rugbyreddog wrote:
Am I the only one seriously missing the point. Talk of Academies and Reserve Teams? 10 years ago we were world champions, 100% of resources should be piled into a first team that gets us promoted. Can anybody tell me what shape Toronto's Academy and Reserve team are in?
To be blunt, our 100% of resources going into the first team is why we are, where we are now.
If all the 'Odsal settlement' hadn't been spent on the dream of ever rising gates, in 2006 we wouldn't have been skint enough to have to let go most of our best players, make our academy part time, make staff and coaches redundant or let Nobby go to Wigan, nor skint enough to ever get relegated. Caisley would likely still be here, reputation intact, Hood would never have been chairman, Omar would just be a well known restaurateur, the gang three would not have existed and Marc Green would have been some vague chairman of a financial company in Leeds, if that is, he was on anyone's radar at all. And, of course, admin and winding up would be something which occasionally happened to others.
With all due respect, Toronto are in an entirely different position, that is to say they seem to have big money behind them, whilst we...well, we don't.