Re: Paul Clough : Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:43 am  

Clough has done OK this year. He's always willing to take the ball forward and whilst he's no world beater he does a solid job. I imagine he'll be on a relatively low salary and if so, he's well worth keeping as a squad player. He's like our new Mike Bennett - very reliable but doesn't do anything special. He's not a concern for me, it's those earning the big bucks (some quota players) who aren't pulling their weight and giving us value who we should be more concerned about.

Re: Paul Clough : Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:40 pm  

always come across as a good squad player - not every member of the squad needs to be a world beater.

Re: Paul Clough : Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:23 pm  

pk wrote:

always come across as a good squad player - not every member of the squad needs to be a world beater.

That's how I regard him. It would be a mistake to think he can be replaced by youngsters at this stage, none of them have had enough experience playing 1st team yet.

Re: Paul Clough : Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:59 pm  

pk wrote:

always come across as a good squad player - not every member of the squad needs to be a world beater.

He's not a world beater, but he can play well against the good sides, which is a valuable quality.

Re: Paul Clough : Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:36 pm  

Billinge_Lump wrote:

That's how I regard him. It would be a mistake to think he can be replaced by youngsters at this stage, none of them have had enough experience playing 1st team yet.

But if he's asking for a big jump in salary, say the same money as LMS or Laffranchi. Would you give him it?

Re: Paul Clough : Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:59 pm  

Offside Monkey wrote:

Paul Clough is a very good player. He makes bucket loads of yards and very few errors.
He was one of the best players on the pitch against Warrington the other week.
He's a much better player for us than Hargreaves was.

We should be trying to resign him, but he's no superstar and if someone like widnes are looking for a solid prop, they may be willing to pay more than we would for a bench player.

I want to keep him and hope we can come to a deal.

Completely agree. He's just starting to get into his peak years and I think that's starting to show now. In the past he seemed to make more yards rotating in tackle to etch out the extra bits. Now he looks like he can carry defenders backwards as well which I haven't seen before. Some credit must go to the coaching staff because the way a lot of the forwards have been running the ball in the years has been great e.g. LMS.

Re: Paul Clough : Sun Aug 19, 2012 11:24 pm  

McClennan wrote:

Completely agree. He's just starting to get into his peak years and I think that's starting to show now. In the past he seemed to make more yards rotating in tackle to etch out the extra bits. Now he looks like he can carry defenders backwards as well which I haven't seen before. Some credit must go to the coaching staff because the way a lot of the forwards have been running the ball in the years has been great e.g. LMS.

I'd be shocked if he was allowed to leave. But he has a family to consider and if the likes of Widnes want to offer him megabucks, I wouldn't blame him.

Re: Paul Clough : Mon Aug 20, 2012 8:18 am  

McClennan wrote:

Some credit must go to the coaching staff because the way a lot of the forwards have been running the ball in the years has been great e.g. LMS.

LMS was running the ball with us at London and think how young her was then, so credit also to some coaching for his junior coach in the Capital!

Re: Paul Clough : Mon Aug 20, 2012 12:05 pm  

He has got into some bad habbits like going backwards into the tackle. A technique that is going to get him injured at some point. Hopefully he can be improved by Brown. I hope he does stay, he does have a lot of quality about him, he has just not taken the step up yet.

Re: Paul Clough : Mon Aug 20, 2012 12:42 pm  

I'd hope we could do some kind of deal, for say 3 years. He has been a good squad player, he's maybe reaching an age where props really come into their own. Yes you get World Class props who are outstanding from 21, but most have to bulk out and really get into their grind and skills later on.

If at 28 he's still doing the same as now, then you would probably be looking to replace with younger, but there is not point replacing with younger, just for the sake of doing it.

It's other areas where we need to be making changes not looking at those lower down the star chain.