I'm not sure I'm following the recruitment process this year. We seem to be/have offloaded players obviously that Ronan Smith doesn't see a future with and recruited Hardaker for this term. It must have been necessary to reduce the wage bill before end of year. This must mean we were absolutely on the limit. I wonder what percentage of the cap the overseas players take up, because apart from Martin, I don't think we've had any value at all and its like a continuing weight around our necks which we are forced to try to improve the squad signing championship players,

No I think the we were clearing space for a signing to come in this year but they couldn't get anything sorted in the end.

I actually think fans generally force clubs into big money, marquee type signings. Rarely work out……

All of our current overseas players were signed before Smith arrived. Furner pushed the club to sign some big name players when he joined, which caused us real problems because they were mostly disappointing (or unfit, or both) but chewed up a lot of cap, especially then having to take emergency measures to fix things (like Lui for Lolohea).

Sadly neither GH, Sinfield or Agar seem to have had much of a clue since then, although the problem wasn't just the signings themselves but the length of deals - Thompson was probably relatively cheap, but why so long? Why was Prior given two years at his age? Why sign a winger when we have issues in more influential positions?

Hopefully Smith has a far better idea of who to go for. He has relationships with a lot of players and clearly watches a lot of games. I don't know what other Leeds coach in recent times would have even thought of McDonnell or Sangare? While unproven at least he's not locking in huge swathes of cap for long periods with them.

I'm not sure who else we'll see join, but I have more faith already in Smith's ability to spot a player, mainly because I can't see an error with any of the players leaving.

I'll reserve judgement til I know next year's squad. Everything we've seen so far could be construed as simple cost cutting. Equally we may harbour far loftier ambitions.

Thats good then looks a cracking prospect.

Marty Tapau is now a free agent....

However, he's 33 shortly...

He's also way past his best. He made up for a slight lack of size with aggression, but nowadays he barely makes any impact, maybe one run/tackle a game worth noting.

Don't Warrington need another prop?

Only worth signing a prop if they will add the quality we need.

Agree entirely. We've got one squad prop in Sangare and (to be confirmed) another prospect in Ruan. We've enough numbers there for next season if noone leaves. Our starting props lack real oomph, but what we don't need is another squad-filler.