Well AP freely admitted that he knew little about RL, but equally he will have improved that, and how does he define poor anyway? Training methods poor? Man-management poor? What?

At the end of it all, PG was the Aussie national team assistant, and they wouldn't have appointed someone "poor" to that position.

As has been said, I reckon a lot of the reason he said it was to relieve Radford of some pressure tbh.

Still seems odd to me that he offered Gentle a contract extension and less than a year on wanted rid but kept him on cos of the cup run. He says he is happy with Radford ATM but couldn't that easily change like with PG

He can change his mind as often as he likse as you say. At the end of the day, AP is accountable to no-one. He owns the club outright and doesn't report to a board of directors.

I genuinely think he'll come good with his plans and we'll reap the rewards for years to come.

Same here, Leeds didn't win anything for 8 years when Hetherington first went to Leeds.

The worry for me is what if we are in a similar position 12 months from now? OBVIOUSLY I don't want Radford to fail and I want the team he is building to be all that they and we hope for.

But Gentle came in and took Agar's team and signings, added a few players long term and short term and was better than any season under Agar. makes more signings in the off season, everything seems great, but by the end of the year AP felt he should've given PG the boot sooner. Some of his signings weren't great (Galea, Johnson, Crookes) but some were (McDonnell, Ellis, Holdsworth)

Now Radford has taken Gentle's team, made some signings and has been given the backing of AP. just worry that if we have a poor start next year. Also say we make the top 8 next year but get no where near the top4 once the league splits, would this be viewed positively or not and if the latter will AP change his mind again and the cycle repeats

Holdsworth wasn't a good signing,he was bloody useless.

Don't forget Paea,Feka and Thompson were all signed whilst Gentle was still coach.
Gentle also had to contend with an horrific injury list but just got on with the job.
Personally think Pearson has been harsh with his comments about Gentle.Dont want Radford to fail but Gentle would have been successful at Hull given time.He had realised his mistakes and with Paea and Feka had already started to bring in some bulk to the front row.
Talking of bad signings you only have to look at Tuson and Radford thinks the sun shines out of his bottom.Seems to have convinced Pearson of that too.

thompson looks a much better signing than tuson to me but I expect only the latter will be here next year. tuson has looked bang average but then again he looked bang average in a good wigan side so we couldn't really expect anything else

Tuson will come good. Wigan offered him a new deal for a start. Radford likes him because by all accounts hes hard as nails n when he's found his form he'll show it. Been unlucky injury wise. Thomson is a fluke. I was happy with it. Seen him plenty in academy yrs cas etc. My theory was he was gonna be moulded into a future ellis. Ex back into a forward. No one saw the prop thing happening. Paea was a necessity because he was big and powerful after getting it so very wrong with a small mobile pack johnson,pitts as prop etc etc.
feka was radfords signing. I was told radford n last as coaches when heading to the cup semi. Thats how long gentle was a dead man walking!!

Precisely - nowt to do with 'relieving pressure' on Radford. Pearson had decided before Wembley - IIRC one of the nationals reported it at the time and was proven correct.

And how long was that after he'd given him a contract extension?