Of course he hasn't signed, It's not September 1st yet. Anti-tampering and all that!

Hasn't Manu signed for saints then

The rumours been quashed on the Hull forum, and some are back tracking about how good SM is already haha.

Anti-tampering doesn't apply in his case as he rejected a contract in much the same way as the lad you signed from Cas.

Yes he has, because we've agreed to it being announced. Do you think Hudge would allow it?

It applies in ALL cases. The deal will have been agreed in principle through his agent and FC. If Rovers agree to the deal being signed pre Sep 1st then it will be announced, if not, it won't. Exactly the same thing happened with Calderwood when we signed him from Wigan.

Cas have obviously let Arundel sign his deal with us already, hence the announcement.

Hudge openly admitted that we wasn't going to retain SM we had got our heads round it and accepted it till Easty and slammer put they're two pennies worth in, ok he's signed for fc I wudnt have thought that hudgell wud be bothered why do you we've let a promising young prop sign for u is he bothered about that hudgell always has sum thing up his sleeve

Disappointed to have missed The Girl's Name Hokey Cokey today. It seems clear there are 2 scenarios:
1 Rovers have signed him up but want to fabricate a timely derby week announcement boost by pretending FC are desperate to sign him. Announcement to include commentary such as "I was offered more elsewhere but it was an easy decision to make, lads here are great, Sandy's great, fans are great etc"
Or
2) He's signed for FC but the proposed scenario on the other board of a 5000 strong East Stand turning their back on him might look poor on the telly on Friday so it's being denied.

We're all in no man's land here. He's a good FB. Select your Philb "we've better iron in the fire" or Mrs B "Zero to Exiles in half a season" weapon as you see fit and rumours contradict each other.

But there's a difference between him announcing that he won't be there next year because he rejected a new deal and him allowing Shannon to sign for someone else before sept. 1st.

The Watts situation is completely different.

To be fair tho mrs b he was third choice for the exiles there was no one else I hope the fans in the east stand get behind him on Friday night

Torn on this one Mrs. B. On one hand he's been good recently and Rovers have already taken the risk of homesickness plus visas etc. and he's better than what we have (by default as we have nobody) for next year. Plus he'll be used to SL and will have had his 'settling in' period.
But on the other hand, he's not brilliant (is that achievable in the current market?), nowhere near as good as we should have had in McKinnon and takes up a non-fed spot.

I fully expect those rovers fans that have classed him a second rate, ageing aussie journeyman who isn't that good really to maintain their recently formed opinions in the interests of balance.