With nowt to play for there is NO point at all playing players who are leaving. Put the kids in now Shaun - aabsolutely nothing to lose.

[quote="Chico"]Seriously Smith at stand-off!
Seriously Smith at centre!

Where does it end?[/quote]

when he's back in NZ

Another MEN exclusive along the lines of "Christmas day falls on 25th December, Shock"

But if the alternative is no RL news in the paper then I suppose we take this. Is it a journalist's responsibility to find stories, or the club's to put stories out there?

Indeed. Barker is always keen to put his name at the top of reports which appear to have been directly lifted off here, so why don't the club take advantage of this apparent laziness, and shove a press release in his face 5 times a week?

I'm delighted that the MEN are willing to run RL stories on a regular basis, when they have 2 big Premier League sides and several other professional sports to report on within their catchment area.

However, I am disappointed by the poor quality of those reports. Why can't Salford improve the quality by doing Barker's work for him? As much as he loves to blame other people for the inaccuracies in his reports, if the club were to email him a press release and accompanying photo (of the right player?!) surely the reports would be better, more relevant and hence more interesting.

That might even persuade me to buy the MEN again ... as would sacking Barker.

Who are 'the kids' that you want to put in?

As for 'nothing to lose' isn't one of the criteria for new franchises about quality on the field?

Therefore, jeopardising our league position, win ratio and/or points difference, for the sake of throwing in a bunch of kids, would count against us?

vaughan jewitt walton palfrey

Instead of ... ???

Swings and roundabouts though - what about the junior development boxes to tick. I think the "contribution to competition" criteria was about finishing about 8/9 - now, there's no way we are going to finish above 12th this year... but, we have a chance to blood some youngsters who can assist us in proving that we have adequate junior development structures.

Surely they can only prove our systems are adequate if the youngsters come in and have a positive impact?

If we dropped our oldest 4 players to bring in the 4 youngsters names above, then get absolutely battered in each of our remaining games, surely that makes our youth system worse than doing nothing at all?

Age doesn't mean much IMHO.I've always believed in 'if you're good enough, you're old enough'. My concern is whether these youngsters named are good enough??

You could argue that we'll never know unless we give them a chance, but I have always been wary of throwing kids into unsuccessful sides (especially a few youngsters at the same time) as it can have a very negative effect on their development.


My other concern is that the youngsters who seem to be pushing for first team football seem to be largely in positions where we either already have a youngster, or we have one of our best, older players.

It would seem daft to drop a youngster who is developing in the first team just to blood another youngster, and also to lower the quality of the side by dropping an experienced player who is doing well.