Re: Brown's comment's : Thu Aug 21, 2014 3:22 pm  

Magic Superbeetle wrote:

<sigh> and if we had kept Manu youd be complaining about giving a 2 year deal to a 35 year old. Vea's stats are very impressive all things considered, but it appears some on here are willing to give him a chance purely because hes coming from London.

We have a better and more resilient a squad next year than this. As it stands a 25 man squad will probably look like:

Lomax
Makinson Turner Jones Swift
Burns Walsh
Amor Roby Walmsley
LMS Vea
Wilkin

Hohaia Thompson Masoe Beaumont

McDonnell Dawson Percival Hewitt
Richards Flanaghan Savelio Wellens.

A quality prop to replace Beaumont/ Richards or a quality second row and push LMS back up to the front row and were looking very strong indeed.

Cap wise I'd guess:
McDonnell + Kid upgrades = Clough + Gardner
Burns = Laffranchi
Vea = 0.75 Soliola
Amor/ Walmsley upgrades = 0.25 Soliolas money + wheelers money

Which leaves Manu's money (supposedly a lot) free for a replacement. Hopefully with some more extensions coming too (Jones and Savelio). I get the feeling Saints cant win - fans complain that theres too many gaps in the squad and its too imbalanced, Saints address that and were weakening areas

Good informative post.

So Wheeler is going or is that just wishful thinking?

Re: Brown's comment's : Thu Aug 21, 2014 3:41 pm  

One of the pleasures of no longer being a mod is that I know have the ignore function.

I think I shall employ it from now on.

Re: Brown's comment's : Thu Aug 21, 2014 4:05 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

You say this, but I'm always proven right. Back when we were good, I said the recruitment was awful and would soon cost us. I said we'd go 10 years without a trophy (A proper one, not the shield) and we're well on target to achieve that.

On this recruitment issue, I had excluded the fact that we might sign more players, I'd allowed my scepticism to set in. IMO we are another forward away from improving the squad and I highly doubt we'll sign two more players. But IF we do, I'll admit we'll be stronger.

You've also been saying for years that we should have shipped out Wello. That has been proven to be completely wrong this year, we would have been up the creak with out a paddle without him. At least you have gone quiet about him now, instead ranging your opinions on players who haven't even pulled on the jersey yet. Your posts are about as relevant as Rogues, and his are complete garbage.

Re: Brown's comment's : Thu Aug 21, 2014 4:07 pm  

Magic Superbeetle wrote:

<sigh> and if we had kept Manu youd be complaining about giving a 2 year deal to a 35 year old. Vea's stats are very impressive all things considered, but it appears some on here are willing to give him a chance purely because hes coming from London.

We have a better and more resilient a squad next year than this. As it stands a 25 man squad will probably look like:

Lomax
Makinson Turner Jones Swift
Burns Walsh
Amor Roby Walmsley
LMS Vea
Wilkin

Hohaia Thompson Masoe Beaumont

McDonnell Dawson Percival Hewitt
Richards Flanaghan Savelio Wellens.

A quality prop to replace Beaumont/ Richards or a quality second row and push LMS back up to the front row and were looking very strong indeed.

Cap wise I'd guess:
McDonnell + Kid upgrades = Clough + Gardner
Burns = Laffranchi
Vea = 0.75 Soliola
Amor/ Walmsley upgrades = 0.25 Soliolas money + wheelers money

Which leaves Manu's money (supposedly a lot) free for a replacement. Hopefully with some more extensions coming too (Jones and Savelio). I get the feeling Saints cant win - fans complain that theres too many gaps in the squad and its too imbalanced, Saints address that and were weakening areas

That squad does look more robust, particularly in the halfs. I think the next area that really needs improvement is in the centres. Big year for Percival next year, plus one from Jones/Dawson/Turner to make a name for themselves. None have been convincing yet.

Re: Brown's comment's : Thu Aug 21, 2014 4:13 pm  

I would not keep McDonnell if we are keeping Lomax and Wellens. To me it makes no sense as we have lots of cover at FB.

Re: Brown's comment's : Thu Aug 21, 2014 4:48 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

I would not keep McDonnell if we are keeping Lomax and Wellens. To me it makes no sense as we have lots of cover at FB.

I hope we do keep McDonnell, especially if he keeps playing like he played against Wakey (or better still, even better). As Brown said, Lomax may not recover well so we need someone at fullback. Wello is primarily a utility player now as is evidenced by the fact that he went into the halves (sort of) against Wakey. Makinson is too good a winger to put at fullback although he can cover if absolutely necessary.

Re: Brown's comment's : Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:13 pm  

I think saddo has a point. I think he's trying to point out that Ade, Wheeler, Laffranchi, Manu, Sia and Clough are all leaving and Vea and Burns (allegedly) coming in.

So basically we losing 6 players and bringing two in which obviously means we are 4 players down from the squad.

Manu and sia are massive massive loses. I think we need to replace one of them with a quality secondrow as well as Vea.

Re: Brown's comment's : Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:45 pm  

St pete wrote:

I think saddo has a point. I think he's trying to point out that Ade, Wheeler, Laffranchi, Manu, Sia and Clough are all leaving and Vea and Burns (allegedly) coming in.

So basically we losing 6 players and bringing two in which obviously means we are 4 players down from the squad.

Manu and sia are massive massive loses. I think we need to replace one of them with a quality secondrow as well as Vea.

Except were not really. Clough and Gardner have been gone all year, they've already been replaced. Were losing Laffranchi, but as has been said many times on here, Thompson should bring as much next year as Laffranchi has this year, which frees money up for Burns. Wheelers "contribution" though almost non existent is being replaced with Hewitt given how Brown has been talking. Just because were replacing players internally doesn't mean were not replacing players.

What that essentially leaves is 2 second rowers out with 1 coming in, and money still in the budget for another one. Not really worth the apocalypse...

Re: Brown's comment's : Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:48 pm  

SomersetSaint wrote:

That squad does look more robust, particularly in the halfs. I think the next area that really needs improvement is in the centres. Big year for Percival next year, plus one from Jones/Dawson/Turner to make a name for themselves. None have been convincing yet.

I'd agree. What I'd really like to do is leave Turner at 13, use Percival and Jones at 3 and 4 and use Wilkin's money on another BIG second rower and another centre (Joe Arundel at Hull is massively out of favour and worth a punt, but is supposedly on a huge contract ... But then they say that about all their players so who knows) ... But that won't happen any time soon...

Re: Brown's comment's : Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:50 pm  

Magic Superbeetle wrote:

Except were not really. Clough and Gardner have been gone all year, they've already been replaced. Were losing Laffranchi, but as has been said many times on here, Thompson should bring as much next year as Laffranchi has this year, which frees money up for Burns. Wheelers "contribution" though almost non existent is being replaced with Hewitt given how Brown has been talking. Just because were replacing players internally doesn't mean were not replacing players.

What that essentially leaves is 2 second rowers out with 1 coming in, and money still in the budget for another one. Not really worth the apocalypse...

I'd class Thompson as a first grade player now and not a replacement for laffranchi.

Like I said, we still need a replacement for sia and he needs to big a good player. I can accept Vea for Manu providing we bring in a top class replacement for sia.