So you are saying it was offered a new deal a lot earlier and not in the latter stages of this one, if it was the previous then if he as an agent it will be that person told him to go shopping.

why wouldn't he leave for saints?
6 years of rebuilding and leeds are still a shambles of club, shuffling along year after year of mediocrity.
Good luck to him

Indeed Tad

What we don't know is the quality of the offer - he may well have gone back and said 5 years on £20k no thank you and ball is firmly back in the clubs hands who have stuck with their original offer?

Leeds seem to want to waste huge money on very average overseas seeing not paying the young English lads decent money as the sacrifice in the calculations. Strange club in that respect.

is hetherington past his sell by date? did he just get lucky with the golden decade team? his role has to be questioned given the last 6 years

When Leeds had no money it was no surprise the academy flourished in those days. Recruitment was far more focused and Leeds was a club players wanted to play for e.g. Senior, Ellis and the quality of overseas was off the scale.

These days it appears recruitment is not a priority - the club don't seem on it at all these days. Clubs seem so much further on in identifying and securing the players they want. Leeds seem last in line - when they are early they get it wrong e.g. Olpharts.

The academy seems to struggle to develop young players in key positions - that I cannot understand.

I agree. recruitment is way behind the majority of other SL clubs, and has been for years

Is Hetherington solely in charge of recruitment? Serious question.
If so and with all due respect to the man he is probably not up to speed with how the game has changed and he might just be wanting players on the cheap.

Smith is heavily involved too. It's not all with GH

I don't know who deals with recruitment but Craig Harrison reported on the full 80 a couple of months ago that Smith has very little to do with it at present.

I don't think you can say we are doing it on the cheap as we have been utilising both marquee spots since 2019. Has that investment been successful - certainly not. If the pruning of dead wood continues at the same pace as last year we'll have the opportunity to go on a Wire type recruitment drive for 2023. GH and Rohan will be under big pressure to get that right. On a general point it is easy to forget that the post 2017 wilderness years are not something that's unheard of in RL or other professionals sports. Wigan won the inaugural GF in 98 and had to wait 12 long years to do it again. Saints won the GF in 2006 and didn't lift the trophy again till 2013 and then had to wait till 2019 for their golden era to begin. That's one GF in 13 years. Look what happened to Bradford, look what happened to the great Widnes team of the late 80's and the great Hull teams of earlier in that decades. We'll come good again, and it will have been worth waiting for when it happens.

Appreciate that AC.
I`m probably thinking of the most recent recruits such as Hooley, Roberts, McDonnell, Sangare and Lisone and possibly Olpherts who will not be costing us too much this season.

No denying that cap wise we were in a real hole last season. The players that you mention are indicative of that. I'm just hoping that the next year the squad will have some genuine stardust sprinkled on it. It's badly needed.

Totally agree, I do think our success with the 'Goldens' has turned some of our fans into being a bit entitled, its now more then ever that we need to as a club stick to a plan not make knee jerk reactions to a poor run of form, we might not win a thing for another 3-5 years but as you say that's not uncommon even for the big clubs.

Some people are a bit entitled. For me its more a case of having watched the club almost fall to bits in slow motion, with predictable farce following bad decisions down the years. I think (hope) we've finally got the right coach in who can properly rebuild.

Despite the focus on the new signings - most of whom will be on very low wages in SL terms - its clearly our highest earners who again aren't doing it. How are Hooley, Olpherts, Roberts etc responsible for poor performances when they're not even playing? Look at our 1,6 and 7 and our more highly paid players such as Bentley, Tetevano etc before worrying about fringe squad players who were signed to add depth with the hope one or two make it longer term. You want to win stuff, you need a good spine and big money players to perform like they are worth it. Neither is true right now.