Good morning, good morning, good morning!
This seems to be covering similar ground to the 'Holdsworth thread', but with added East-West flaming. I do find Hull fans (who mostly live East of the River) negative attitude to East Hull to be inconsistent with the opprobrium they heap on Rovers fans who 'all hate Hull'. Tut tut.
We'll see if it finds a niche.
Bell is still play 18s, I think. You'd want him to play a bit of 20s before pitching him into SL, I'd have thought.
Jake - your speculation about Galea, Webster and Briscoe leaving is slightly out of step with fashionable opinion. No halfbacks is the troll couture du jour.

This topic may actually have some backbone to it, If we keep Galea (same wages for 1year?) and keep Webster (reduced wages?) yet we are still looking overseas, Dobson may well be on his way; So we may well need a 6 and 7 pairing.

Someone on about same wages as Dobson, then someone to take cookies and mills wages?

Matt Cook is never on that sort of money

If only Dobbo goes, we will need to recruit from the British player pool, where are these two top notch half backs going to come from.

My thinking is we need to bring in a six to play with Dobbo, not get rid of him. If we do end up keeping him then one of the others will have to go, which will mean Galea or Webster, leaving us no room to recruit overseas.

I have no problem pitching an 18 year old (Bell) in if he is as good as they say he is, after all its not without precedent in recent seasons at other clubs to find a good player at that age and lets not forget we had an 18 yr old a few years ago who was already a GB star and ended up one of the top 5 of all time (IMO that is)

If they are good enough, they are old enough.

Id say its more to do with him wanting out then us getting rid.
And i have no problems using Bell as long as he is good enough - we tried it with I'anson and been honest it failed badly, we dont want a repeat next year with just a different name.

I'anson was nothing special when he came, he was brought in as a squad player. Someone I am in contact with through work is a coach at youth level in the amatuer scene and watches Rovers kids every game and his opinion is that Bell is 'a bit special' and has a brain with pace as well. If this is the case, lets get him involved, especially if our season drops off to outside the play offs, if not then get him in the squad for 2011.

Can we involve an u18 player into the side this season? doesnt he have to be a named player with wages going on cap or something like that?

I am not sure TBH, was Scott Taylor when he played against Leeds in the play offs

We can play as many players outside of our 25 man squad as we like provided their combined salaries dont exceed 50k.

Bell is a certainty to be in the 25 man squad next season. He is as you say "a bit special". However, the jump up from under 18s to first team is massive and i would say that physically he wont be ready this season.