to be fair, they did bring in about 13 new players, none of which were (really) top notch, some had clouds over them and others were really really bad.

THEN they made a big song and dance about it, whilst most other fans looked and rolled their eyes at them.

Top spot is a big ask, but top 4 and hence a semi-final has to be the minimum expectation.

It will take a few rounds to settle and gel, but if we're not comfortably in the top 4 by the 8's split then we've underachieved.

If we were to take the tact of settling for 6th/7th/8th, having a transition year, and build for the future, then we might as well play Patton and Livett in the halves, have let Leigh keep Goodwin, and saved our cash on Roberts.

We've signed the highest paid player in the league. That's not to secure us 7th. That's to make us competitive now.

The work behind the scenes, the probable succession plan with Henderson, the new head of youth etc will all hopefully come to fruition later - but we've also made changes to the first team to make us competitive this season - the board know anything less is a threat to our revenue.

Have we? I'd be surprised if that wasn't Tomkins...

I think we will have Roberts on a much bigger wage than Tomkins. We needed a top half back in his prime and that meant prizing one away from a well paid job in the NRL - there are no genuine high quality half backs in the UK even considering Luke Gale. Roberts won’t have come cheap - let’s hope he’s able to recreate that magic over here.

We offered Sam more money than Wigan. Work that out.

At last there is someone who gets it.

There's a lot of hype here about Tyrone Roberts but I worry that he's being set up to fail.

He does look impressive on the highlights montages on that video sharing website and so I am looking forward to see him in the P&B.

But lets be realistic about him being a one man show. In the years he was Newcastle halfback they finished 12th, 7th, 12th, 16th (wooden spoon). When he was at Gold Coast they finished 8th and 15th. He wasn't such an influential player as to pull them up to the top tier.

There are a lot of question marks over our other signings too. I've been a Wire fan for long enough to see a lot of overseas signings come and go and a lot of flops. You start to recognise certain warning signs:

- being over 30
- having had a 'journeyman' career
- being a squad player rather than a first choice in the NRL
- being a 'utility' player without a set position

Bryson Goodwin and Mitch Brown are both 30 plus, have moved around clubs. Brown barely played an NRL game in his last couple of seasons at Cronulla before joining Leigh. The fact we signed both of them from Leigh also makes me worry a bit! Brown was a 'utility back'.

Sitaleki Akauola was a squad player at Penrith, he wasn't a first choice starter. He is another 'utility player' - we are told he is a second row or winger who can play prop! Well hopefully he is an emerging Ruben Wiki!

I am not writing these guys off. You could have asked similar questions about Nat Wood, Darren Burns and Sid Domic, who were all excellent players for us. They all had superb professional attitudes and represented the primrose and blue in the right way which set a good standard for others, so if our new intake of overseas players do the same I will be hopeful of success.

But at the moment I don't see anything to wow me about our recruitment, or about our new coach who did not do well as a head coach in the NRL.

There's a lot of expectation here at the start of the season about being top 4 and competitive but last season we had a mediocre pack, the backline lacked pace, and what makes people think those problems will go away? It is still broadly the same team that nearly got relegated.

A couple of months in to the season, are we going to have a huge hindsight brigade on here, telling us that ANYBODY could have seen we needed better recruitment, ranting about Russell, Lineham, Brown, Hughes or whoever, asking why they are still in the team, and with big wishlists for 2019 and the vast overhaul we will need....

one answer to that Sally is a Mr hicks. He was a little unknown who turned out well you know the rest

Agree with most of that, but a bit unfair on Goodwin. Certainly not in his prime, but a solid player. Not prolific but 200 NRL appearances and 10 for New Zealand, with 1 try every 3 games is better than some of our centres and his defence and ground work are quality. There aren’t many NRL players available these days but Goodwin is not a journeyman reject and I think he’ll go well - nothing spectacular but a cut above what we’ve had since the days of Bridge on that right side.

Gidley came from a wooden spoon NRL team and made the SL dream team plus 2 finals the next year with us.

Parramatta had a pretty poor record then Sandow came over here and lit up SL.

Wests finished 10th then 9th, then an aging Hodgson came over to SL and won MOS.

I would argue that NRL team records and even age have little relevance to how they'll go in SL.