Re: The Widnes Twitter Debate : Sun Aug 21, 2011 11:14 am  

Pep, I admit it's a few months now since I last spoke to my man about this but I would strongly suggest you drop the club a line for the attention of either PC or TOC.

Both are more than willing to communicate directly with the fans especially those that put their questions to them reasonably as you will do. I think you'll then get some reassurance. They are both good guys from my experience and are happy to talk club matters one on one. Unfortunately Q&A sessions tend to get clogged up with the Why did you let Mark Smith go? And we will be laughed at with astro-turf pitch having to wear tights brigade...

Re: The Widnes Twitter Debate : Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:44 pm  

Sorry not really replied, never often on laptop etc.

But just a quick points on transfer targets, signings past, present on future.

I don't think under 25 is exclusive as we have signed a few over, however it does seem anyone 30+ will not be finding themsleves a happy few years pay day here as they may elswhere, I only think Briscoe (31 in 2012?) is the only person contracted that will be 30 in the final franchise season etc. I think this is the right way to go, unless the player is proven tp quality and / or has a good fitness record. Otherwise chances our you get stuck with past it players stuck on big bucks at 33/34.

Said for a while our recent years Championship recruitment has been building towards SL rather than to win the Championship. I know it's easy to say if not good enough here then won't be good enough going up. However Widnes have targeted young forwards / backs with the potential still to make it as GOOD top flight players, we have tried to give them game time and a chance to develop within, If you wanted to build a champ winning side then you'd go for your likes of Dickens, Tonks, Stringer, Bibey etc but fact is they'd all be released on promotion near enough (under this system anyhow).

On the other hand to that people forget we still have Gaz Haggerty, Danny Sculthorpe & Daniel Heckneburg on our books! Had we had those guy's fit they would have strengthed our pack no end and also have the desired proven quality to step back to SL, hence why we took the risk IMO. Quite funny when sides we face go on about injuries when these guy's have hardly played all year yet will still be covered under the £300,000 cap (pay as you play or not).

One clear thing in recruitment is that if a young talented player comes up... Davies, Dean, White we will be straight into tie them down to Widnes Vikings. However we simply won't go throwing 3 year deals at 30+ year old players just because they are available and IMO that is the right thing to do. Just hopefully the more experienced type of player will want to join the club still for next year on terms that suite them as well as us and we can get the right balance in the side.

Re: The Widnes Twitter Debate : Thu Aug 25, 2011 5:04 pm  

J20 wrote:

I don't think under 25 is exclusive as we have signed a few over

That's right, Joey. I don't know why people keep saying that it might be. I certainly never said it was.

J20 wrote:

On the other hand to that people forget we still have Gaz Haggerty, Danny Sculthorpe & Daniel Heckneburg on our books!

All of which were actually signed up injured. When you add Ianson too, it is a reason why I'm not too confident about our recruitment policies. Some may have been on pay as you play contracts, but you need fully fit players, particularly your senior players, or you could easily find yourself in an injury crisis.