Harry Stottle

Well please proceed

Good int it, don't need to go back that far though, 3 or 4 years will suffice. It's 31° here in the shade at the moment Bob and forecast hotter tomorrow, don't envy those lads running about in it.

What did you say then Damien?

Well like others on this thread you seemingly are not able to answer 'In your opinion do you think SL is ready to move to 14 teams' It's not hard, but obviously taxes you.

Well they weren't ready and I said it at the time Tigger, that was the ego of the owner who said 'We are SuperLeague ready' never in a million years, which I was proved correct, I so wanted Toulouse to get the nod, BUT what it did was make the owner realise there is a better way of getting into SuperLeague and staying there so he hatched his 5 year plan, the rest as they say is history, which is relevent to this conversation with others.

Choice descriptions from you again. My biggest concern as I have always stated is how the Leagues below SL are treated, I was never hopeful of them being treated properly under the regime of RFL/IMG guidance, you being a supporter of IMG please tell me what you expected to happen below SL with their methods?

I believe it was Matt Shaw who said there were discussions to relieve IMG from the contract. Do you think we are ready for a 14 team Super League, I keep posing the question and it gets ignored.

The 30 min players,are getting their on field time extended with the number of rest periods they recieve via the VR.

OK fair enough.

Totally agree.

Yes, for Toulouse it would be done on the field of play not a keyboard, but I wouldn't expect them to be there the following year under P&R (nor any other club) if they didn't prepare for SL the season before gaining promotion. That has been the argument of the anti P&R brigade that promoted clubs are just yo yo's, yes they were but that has changed with the correct preparation.

Well that is you just showing your ignorance of the matter, that squad was assembled at the beginning of the season with 17 new recruits, every expert and scribe had Leigh odds on favourites to walk the Championship, I had the misfortune to go and watch that shower of Sh-ite, who just turned up and held out their hands to be payed, tore up the contracts, I would have lined them up against a wall and shot the Bhuggers. Again there were no contracts torn up, they all but two went to other clubs.

With their playing roster, if they did as Leigh and Wakey did they would be blowing everyone away. If Toulouse went up with their present squad, do you expect they would be challenging for a top 6 finish in SL?

When was that?

Still there Browny and challenging to the best of their ability, as is your club.

With the new build from within the Championship.

Yes they did, then completely threw out of the window the age old get promoted and build from there strategy, in respect of building whilst in the Championship, Wakefield have followed suit and it's paying the same dividends, so instead of chastising Leigh, congratulate them - or Mr Beaumont - for being innovative. Incidentally one of those promotions was by invitation which they were never ready for, which you know. Why can't Toulouse do that?

Just shows how astute Sky have been, getting better quality games for less money.

Could Toulouse not done as Leigh did originally and Wakefield have followed the same blueprint, building from within the Championship?

Well we agree at last Click, but a lot of people are in denial of that, the most fervent of IMG supporters are discussing who will be the 3 to come up, with complete disregard that it goes against IMG's structure.

The potential has been coming for ages, this is now the 10th year since they rejoined the British game and we are still hearing the same but it never materialises.

How much is Toulouse better than Leigh at Rugby League. Back in 2011 both clubs were in the Championship and Leigh were all but relegated to the 3rd Division, Toulouse left the British System a couple of years later and rejoined in 2016. Fast forward to 2021 and Leigh were being relgated from Super League to be replaced by Toulouse, Leigh gain promotion in 2022 whilst Toulouse are relegated, what has happened since then, Leigh have realised the potential *nobody thought they had, whilst Toulouse with all the potential in the world have done nowt, but everyone is still clinging to Toulouses potential which never comes. * I well remember the clamour on these pages saying 'What will Leigh bring to Super League" it would be better to leave Toulouse in there. I believe that has been well and truly answered. By the way Leigh has a population of circa 45K, 20 times less than Toulouse, but enjoys 3 times the support of Toulouse, it keep hanging on to your potential.

Plenty Potential eh!

Catalan have not got the biggest Union club in Europe and the ever growing in popularity Football Toulouse FC on their doorstep to compete with.

Not my place to contradict but the present contract is 21.5m the last contract was £25m.