Who would you retain/release?

Assumed salary (£-£££)

David Fusitu'a (£££) - Simply not value for money - Release.
Blake Austin (££) - Perhaps keep.
Aidan Sezer (£££) - See Fusitu'a.
James Bentley (££) - Retain.
Zane Tetevano (£££) - See Fusitu'a and Sezer.
Sam Walters (£) - Retain.
James Donaldson (£) - Release.
Liam Tindall (£) - I'm not a fan and would release. Expect he will be retained though.
Jack Sinfield (£) - Retain.

For me I'd retain Austin and Tet in a lower wage. I agree about Donaldson in that he's been a grea servant for Leeds these last 5 years. He's played to his limit. However, his limit isn't high enough for where we want to be. Smith is on record for saying he wanted experienced depth, so he may fit in there, but isn't top 17.

On Sezer, there's a good player there somewhere. I don't think he impacts games as much as he should.

The key with all these retain/replace decisions is finding someone who can replace them within budget, and then them settling. That part is the difficult bit. The team needs to work in the pitch

I’ll probably be proved wrong by Ruan but he looked decidedly uninterested when he played for us and despite his big frame didn’t make any impact with any of his carries. Defensively he’s quite passive too. The games he had for us seemed to pass him by. It could be that he just doesn’t fancy it but the other Leeds players we’ve had this season have all at least tried to get involved. Some have done better than others. In order from best to worst we’ve had this season I’d say are Donaldson, Walters, Tindall, Johnson, Roberts, Ruan.

I think Ruan needs game time – probably at League 1 for a bit before he plays championship to build his confidence.

Wasn’t the same said about Smith when he was on loan at Bulls all them years ago?

He didn't look passive in the pre-season games - very physical with the ball but a bit all over the place in terms of understanding the game. I'd expect that would be his main aim wherever he plays, to learn the positional elements of his role. I hope he makes it but he's been signed to hopefully be a first teamer by 2025, not this year.

Good point, although Smith was marginally better.