The last six days have illustrated better than most the harsh realities of the life that faces our club and most others.

If I may, I'll demonstrate this with the tale of two young Trinity Academy products.

Yusuf Aydın is NOT the great young player the drama merchants on here will have people believe. IMHO Yusef will, injuries permitting, have a promising, maybe great SL career. Partly because he's a good player and somewhat shrewdly, IMO, because he's joined a club that may be on the up next season.

IMO what he won't do is win HKR any games on his own. He's unlikely to top any SL statistics as a prop, and I personally doubt he will ever play for England/GB at senior level.

Lewis Murphy is already an EXCEPTIONAL player for his age. IMHO Lewis will, injuries permitting, have an astounding SL career.

IMO what he will do is win us 2-3 games a season almost by himself (not a literal statement, obviously). He has every chance of topping several SL statistics, and he will probably play for England/GB.

Trinity has a small pot of money. We are not totally skint, but frugal has to be our motto. So for those of you lamenting the loss of Aydin, think on. If it were your money you were spending, where would you spend what little you have?

We probably have a 3-4 month window to come up with a deal to extend Murphy's stay, and the money saved on paying Aydin what HKR will be paying him may be the difference.

Put simply, Murphy will win games and put bums on seat, he's the kind of player for Trinity to go for every time, IMHO. I know you need foot soldiers but a good coach will find those, pure class is much harder to replace. We were luck with Murphy for TJ but I can't see lightning striking a third time.

That is the dilemma with youngsters, like it or not; you can't keep them all. In our case, we can only afford to keep the exceptional because, for us, the gamble is too great to risk on too many maybe's. Murphy is a match-winner, and we don't have many with TJ and Tupou gone. We can, however, find players similar to where Yusuf is right now reasonably quickly. Where he may be at in a few years would require a crystal ball, and we don't have one of those.

The truth is money alone may not be enough to keep Murphy, but we have absolutely no chance without it.

It isn't as black and white as that though is it.
What happens if Murphy gets such a big offer that to match it we also lose Hall and Kershaw.
And we need to replace Aydin too. He wasn't first choice but was a first team prop.

Anyone who does fantasy football knows how hard it is. And you can't do weekly transfers in real life unfortunately.
I don't envy Willie and MC working this out.

Obviously all that matters, but it's still exactly how it works.

Of course there is a limit, you still need a team and if I could help us keep Aydin I would, I'd keep them all. It's not about the rights or wrongs it's how you spread a very thin budget.

There would clearly come a point where we couldn't offer Murphy any more without damaging the team so much that even a talent like Murphy couldn't function. My point is that of the young players coming through, I can understand why the club would sacrifice Aydin (not necessarily saying that's what happened) if it meant we kept a genuine superstar. It's harsh but that's is how it works.

So to further the debate, if we are not willing to risk losing the likes of Kershaw and Hall then what do we do. If we can't get him tied down and won't/can't compete when he's OOC what do we do? We may as well sell him and capitalise whilst we can. It's a massive dilema and I really don't think many fans understand just how difficult is is for a small budget club like us to get it right.

If Murphy were at Shudds Ken would have put his hand in his pocket and taken a flyer on Murphey, purely because he can afford to.

Finally, you don't need to be well connected to know Murphy is probably the hottest young players in SL, and people will already be getting into his head, even more so when he plays for England Knights

Indeed. I think I'd be trying to extend his contract before he meets up with the Knights.

Bet Davey wonders how they missed him.
Good common sense post.

We can all agree he needs signing to a long term deal but just remember that if we don’t have a team capable of avoiding relegation his contract will be void, I guess but not sure we would be eligible for a transfer fee however this would also be an harsh reality of life.

If what I heard is true, Murphy got in some bother when he was younger. I think Trinity were one of only a couple of clubs interested in taking him on.

Hello mate, I'm just a bit confused about the 3 to 4 month window. How much longer is he contracted for?

Murphy is contracted for next season.

Thinking about my post, I’ve actually over egged what I meant to say. I now have a far simpler statement to make my point.

If you have a small cake cut into 30 unequal slices, some people will get what they believe to be a very thin piece.

That’s the harsh reality and there is very little anyone can do about that.

I’m assuming the club are going to replace Aydin internally in the squad with Eseh.

If you have 2 or 3 offers on the table which are significant upgrades on a contract with your current club and you are aware people have been brought into the club on significantly bigger salaries but in a lesser squad status then sadly there is only one realistic decision to be made.

It’s a real shame to lose a lad who I feel could have been a long term successor to T, however sometimes you have to go away to earn what you are worth.

It’s the short term nature of moves like this due to the financial restrictions on the club that prevents us from growing but sadly it is what it is at the moment until we can generate large revenues.

I’m regards to Murphy you would think there is interest there already after the season he has had and how he starts next year will be key for him.

Pure speculation on my part but there are/will be a number of clubs looking for wingers in the next 2 years and he is going to be high on peoples shopping lists meaning we may be fighting a losing battle anyway.

It’s a thankless task trying to build a squad for long term improvements with a short term budget.

If I remember rightly (no guarantees of that, though) didn't we face a similar scenario with Ryan Atkins, and Atkins agreed to a long contract that effectively ensured we got a good deal when Warrington came in for him? I'd hope we'd look at doing the same with Murphy and one or two others...offer them a long deal with 'get out' clauses that benefit both parties.