York City Knights manage recruitment role

Rumours had abounded among Knights fans about who was, and should be, in charge of player recruitment following the decision by the club’s hierarchy not to renew temporary deals for Castleford duo Nathan Massey and John Davies.

This followed The Press’ revelation they had turned down the chance to get Massey back for last Sunday’s game at Featherstone, when it was pretty clear to anyone reading between the lines that head coach Dave Woods had been in favour of bringing the Tigers pair back on board.

However, before any flames were fanned on terraces, messageboards or even in The Press, club bosses jumped in with a couple of messages to play down any apparent discord among management.

In an initial interview, Knights general manager Ian Wilson had said the decision was taken as they wanted to develop players on their own books rather than rely on borrowed starlets from elsewhere who could be recalled by parent clubs at any time, thereby disrupting York’s plans.

The Knights, he pointed out, have long had a laudable policy of bringing players on rather than splashing out on established stars.

However, with rumours still rife, the club decided to expand more on their reasoning with an explanatory email early in the week – and one which was followed up by a message from Woods himself.

These statements, reported in The Press on Wednesday, were also uploaded onto the Knights’ website.

Pertaining to various points of order, including salary cap issues and the mechanics of player recruitment at Huntington Stadium, they can be read in full, left.

While they clear up a fair bit, two points spring to mind.

Firstly, the club’s announcement they are creating a new squad builder fund is very timely – cynics might say a bit too timely. Either way, it’s an initiative that should be applauded and one that needs supporting. This column will publicise further details when they come.

Secondly, there’s this contention that Woods is in charge of player recruitment at Huntington Stadium.

The difference between the old-fashioned manager and the new-fashioned coach, I was once told, is that a manager picks who he manages and a coach is told who to coach.

And therein lies a problem faced by all coaches, Woods included. Whereas managers are given a budget to spend how they see fit, coaches are not.

It’s long been a bone of controversy in some clubs on the continent, when so-called directors of football buy players and tell the coach to coach them, only for it to be the coach’s neck on the line – not that of directors – when those players don’t play well.

Is there a danger this problem-in-waiting has crept into modern day rugby league, where almost every club has a coach, not a manager?

In the instance in question, it’s fair to surmise Woods might have paid to bring Massey and Davies back and recouped cash elsewhere, but he was not allowed to do so, notwithstanding the fact he was kept abreast of the situation.

Financial constraints obviously play a part either way, but there is a difference between being told a player doesn’t fit into the plans and deciding yourself he is out of your budget’s reach.

Is it fair then, that a coach, alone, should be judged on results alone?

The club have often said it is a team effort on and off the pitch, so perhaps – hopefully – that is the case in this regard too.

statement from the Knights

The club is currently operating to the maximum amount available under the current salary cap rules. Clubs are able to spend 40 per cent of their income on players and we set our budgets to meet this figure at the start of the season.

Further signings may result in us exceeding this figure, especially if there are guaranteed payments to be made and not just win/loss money.

This year is the most we have ever spent on players, and we are doing the best we can to support the coach, but without additional income our hands are tied.

As a result of this we are in the process of establishing a squad builder fund that will enable supporters to donate money that will be specifically used for player recruitment/retention.

It is important to state that any money donated should not be at the expense of current payments to the club, such as a season ticket/vice-president package or a Lancealotto subscription.

Further information will follow as soon as there are any further developments and we expect the squad builder fund to be in place by the end of the month.

statement from Dave Woods

As a result of the various rumours currently doing the rounds I feel that it is important for me, as head coach of the club, to put people in the picture with regard to comings and goings at the club.

Players are identified by myself, Ian Wilson, John Guildford, Alan Dickinson and Chris Thorman. Once identified I decide, with the coaching team, if that player is someone who we would like at the club. If so it gets passed to Ian and John to look at whether or not the player fits into our budget. If he does then they make him an offer.

I am fully aware of the financial constraints all clubs work under and respect the decisions that the club make.

With regard to outgoing players, again this is mine and the coaching team’s decision. If we wish to offer a player out on loan, such as Dennis Tuffour to Hunslet, I have the final say on whether this happens. If a club comes in for one of our players, via Ian or John, then they will talk to me about this and we will decide whether or not it is in the best interests of the club/player to allow him to move on.

Following our promotion we were playing catch-up with regard to our recruitment as all other clubs in the Championship knew that they would be playing at this level at least a month before we did. As a result of this the number of players available was significantly less than even four weeks earlier.

However, I was fully aware of all of the players the club were speaking to and that were subsequently signed.

We did miss out on some of my targets but only because they had either signed with other clubs prior to our promotion or were not within the budgets available to the club.

We always knew this season was going to be difficult but I believe that, with the recent additions we have made to the squad, we are capable of staying in the Championship this season.

Best wishes, David.

Matt gets onto the leaderboard at last

IT was a surprise the other day to find when updating The Press Player of the Year leaderboard after the Featherstone game that Matt Garside was not already on there.

The 20-year-old, though, has finally jumped into the standings with three points following his man-of-the-match performance at Post Office Road.

Others to pick up points this week were Ben Jones (2pts), who came back with a bit of a bang, after his long injury, with some crashing collisions as substitute prop, and Chris Thorman (1pt) in a half-back partnership with Anthony Thackeray that increasingly seems to be clicking.

Press Player of the Year standings: Davies 15pts, Lee 15, Freer 9, Straugheir 9, Thorman 9, Sutton 8, Massey 7, Bush 7, Presley 5, Thackeray 5, Jones 5, Benson 4, Clarke 3, Stearman 3, Garside, Waterman 2, Lewis 2, Esders 2, Barlow 1.