Thaler doesn't like FC fact.

Prove me wrong

Look at the Derby, absolute farce, even my mates/family who are Rovers couldnt believe the swift try was disallowed, how does he explain away these absolutely diabolical decisions, you can't

Spot on. Also, while not necessarily regarding recruitment, but who’s idea was it to let Litton go ? He changed the game for Rovers on Sunday when he went on !

....yet conveniently omitting Andre Savelio, Ligi Sao, Manu Ma’u, Josh Jones (yes a good signing at the time), Josh Reynolds, Mahe Fonua, Joe Cator, Adam Swift and Tevita Satae.

Fonua first time around yes, been a diaster this time
.Reynolds, still alot to prove, injured slot, done ok on the pitch, nothing special, not sure this can be classed a good signing, certainly not getting value for money.
Jones was diaster, not sure whose fault that was though.

Rest I agree with.

Radford, didn't give him the chance, choose to play Wahbrook, Fash or Hadley at holker even when Houghton was out, he should have been on the bench most games.

Massive mistake.

Probably say the same about Abdul, although some was his fault for his poor attitude.

Clearly your crystal ball is as bad as mine (and everbody else's).

You neutral? You're about as neutral as Hitler was Jewish. Just enjoy the fact that you won and we lost because we've had many occasions where we've been able to do just that!

No idea what you are talking about.

I've not conveniently forgotten any of those. You stated 'I guess signing in Kelly, Griffin & Connor was a step in the wrong direction' so I responded to that point and added that shortly after we also signed Langtree, Nzoungou, Miloudi & Dawson-Jones.

So I'll ask you if think our recruitment since the 2016/17 has seen us improve the squad or not. Would you see the likes of St's, Wigan, Warrington Catalans etc sign the likes of Langtree, Nzoungou, Miloudi & Dawson-Jones?

Jones & Mau were players who had been playing well a regularly in SL & NRL and were good signings at the time, though the less said about Jones the better..

Sao & Satae were pretty much fringe players as neither played many games in NRL but have turned out to be good signings.
Much the same for Swift down the order at St's hardly getting a game but has proven a good signing and better than most thought at the time.

Savelio was a gamble due to his injuries and took a while before he was fit, He'd also been at 4 different clubs in as many years too

Cator was decent signing and workhorse.

Reynolds the jury's out as he didn't really get much chance to get any form due to picking up the hamstring early doors then the covid situation but in his first few games he looked like he'd do a good job for us.

Fonua was and has been a poor signing second time round for 2 reasons his form since he'd left SL and we needed to strengthen other areas.

If you look at who we had and what we've lost compared to who we brought in I don't think we are as strong as we were.

I just don't think for a club that had done so much to get where they were in 2016/17 it pushed on after the first Wembley win and we sat back instead of continuing to push forward as we had done up until that point.

Top clubs know when to let players go and when to keep them and for us we still seem to lack nous, we tend to keep players longer than we should and too long without much change also brings a risk of complacency.

In terms of squad I don't think its improved since then and we are now paying for the poor recruitment since then especially if we are in top 3 of clubs at max cap. I don't think i am being over critical in any way and its a fair observation.

I'd even say that both Leeds and Wigan have seen the same issues due to poor recruitment and retention themselves over the past few seasons which probably compounded in that they haven't had the same level of talented young players coming as previously.