Unless we see a lot more from them this year I'd agree on Frawley and Lisone. Neither of them fit the bill for a top 4 club. In Frawley's case he might go better with more structure, but he is so very limited and lacking in dynamism. Lisone is just a very poor quality quota player.
I don't agree with not moving to replace Sivo. We won't be able to exactly replace him, but he would have been one of our highest paid players, which would reflect his importance to Arthur's gameplan. Being without a big presence like that for the odd game from the usual injuries is one thing, but nobody else in the squad can do what Sivo would have brought alongside Hall.
Arthur may only be here for this season, maybe next. He'll be desperate for us to give the comp as good a shake as we can this year. Deciding not to replace a marquee player is not supporting him to do that. Nor is it - IMO - sending a clear message to fans and the rest of the league that we now mean business. Not bringing in a high quality replacement says that for all the talk we're still content to muddle through. I understand the contractual issues etc, but we've seemingly drawn a line in the sand regarding mediocrity.
Not sure why Roberts/Hooley got brought up. Smith didn't sign them to be starters. He signed them to add depth, which was woefully lacking when he arrived. Its not Roberts' fault that he ended up playing out of position for the one-man injury crisis that was Fusitu'a. Or that he wasn't a star - he wasn't expected to be. We don't need those sorts of signings now as we have a bunch of younger players ready or very nearly ready for a decent crack at first team. To be fair to Smith, we had no depth at all when he arrived.
