Expect more of this as the sordid licence affair gathers pace boys..
You can count yourselves lucky that you weren't involved the last time out and indications are that this time around things could get just as nasty with four or five SL clubs clinging desperately to their licence spot.
The one thing that distinguished SOC last time out was his refusal to get dragged into the mud slinging and petty point scoring employed by some of his counterparts. Instead his focus was completely on our bid.
Make no mistake the guy is an asset to our club and is greatly liked by the RL community.
With regards to this article I don't see anything controversial... just a club chairman tub-thumping his team's chances.
He is simply saying what is currently being said by certain sections of the RL community. With Celtic lurching from issue to issue it has been widely been touted that we are the team best suited to take their place and SOC was responding directly to a question about this. His answer being that we will not be going anywhere just yet but we are clear favourites for a spot in 2012. It's a mark of the man that he did not take the opportunity to gloat about the situation in South Wales but instead offer sympathy.
Why is he so confident of a licence next time around??
Looking at our own bid... last time around (although it was all a bit of fun) Sky gave us a Grade B rating for a licence and we feel that we have improved since then. The RFL earmarked the 'administration' as being the factor for our refusal. That is not something that can be used this time around and so we are very confident.
The RFL have looked fairly foolish in their choice of Celtic over Widnes with some ugly questions being asked in the media and I think the RFL will look to appoint us next time around.