If we want to dine at the top table we should be capable of beating Leeds at home. When Pearson took over he talked about beating Leeds. And Leeds. And Leeds.

I agree that Radford will be our coach next season but like you I don't think we will improve much more with him at the helm.

Been promised Jam tomorrow for that long we have realised tomorrow never comes.
Think the glory that was the KC Stadium has now become our millstone around our necks.
We sold the Boulevard for £280,000 less than Rovers got for the old Craven Park nearly 25 years earlier and it seems no caveats on the sale.
We need to build around the spine of the team with a younger replacement for Price [ HTW not be ready for another 2 years ]
Pearson will be disappointed come pass sales as he wants every one to BUY in to him but thinks nothing of the supporters views.
Me been going since 1950 but not going to get a pass next year ,roll up when I want and if not satisfied not bother .
Pearson does not get it merging the youth teams this in the long run will loose future support.
The games going backwards the RL can't or don't want to see what the fans see the bending over for certain teams on disciplinary matters.

brilliant thread this!! with many well thought out,reasoned intelligent posts. I am hoping adam pearson will read them and really take into account these heartfelt opinions of people who at the end of the day just want our club to be the best it can be.I of course wont walk away as the "habit "has been with me for almost 60yrs now so I cant kick it !!?

What do you define as a close one? Because in 2013 we managed to win 4 games by less than 10 points, that included the non event game away at Wigan after the Cup Final.
Which is also the same number of games we've won by the same margin this year.

When Gentle arrived he said that the one thing he wanted to do was narrow the gap between our best and worse performances. IMO it's been Radford that has achieved that this year.

Some great points made on this thread , Maybe it's time to see the club take out another fan survey . I could go a little way to re connect with the supporters .

Actually that's open to debate. Last year was a definite backward step but this season has been on a par with Gentle's last season in charge and could - only could, mind - end up being better in terms of league position. Of course we have a better squad now, at least in key positions.

As long as James Rule doesn't organise it

you mean like last week against Wigan?
I wish people would stop having a pop at Gentle.Overall he was doing a good job.He had recognised he made a mistake going for a smaller mobile pack and started to rectify that with the signing of Paea.
He also had a lot of bad luck with player injuries yet we still finished sixth.
You may say some of the signings McRae/Gentle made cost the club money but the Wembley appearance put a lot of money back into the club which people conveniently forget.
The interesting thing about this thread is the number of posters who are at last seeing the limitations of Radford and feel money would be better spent on trying to attract a quality coach to the club.
I just think Pearson has lost the plot.if he thinks the signing of Pritchard will but bums on seats he is sadly mistaken.
maybe it will take pass sales to decline to around five thousand for the penny to drop.

I said on Twitter the other day that if AP sets out that we will get jam tomorrow (with the usual "no guarantees" caveat), I'd be happy to wait if there was loads of jam and it lasted a while. I'm realistic enough to know that success isn't round the corner, so no more of this Top 4 stuff, just a sensible approach that takes the fans with him.

Mrs B's suggestion of an AP "State of the Nation" speech (with New Order soundtrack) is a must.

As a general rule, I'd say those games that are settled by a converted score or less. This year we've had 8 games that close, won 3 lost 5. In 2013 we had 10 games that close, won 5, drew 2, lost 3. I was thinking less about the number of tight games we've won and more about the percentage. In a close game, I feel less confident with this team.

And I totally agree that that was Gentle's biggest failing, I've said the same before. Taking out the Hudds extreme debacle and speaking more generally, I'm not convinced that Radford has done much better, though.

This is the root cause of our problem -IMO.

When Powell took over Castleford, he never had the luxury of saying "Not my team" and improved existing players.

He lost Chase and Clark, two of his main pivots, and still maintained a top 8 finish.

I'd happily take a "guaranteed" 4th to 7th place spot each year from where we have been but the other thing we need to look at is why a couple of teams (cas and hudds) above us seem to be doing better with seemingly no better resources and no better playing squads IMO (If they have it's down to better recruitment as neither have star home grown players)

Good post. I think that your assessment of pearson is spot on. He seems to me like someone who doesn't employ people who will question his judgement so just ends up with a stack of yes men. gentle didn't seem to fit that bracket to me so maybe that's why he went and maybe there was friction due to it beforehand. pearson's interview on Thursday was a prime example of how he behaves. He started off very calmly but when people started questioning him and saying things he didn't like he went off on a rant which I believe he thought justified his point.

On the point of employing a better quality coach, sticking 1k on the average gate would probably cover the additional cost on top of radford's salary which would be easily achievable IMO

this is because powell believes in his ability to get the best out of what he has, rather than simply buy new. i'm not at all sure radford can coach or manage a player to any degree. with our players it seems a face either fits or it doesn't