 50 on the coach on the way back Thursday and nearly every customer I have served in the bookies over the past few days.

For me I'd rather keep Gentle then have Radford but I am now firmly in the camp of "I wouldn't lose any sleep if he got sacked". I wouldn't say people are scared to stick by him but after two seasons are entitled to expect better then conceding 70 points in a game that is suppose to be the pinnacle of our season. People are right to question him after that performance.

I'm not going to disagree with what you say, but if Pearson thought it would only take two years he's an idiot, even 3 or 4 is a push. It's a 5 year minimum this job and getting rid of a coach that has done well in building the foundations is not a sound move, IMO, and just means that 5 year journey starts again.

I would agree IF we were showing some green shoots of progress, the end to 2012 for example was the same 2nd round playoff defeat as this season, but a credible performance at Wire was a whole world away from Thursday's horror show!

I agree he needs to think about the decision rather then acting on emotions but say if he doesn't see improvement in 3 years time then that is another five years he has wasted. I guess that is why he is having a review, are we off down the right path or not ?

If you look at the side that won the semi final you would think we were but if you look at the side who have played the last six weeks you would think not. With P+R due back 5 year plans are something we probably don't have time for unfortunately, I don't think he expected silverware after two years but with the money invested I think he would have hoped we would at least compete at the business end of the season.

It wouldn't surprise me though if the HDM are incorrect and Pearson could be talking more of certain players within the squad itself. Its all guess work til we hear what AP has come up with, but if I were Gentle I wouldn't be convinced his job is "100% safe". What you have to bear in mind is that Gentle has definitely lost a lot of support from the stands and each bad result next season will only make things worse. You have to find it strange we were in for Mika then all of a sudden the interest had ended, AP clearly has put things on a hold on that front and if PG was safe I doubt he would do that.

But there's the performances in the challenge cup, the derby away, Wire away, Leeds at home, Wigan at home, two relatively close games with Hudds. Consistency is still the problem, but our defence has improved beyond recognition and is allowing us to compete in almost every game. I think there's plenty there to build on.

this is a good point, under franchising we'd have the time to create a side of local talent and see how they progress. With relegation coming back the club simply can't risk everything on a young team, relegation would most likely mean administration for a club with big overheads like ours.

We put all our eggs into the challenge cup basket, it backfired massively and Gentle admitted after the Hudds game that they haven't recovered from it. The worst thing Pearson can do is to make a decision now, while it's still raw.