Simply surviving in this league is enough for me. Considering the strength of our opponents and us operating on an annual budget of 27 quid, it’s nothing short of a miracle that we are still operating.

I agree we should just be thankful we still have a club left to support.
Despite having one of smallest fan bases and only spending £27 annually we still employ the marquee player rule, how do we do it?

Like you escaping relegation will be a relief with our squad.

Surely the extra prop people are saying we havent got and need is already here - Beinek - seems to of been involved heavily in pre-season and its now time for him to step up - failing that i like Fash who can also do a job

I'd like to see Beinek step up and impress this preseason

I'm sure every team in the league would say they need to improve their squad depth in at least one position. Regardless of some people on here downplaying our chances next year, our own chairman has come out and said his expectation is to be top 4 and last 4 in the cup, therefore I don't see why any fans should have to manage expectations based on our front row, our turnover or whether our players are in the bookies top 25 favourites for Man of Steel.

I would imagine the Big 4, Cas and Catalans have similar expectations. Not everyone will succeed. Hope, optimism and realism for me. We're entitled to nothing, obviously. It's heartwarming that people are now convinced of Radford's capabilities though - he's had a rough ride for a long time on here.

[quote="Mrs Barista]It's heartwarming that people are now convinced of Radford's capabilities though - he's had a rough ride for a long time on here.[/quote]

Think it's fair to say the majority have cut him a fair bit of slack too during his tenure. The rough ride you mention is to be expected when you look at what he has had available and what he has delivered and continued failings towards the latter part of a season, the wild differences in performance.
Also the jury is out if he is the man to move us forward but it really is a season in which he has to prove that or he should rightly be replaced after the recruitment for 2020.

The old, gun to the head philosophy again eh.

Why is it a ‘gun to the head philosophy’?

Think it’s fair to say the squad assembled for 2020 has cost a fair amount as alluded to by AP, he will want (& needs to) to see a return on that investment.

Apart from the two CC wins our form in the league itself has still in the most part been somewhat of a disappointment. We’ve had games were they’ve excelled but also had games in which they didn’t even turn up. The gap between good and bad performances has increased and defensively we have been very poor.

Given that AP has provided very good facilities to achieve success and consistency to genuinely challenge at the top we have somehow continued to falter when it matters 2019 being a prime example.

So the pressure is very much on LR to deliver in 2020, and not see the same failings of 2019. There should be no excuses with the squad assembled for 2020.

Isn't that a given in sports management?