Re: Rumours thread. : Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:31 am  

Albion wrote:

Thought Leeds have virtually signed him?

apparently Leeds have thrown money at him and blasted all other offers out of the water.

Re: Rumours thread. : Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:35 am  

BackrowSaint wrote:

apparently Leeds have thrown money at him and blasted all other offers out of the water.

To be fair, they need him even more than us.
Chris Hill sounds a promising signing, but I really know nothing about him.
Are Carvell and Ferrioll still free at the end of the season?

Re: Rumours thread. : Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:37 am  

Offside Monkey wrote:

To be fair, they need him even more than us.
Chris Hill sounds a promising signing, but I really know nothing about him.
Are Carvell and Ferrioll still free at the end of the season?

Carvell has signed a new deal with Wire.

Re: Rumours thread. : Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:48 am  

Dux wrote:

Carvell has signed a new deal with Wire.

Yeah, I was just looking at the OCC list on the VT. Ferriol's not on it either, dang!

There's not a lot about to be honest. Certainly not much young talent, anyways.
Would we be happy with a Ewan Dowes to bolster our squad? Probably not.

Re: Rumours thread. : Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:09 pm  

Offside Monkey wrote:

Would we be happy with a Ewan Dowes to bolster our squad? Probably not.

I would. Just as an extra body when we have 6 or 7 crying off again.

Re: Rumours thread. : Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:13 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

I would. Just as an extra body when we have 6 or 7 crying off again.

What you want, is a 19th and perhaps 20th man who isn't a youngster, some one with a bit of experience and weight to fill in, meaning we can pick our moments when we want to blood our youngsters, rather than having to throw a load of them in at a time.

Re: Rumours thread. : Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:41 pm  

Offside Monkey wrote:

What you want, is a 19th and perhaps 20th man who isn't a youngster, some one with a bit of experience and weight to fill in, meaning we can pick our moments when we want to blood our youngsters, rather than having to throw a load of them in at a time.

Exactly.

Re: Rumours thread. : Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:01 pm  

Offside Monkey wrote:

What you want, is a 19th and perhaps 20th man who isn't a youngster, some one with a bit of experience and weight to fill in, meaning we can pick our moments when we want to blood our youngsters, rather than having to throw a load of them in at a time.

It's a myth that the other top teams have 19/20 experienced players.

Let's look at Wigan's 2011 squad from an experience POV and their Saints counterparts

S Tomkins = Eastmond
Goulding = Wheeler
Carmont = Meli
Richards = Gardner
Deacon = Pryce
Tommy = Roby
Fielden = Jammer
McIlorum = Moore
Coley = Perry
Hansen = Wilkin
J Tomkins = Clough
O Loughlin = Flannery
Prescott = LMS
Lima = Soliola
Hoffman = TP
Finch = Wellens
Roberts = Shenton

I suppose they also have Hock to come in for the rest of the year, but let's not forget he's been off cap so far and will be returning on a pittance, before taking up a decent salary (most of Hoffman's in all probability) next season.

Next year they look likely to lose some experience (Coley? Hoffman? Roberts? Deacon? Carmont? Fielden?). They will probably be replaced from within, which is what happens when your team becomes successful and you need to work within the salary cap.

Most of the top sides have similar levels of experience in their squads. If the argument is we suffer more injuries and so have our squad exposed to a fuller extent, than I would agree with that. If the argument is that our young forwards aren't as good as Wigan's, then I would agree with that too. But other teams don't have squads full of seasoned pros and us a squad of teenagers as some would have you believe.

Re: Rumours thread. : Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:16 pm  

FearTheVee wrote:

But other teams don't have squads full of seasoned pros and us a squad of teenagers as some would have you believe.

The teams above us have had a much better run where injuries are concerned so I think what we have seen is that whereas Wigan, Wire and Hudds have been able to field mostly first team players this season, we haven't and therefore we have had to 'resort' to the young players in our squad much sooner and to a much greater degree than those other teams making it look like we have a lot more youth in our back up than other teams.

However, the average age of our squad is 23 so that would suggest that we do have a younger - and therefore less experienced - squad overall.

Re: Rumours thread. : Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:17 pm  

FearTheVee wrote:

It's a myth that the other top teams have 19/20 experienced players.

Let's look at Wigan's 2011 squad from an experience POV and their Saints counterparts

S Tomkins = Eastmond
Goulding = Wheeler
Carmont = Meli
Richards = Gardner
Deacon = Pryce
Tommy = Roby
Fielden = Jammer
McIlorum = Moore
Coley = Perry
Hansen = Wilkin
J Tomkins = Clough
O Loughlin = Flannery
Prescott = LMS
Lima = Soliola
Hoffman = TP
Finch = Wellens
Roberts = Shenton

Fine. You win.

But you've missed off Hock, Pryce,O'Carroll and Farrell who are all pretty experienced and the likes of Mossop, Charnley and Tuson, the first two of which are far better/more experienced than our equivilents (Who would probably be the likes of Forster, Makinson and Hale?).