tad - which quality players have we let go over the last decade? I can think of a lot of Championship quality players, and some reasonable SL ones. Nobody who would make much difference to our team though.

mcshane?

Some very good posts, interesting and most have a point. Fact is we are where we are and whatever has happened in the past has happened so no pint crying over spilt milk.
It is a cap sport so in order to get players in we require to shift some on be that youngsters on season long loans to get experience or some experienced players who are not going to get much game time. We might have to sacrifice some bigger earners to create space. I’m sure there is a plan and Smith has a pedigree of bringing on young players that maybe have not been stars at academy level or late comers. Whatever the plan is and whoever Smith signs is good enough for me. The big thing is to have a season or two without serious injuries hampering the progress of the team.

I've have every faith in smith to get it right

It’s great that we now have a coach who has a plan and appears (from what we’ve seen so far) to know what he’s doing and just as importantly appears to being allowed to put it in place.

Can you imagine though, IF Agar was still in charge and we were rumoured to be signing these exact same players, we’d be all in meltdown and marching on LS6 with placards

Bang on. That was the same when we were in our golden years. They key is top academy players coming through to give you cap space to play with.

only home produced hooker was diskin

never looked owt with us so much i forgot we produced him as well as diskin poss also liam hood

In a salary capped sport the only premium you can "pay" is prize money, and when we paid it regularly we had a loyal squad and were able to bring in other teams better players/international class overseas players to fill in the gaps. GH got lazy when at the top and now we are in a position where we have to try and catch Saints when they effectively have a bigger budget, even our best signing this year, a new coach was a gamble and was probably pretty cheap.
Player wise we continue to gamble on other teams cast offs, lower league maybes and the dregs of the overseas market, its a long shot that rarely pays off. The academy can be a good route, but as a whole the game in this country is played by less and less players, so there is less and less to choose from.

Yes indeed but you get what I’m saying. McGuire Burrow Sinfield Hall JJB etc all home grown and allowed us to spend well in other areas

We *could*, in some kind of alternate reality, have a spine as follows:

1. Hardaker
6. Ward
7. Gale
9. McShane

All internationals on their day, but getting on a bit now...

Other candidates who have come and gone include Ashton Golding, Jack Walker (looking doubtful for him now), Liam Sutcliffe (once touted as Sinfield's replacement), and Jordan Lilley. Corey Johnson still a possible. At one point Jack Broadbent looked to have some promise at full-back.

Think you can say the same about saints, Woolf was a gamble and now they are going with Wellens.

Even getting Hurrell was a gamble for them. I wonder how he'd do in a Rohan Smith team?