It’d be tough to get deep in discussions with representatives of a player on the basis that they’re currently plan B. If, more realistically, it was a small handful of names on paper, they might just not have panned out.
Tbh, as a plan B under current circumstances, I don’t think Cust or Drinkwater are that bad. I agree Cust [iand[/i Drinkwater would be odd.

Abdull-Cust-Smith-Charles (Champ loan with recall option, if possible, for the last) isn’t bad for a recovery position year.

Although it might not help with season ticket sales, a lot the improvement will come from fitness and boring wrestle-in-the-ruck training sessions without a ball in sight. Recruitment can’t be as bad as last year, but a lot of the turnover is to wash away the bad taste and reset the culture as much as it is about adding quality.

Quite frankly embarrassing to know for months that Trueman is leaving and not even having a plan B while pursuing an ambitious and unrealistic option in Lam. We will go into next year with Cust and Abdul in the halves and it will be miserable.

It has been well documented how little quality there is in the half back market, evening been mentioned by Grix, so why are we letting the only half we have with a bit of quality go when there is seemingly nobody else available?

Not when you excite the fans after making a massive offer for Lam

The ‘taking stock of options’ comments to the media just smacks to me of making an offer for Asi and yet again falling short. I’d expect someone like Leeds, Cas, Wire or Catalans to announce the signing very soon.

A good reserve grader isn’t the end of the world, it’s a big risk though in context of the clubs future IMO. They have to get it right.

It depends on who you define as a good reserve grader. Although different positions we signed and was strongly linked with the two PNG players neither of whom played made a single NRL match. Is that really the level we are looking at for such a key position.

We made Lam a massive offer. That kind of money should be enough to lure a player of similar quality from the NRL even if we are not the most attractive proposition at the moment.

Fair point, but do you not make the move for fear of it not panning out? That was a pretty unusual situation… plan b was always unlikely to be as good, which is why it was such an appealing move. If Hull bide their time, something vaguely similar might arise but it’s not something they can make happen.

I don’t recall Hull (or even Dan Tomlinson as a proxy) going massive on it to unduly raise expectations. Most posters on here leavened their excitement with plenty of probably-won’t-happen realism.

It's seems like history is repeating itself MR, particularly concerning a half back. If we bide our time it could be a case of what's left on the shelf ie Josh Reynolds and Fu Brown both signed in desperation. The Tony Smith approach.

We should be more ambitious with the supposed financial muscle we have at our disposal. It's looks like we put all our eggs in one basket with Lam and not having an alternative is not a good look especially knowing that Trueman was on his way weeks ago.

I don't agree, the fact that we were heavily in for Lam raises expectations.

The only people I've seen linking Drinkwater to Hull are supporters. I've not seen any RL journos suggesting that move.

Personally, I expect the worst these days when it comes to our recruitment. As a result I was hugely surprised by Asiata and Lam turned out exactly as expected.
My whole attitude to FC currently can be described with a shrug.
I'll most likely renew again next year but I have zero expectations, its just not worth it.

Apathy set in years ago for me but I'll be renewing despite having at times no desire to go because if I don't and many others don't the club could sink in to oblivion.

I can totally relate. I'm in two minds about going on Saturday but I'll probably go as my dad will still want to go.

It depends on the extent of that financial muscle. If Myler has an initial million pounds of Andrew Thirkill’s money burning a hole in his pocket, then it is arguably strange not to ‘go for it’. If Myler and Stephanie Thirkill are putting up a (still substantial but) rather smaller one-off amount to get the club on a even keel, then a bit more caution makes sense.
Lam was a bit of a unicorn situation. Very good, pivotal position, fed-trained, no transfer fee, decent injury record (afaik), knows SL, would get fans reaching for their wallets. I can’t think of anybody else like that for Hull to aim their ambition at. Somebody mentioned Jackson Hastings and I suppose he’d be in the same ballpark… if he was in the right headspace for it.

I get that the not knowing, and having to try to read the few signs available, must be frustrating at a dispiriting time. It’ll all become clearer after the season ends, I’m sure.

Exactly. We are all in the dark not knowing the extent of the clubs ambitions until we have the investment signed, sealed and delivered.

Asi is not a big name but has played more than enough NRL and representative games to indicate he could a good signing. He's coming to SL apparently and any link we have to him has quickly been dismissed. Lam came to SL at roughly the same age and made about the same appearance's as Asi. That's the pool we should be fishing in not as has been suggested in the article reserve NSW's and Qld cup players.

Although a few fools like me will renew two seats year after year whether we go or not, others just can't and simply won't do that.

Chris talks of the death knell of the club and Marcus talks of history repeating itself and I guess that's something that has crossed a few of our minds but we just don't want to contemplate the club being wound down further until we fold or at least cease to exist in the form we know. If we are to get back it's going to be a long long road and we just can't hesitate.

Please don't b@llock me for suggesting this because it's just a thought but What if the 'donor' we have been told is lined up and yet we haven't still heard a thing about officially, has got cold feet. What if he's seen the basket case that the club has become in Super league this year and thought again? Signings have dried up and we are now 'taking stock' before we use the massive cap availability we now have, time is of the essence yet nothing.... a new head of conditioning has come in but apparently he's been engaged for a while now just not announced. A foolish thought?? Well one simply bourne out of the lack of any sort of reassurance from the club.

Teams like Salford and Leigh lose a player and immediately their owners or CE are in the news explaining the thinking behind it and giving them renewed hope, but we hear nothing. However, with Adam obviously for whatever reason, losing interest and the silence from the club becoming deafening, we all hope that our decline isn't terminal. It would be so good to hear the current state of play both on the team now and for next season and indeed some indication of the future ownership of the club. Sadly at present for a lot of fans it's the lack of hope that is killing them.

Great post.

The "taking stock" sounds ambiguous to me. Taking stock of the halfback search and/or the remaining recruitment as a whole.

Obviously the "donor" will be announced when things have been finalised but at least give us an update where we are at the moment.

It's been a long time since we've heard from Pearson and that's what worries me.