Neil has the skill and the self belief to win AMA as long as the bike and the tyres are up to it and he gets a good chief engineer - bit like Rossi really in that regard
As Ian would say its the 'package' that matters and last year in MotoGP he didn't have any of the above whilst in 2003 he did.
Toseland made an interesting comment in Bike magazine:
If he did what he did this year last year (2003) when the bike was new, he would have been a hero. He was quicker that Capirossi (on the same bike) in most places and Capirossi had a race win and numerous podiums last year. The amount of development the Japanese did in 2004 - they were two seconds a lap faster. Neil had no chance.