I'd say a fair assessment would be mixed. Some poor players, but equally some of the best players in our current squad are still his signings. Disregarding next season's recruitment because we don't yet know how it will pan out, I'd also say that recruitment since has been equally mixed so far.

Looking at this year:

Paea, Watts, Ellis, Thompson.

Sa, Talanoa, Pryce, Sneyd, Minichiello, Paleaaesina, Michaels, Naughton, Rankin.

Compares quite similarly IMO, some real quality in both lists, a canny signing or 2, and some averageness to bobbins (especially when adding in some already moved on). Probably our 5 best players in there this year IMO, shaded by Gentle's recruitment despite all the criticism it gets.

It's just a shame that it's not a competition decided by who does the best "talking up" off the pitch.

If it was we'd win the hubcap, GF and CC every season.

The problem was his poor signings like Arundel, crookes Milller, etc were some of highest earners, he also paid over the odds for decent players like McDonnell and Pitts. I really think we would have gone backwards with Gentle as him and McRae didn't recruit the right players in the right areas and relied on David Howes for their recruitment.

Despite two decent seasons under Gentle their long term plan was poor and they had to go, the next person who took over would always have a tough job, I still don't think Radford is the man to take us forwards, but let's hope he proves us wrong.

Moaning about the same thing on different threads every single day is pointless and boring.

Articles like this and threads like this make me vomit, and the reason i cba to post anymore

I'm sure Barista has had a good long ranting post trying to belittle someone, if she can pull herself away from counting Rovers tickets and bemoning the lack of a centre, yet she still hasnt posted on the thread of us actually signing a centre.

Back to this thread, you all read this poop? Radders now says 8th isnt good enough? feck me we've been poop for years, many are settling for the rubbish peddled, then disect an article about it.

How can anyone take any guff from the club seriously anymore.

Lets face it, bottom of the league, facing 6 meaningless games, people giving up free tickets to go. Udders and Cats will see sub 7k gates. Yet AP will threaten us all again.

Its just a sad sad state of affairs. The fact that 8th isnt good enough, but it's all we'll ever get with clowns at the top

I can't be bothered to post anymore but..,,

The amount of posters who have given up of the club the last two years, but still continually post when things go wrong, you are either in or out, you can't have it both ways.

Anyway there could be some positive news tomorrow so I'd expect it to be quiet on here tomorrow.

The site is buggy as hell now, riddled, and thats not the posters

oooooh good news, might tune in, hope its a centre signing......

I don't really see a lot of point in getting too bogged down on individual player's wages, because a) we fans don't truly know, and b) they're relatively meaningless on their own. It's how the cap is spent overall and the team/squad that it gets you that counts.

I also don't know about the long term prospects of us under Gentle. I was far from happy with everything at the time and don't want to pretend it was great, but neither am I convinced that we were the mess Pearson has suggested based on pretty much nothing but his say so.

Finally, I do agree that some of the repetition can get tiresome, but I can also sympathise with people being upset and just because things don't look like changing doesn't give them any less right/reason to moan.

Fair post, I can see both sides, I agree with Pearson about Gentle (and McRae) they really set up back, but also feel he uses this as an excuse for our poor performances particularly last season, in which even with our squad we should have done better.

I think If Radford doesn't progress us further next season he will have no choice but replace him, I don't think sacking him now and bringing in someone else will help as it will just set us back again. I've said before I'd like an experienced and proven assistant to be brought in.

Even if Radford was sacked tomorrow the squad is in better position than when Gentle was sacked and Radford and Tony deserve some credit for that.

We improved on last year's position, the academy could finish top 4 and our recruitment IMO strengthens us. As was discussed on another thread, I don't think we're on a level playing field resource wise with the Top 3. Maybe 4-8 is just realistic. People don't want to hear that either though.