I agree that we haven't likely saved much money, if any. I think it's clear that Pearson tried to cut costs and it backfired on him big time. McManus's comments at the time certainly read to me like a veiled criticism of us without naming us directly. Was a lot more respectful than a certain other club owner has been all season.

Maybe McManus is in a better financial position to underpin those losses. I don't think he's the type to criticise other clubs, be it veiled or otherwise. Hopefully we are now in a better financial position and we can finally start moving forward again.

I don’t think he was having a dig, just that he knows it’s probably a false economy doing things on the cheap. It was AP himself who revealed the extra 100K on medical tests and I’d imagine that’s just the tip of the iceberg if you really dug deeper into the money we’ve lost over the last few years because of the off field roles cut backs, the amount of money we’ve spent paying off players must be eye watering, that might not have had to happen if we had a DOR in place.

Anyways we are still here and a still SL club, after Covid you have to give Pearson credit for that. If investment has been secured that’s great, but however it’s been funded it’s looks like we are more of a professional outfit going into this pre season then we have for a long while.

If you guys can get Abdull trim and motivated it will make a huge difference. Do that and you have a top player because his ability isn't in question.

He is as good a kicker of the ball out of hand as there is. And his high bombs go higher and have more spin than anyone else's. They are in the air for ages so the chasers have loads of time to move in and the poor winger/fb is under tremendous pressure.

Unfortunately despite this there are now 3 coaches who decided he wasn't worth the trouble, Radford, Peters and McNamara. This is because he really does struggle to stay in shape and is injured so often you just can't rely on him.

Willie Peters took one look at him when he came back to training last year, took the 7 shirt off him and did a deal to offload him to Catalans. McNamara thought he had a brilliant deal but.......the shape Abdull was in during his spell in France was truly shocking and McNamara decided not to take up his option on Abdull.

Rovers are very happy that we won't have to honour the long term contract which Abdull had at Craven Park thank you Hull FC for taking that off us.

I expect Abdull knows he is in the last chance saloon and he'll start the season strong most probably. Maybe Radford, Peters and McNamara were wrong to give up on him. Maybe.

When does pre season start? Wonder if Walker will still be with us? Be good to have him for a year, give us some good options in the backs and give Moy a year to develop.

Walker looks like he will be still here. I just don't see a spot for Morgan Smith

That's good news, heard Smith had signed for Sheffield, but ma6be that's fell through with the Aston thing.

Probably get loaned out if he is still here.

Starts Tuesday (I think)

Looks like Kye Armstrong has gone after his insta post yesterday.

Yes November 5th, could be fireworks if certain players turn up overweight.

Hope we don’t have to tolerate the usual pre-season player nonsense interviews this year, with Jordan Lane telling us on Tuesday that, ‘the players know what they have to do’ and Fash telling us on Wednesday that ‘he’s never been fitter’.

Armstrong was going to be the next big thing wasn't he? International captain at his age group, courted by the aussies.

Not ever player will make it but why do so many more make it at wigan than us?

There's always loads like at Wigan too, but Wigan are the kings of youth though.

Hopefully we have turned the corner and we can emulate what Saints, Wigan and Leeds do on a regular basis.

Couple of injuries and never kicked on by sounds of it. Interesting to see where he ends up, Midlands or Goole I imagine.

Quote: Jake the Peg "Armstrong was going to be the next big thing wasn't he? International captain at his age group, courted by the aussies. Not ever player will make it but why do so many more make it at wigan than us?'" Youth age-group success is not that a great indicator of who’ll make it in SL. Even at Wigan a high proportion don’t make it. Here are the youth England squads from 2015, as an example. It’s the same story every year though. https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/en ... d-for-2015 Questioning youth development systems… well, it’s an emotive subject and a lot of fans have sunk a lot of hope into, and are generally pretty to reluctant to write off that investment. It’s bound to come good eventually - it stands to reason, surely.

Quote: Jake the Peg "Armstrong was going to be the next big thing wasn't he? International captain at his age group, courted by the aussies. Not ever player will make it but why do so many more make it at wigan than us?'" Youth age-group success is not that a great indicator of who’ll make it in SL. Even at Wigan a high proportion don’t make it. Here are the youth England squads from 2015, as an example. It’s the same story every year though. https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/en ... d-for-2015 Questioning youth development systems… well, it’s an emotive subject and a lot of fans have sunk a lot of hope into, and are generally pretty to reluctant to write off that investment. It’s bound to come good eventually - it stands to reason, surely.