Holla.

More on the wigan rumour! www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... ngton.html

More on the wigan rumour! www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... ngton.html

We could really do with a specialist right centre IMO, maybe not for this season but after Keith goes. I see Watkins as a left centre personally, despite him showing flashes of brilliance on the right.

Gleeson is the sort of player that we should be interested in. Quality player with 2-3 seasons of top class rugby left in him - he's out of contract at the end of the year so a transfer fee should be reasonable money.
Would give us some balance on the right and could be dynamite with Scott Donald outside him. Ablett could then concentrate on back row duties where he looks excellent this year.

Wigan will offer him a lot more money. I'd imagine he'd have to take a significant salary cut to come to Leeds. It wont happen.

Worth a Punt in my opinion. Quality Centre, Few good years left whilst we blood Watkins and Gibson develops. Would be good if we're able to get him. I think we would be able to offer similar money as Wigan to be honest. I would think they'd have some money free from Barretts contact, the fact they have a good few youngsters in there team (Who will be on less money) Only new recruit who will be up top in terms of salary that I can think of is that plumper Riddell. What I wouldn't want to happen is for us to pay silly money. Front loadinga contract might be a way to go with this one.

Does it look like Wigan need to unload Mathers and Goulding's salaries this season for Gleeson to fit within the cap?

To be honest, while not generally a fan of signing for signing's sake, if players of Gleeson's quality become available, if the price is right we should definitely be interested.

If we're going to sign a player and if we think right cenrte is an area of need then he is the calibre of player we should sign.

However, with his reupted salary at Warrington I think the chances are slim.

Gleeson must be doing something radically wrong if Smith is prepared to offload him to a rival club. After all he's a British test centre and not exactly over the hill.

While the Bulls are short of a decent centre (or two!) I'd be concerned if we were in the running for him as it may be the reason for him leaving Warrington is a reason not to sign him.

I wondered about this....Im not sure the both of them will be on Big contracts, but it would seem that Yes Wigan would need to unload them. It could also be that they want rid of Mathers and are trying to broker a way of getting rid and maybe just saving themselves of a transfer fee. I know they want Gleeson but are reluctant to lose Goulding so this may also suggest they have room to play with...?

This maybe a stupid question regarding Fieldens £400'000 odd move but transfer fees arent affected by the salary cap at all are they. Teams are free to pay whatever they want in terms of transfer fees???

The rumours (I know, I know) are simply about the size of the salary preventing Smith boosting the squad elsewhere.

Correct. Any transfer fee paid to another club has no impact on the buyer's salary cap.

The odd part of the system was IIRC the receiving team can't include the fee received as income when assessing the old 50% of turnover deciding the level of spend allowed under the cap. As that system has been replaced by a maximum flat cap it's all irrelevant now anyway.