So how far away are we?

[BG]

I wonder how often players stay at a club when their contract decreases. I suspect most then look elsewhere.

I doubt many players would renew a contract at their current club for less money.

I (we) don't know if Haskell was offered less or not even offered a renewal but his value to the squad had dropped off in that last season and Dai's decision reflected that.

That being said, he moved to Saints for a pittance partly because of his playing status and that he left his contract negotiations so late to get a good deal elsewhere.

I applaud Dai to sticking to his guns and only offereing what he thinks is correct and not folding to agent demands.

I'm wondering whether the signing of Sopps and in some respects Fekitoa is concentrating his mind on future signings?

[Tervueren]

We are not far off, based upon Saturday, and have a lot to be optimistic about.

However, Newcastle were not far off last year, they did not suddenly become a bad team, they just did worse than the others.

We need to be consistently less far-off then a couple of other teams, and we are not there yet, in order to survive in the league. I think we have a very good squad and will do far better than we are at the moment, this year success will be mid-table and we should be pushing for top 4 next. The other teams won't stand still though, and having a big lead over the doped-up Saracens is not a safety net. Empirically we are worse off then at this time last year, and we were in a survival battle then (although with a few more points we could have been top 4).

[baldpaul101]

Empirically we are worse off then at this time last year, and we were in a survival battle then (although with a few more points we could have been top 4).

The difference last year was that we were winning games having played badly, this year we seem to be losing those close ones.