Crikey Wilf, how long did it take you to compose that epic!! You must have spent all day and half the night putting that together!!, and that's coming from someone who can also go on a bit given half a chance!!
Agree with every one of the sentiments expressed, and with all the replies since.
I think we can split the situation into two halves really, on-field issues as one problem, with associated questions regarding how the club is run/financed forming the wider concern.
Taking our current shortcomings on the field first, it's obviously not going to be a quick fix, I think we've all worked that out already!
The club needs to take a medium/long term view to this. We need someone (T. Smith) to lay down a coherent plan for the club to pursue.
This will necessitate:
1: What style of rugby are we aiming for?
2: What type of team is required in order to achieve the style of rugby we are aiming for?
3: What type of player do we need who fit the profile for the team we are attempting to build?
4: Out of the current squad, who fits this profile, who doesn't, who needs to be moved on?
5: Identify compatible players when it comes to future recruitment, both in terms of first-choice quality and as strong reliable squad back-ups?
This needs to be set out by an experienced Director of rugby - Head of recruitment. I'm of the opinion that this is the role best suited for Tony Smith, and that it may be better for the club for him to assume these responsibilities (for the direction of travel) with a younger coach taking over the day to running of the first team squad.
Obviously, both men would need to be looking in the same direction, with a shared vision of where we are heading and how we aiming to get there, and be able to work in tandem with each aware of their own parameters.
However, all this ties into the wider issue of how the club is ran and, more pertinently, how it is financed.
As Mrs Barista pointed out earlier, none of us have any real idea of this aspect of operations. Everything we think we hear and know is really a combination of rumour and/or supposition with little in the way of knowledge.
Even so, it's difficult to get away from the feeling that a lack of funding and investment is currently severely hampering any ambition we have. As others have pointed out, the idea that, in 2024, we are spending at full salary cap having assembled this squad simply doesn't add up. If we are then, quite frankly, a raft of bottom-four players are earning top-four salaries, which can't be correct, surely!!
I agree with those posters who've opined that, due to the fact the threat of relegation has been removed, Adam is running the club at a reduced rate in order to clear some extensive debt. But this runs the risk of storing up problems further down the line. What the SL/RFL do one of their customary u-turns in two years time and suddenly put relegation back on the table, and we suddenly find ourselves facing the very real threat of 2nd division rugby, and quite possibly extinction as a club?
I do think the root of the current malaise is the lack of substantial investment (along with confusion about what type of team we would like to build). Like others on here, I've heard rumours that Pearson is something of a control freak and he has a habit of interfering, seemingly unable to appoint people and give them rein to do the job they've been employed for. It's an image which has tended to follow him around during his sporting involvement (Hull City, Leeds Utd), but unless any of us actually work for him, we've no way of knowing or confirming.
So, to sum up, we're in a hole, a big hole of our own making. There's no quick fix, it's not going to happen overnight that's for sure. Adam probably needs to acquire investment from somewhere, whether he would be prepared to relinquish some degree of control only he knows, and we need to ally that to a coherent vision designed to give us a team we can all be proud of once again. Failure to do so could result in a permanent dislocation between fanbase and club.
This is the worst I have felt about our immediate prospects since the late 90s David Lloyd era (the 2024 squad is the weakest we've seen since 1999 in my opinion). The club very nearly lost it's core fanbase then and It's becoming impossible to ignore/resist the gloom which is threatening to envelope the Faithful just 80 minutes into the new season. The passive acceptance of an inevitable derby defeat before it had even kicked off was a shocking indictment of how mired in the dark we all feel. For almost the first time in the 50 years I've been following the club, through so many ups and downs, I am truly struggling to detect even the merest hint of optimism for what lies ahead.
I'm not, by nature, a pessimist (nor simply a blind eyed optimist), but a less than 48 hours after a new season started It's difficult to see anything other than hardship and despondency ahead of us in the coming months.
Keep the faith is all we can do really, that and pray. Alternately do what my mate did on Thursday night and have so much to drink that I seriously don't think he was even aware of who we were playing (or even what sport was taking place) by the time the end finally arrived!!!
