I never understand this, it's not his fault.

We could go and pay a million for Ben Cockayne, wouldn't mean he's worth it.

never said it was his fault - merely saying that a player on a big transfer fee is subject to high expectations from the fans. its a fact of life

Why? We paid a bigger fee for Tansey than we did for Jason Smith.

I like Westy, his first 4 or 5 games last season he was a bit poor, and for me people have only remembered those games; even when he's played well. I thought he was one of our better players yesterday, and created 3 or 4 half breaks down our right side which Tickle would never have done.

westy was percieved as being a big name player who was the dominant force in his previous team, so when he comes in on a big fee fans expect him to both dominate up front and play in a similar style to how he he did at cas. i'm not saying he's a waste of space but i am saying he's not yet met expectations. whether thats down to him being played in the wrong position, or down to coaching, or down to him i don't know. thats why in my first post i said we should see how he fits into the jigsaw for next year.

Westerman was barking out orders at all your players in the derby at Manchester with a minute to go. KR immediately scored.

Think he has it in his game to be a good 13. Defensively he's good. But is often just used as a battering ram type 2nd rower.

When he first came to us his defence was poor, and that was one of the main reasons why people didn't want him at 13, but IMO since it's a million times better now than at the end of last season, and he doesn't look out of place defending in the middle.

Just returned from injury probably not even match fit yet

Playing with players who look like they have moved clubs already!

Loads of injuries = major disruption for any team

I think he will come good next season in a team with a set of lads who want to wear our shirt and win

Are you seriously contesting that 9 or 10 years ago (when they were Westerman's age), they were playing in a similar fashion to what they are now?

Just to clarify my position, Westerman is not my 'scapegoat'. I don't remember having commented on him prior to this thread (not certain about that, btw), but chose to comment on this thread because it was solely about him.

Of course he's not 100% to blame for our downturn in form, but he's certainly part of the problem. I see nothing to suggest that he's future captain material, or even a valuable part of our medium term future.

No - and if you'd read my post you would have seriously understood that.

My post talked about where he needed to get to, and the fact that he wasn't there yet. I would imagine that he might well think the same.

He's not a scapegoat for me either, he's just one of many average players within our squad. He offers very little and unless he improves rapidly the £100K paid seems like a waste of money. When we bought him he wasn't even playing regular in Cas's squad, he's a player who people have always talked about having the potential to be one of the best but for me as yet to show it.

Some fans talk about his form last year but it was only in a few games towards the end of the season that he started to pick up his game. The lack of forwards in our squad won't be helping but I still think he should be contributing a bit more.

I thought at the beggining of the season he was playing well, then he got the shoulder injury and he hasnt been the same since. I know injuries dont help but at the start we had a much more settled side. I think he will come good for us.

Some were saying on sat night he's playing with a broken wrist.

But looking at his strapping i doubt it

Westerman did play with a broken wrist on Sat a couple of other players playing through the pain barrier as well Crookes Knee and whiting Knee maybe peaple should lay off these lads who are putting their health and wel being second to play for this club lets get behind the lads for monday ffs