get applauded off me.will be great to see the aussie boys back at HQ too

pfft where to begin

He'd have impacted on the stalwarts from the 04 team we were able to re-sign, it was well documented how we lost quite a few players after 04 due to the young guns gaining representative honours etc.

No matter what people would have said at the time, he wouldn't have been left out of the team, bench at the very least. He was big player, a leeds legend and would have been on decent money, so he would have been included in the team one way or another. This would have upset the balance of the team at that time, as we were coming into the run in.

Would tony smith have been happy? afterall it was already planned before smith came in that he was to return, so had he re-signed it's likely smith would have had little say. The coach should always have input into recruitment.

Then theres also the fact that....in fact...he just wasn't very good when he returned. Certainly not as good as the old pre union harris, no where near that. So we'd have been stuck with a below par player, on decent wages.

So we'd have had that disruption to deal with, while the bulls would have strolled merrily along. Their cap wouldn't have been f*cked up, they'd have retained many of their big guns and the team wouldn't have dismantled so rapidly. Raher than suddenly declining into medocirty after 05, they'd have continued to be a serious threat for silverware.

It's not just that. The signing of harris would have gone against the whole thing we were trying to build. Homegrown players in key positions, we already had the positions covered, we had no need for a highly paid stand off.

Had harris signed for leeds you would probably see a bit more bradford and a bit less leeds on recent sl titles.

He was outstanding for leeds no doubt about it.
He deserve's a decent welcome especially now he's moved onto new thing's career wise.
The only thing i disliked about the whole bulls farce was the denial and lies.
If he'd of come clean with caisley over the whole deal then the reaction wouldn't of been half as bad imo.

His return to Leeds in 2004 was budgeted for and it had nothing to do with the amount Bradford foolishly decided to pay him.

FWIW, I'm glad he didn't return to Leeds in 2004 as I've stated all along on this forum but he was instrumental (along with Morley) in Bradford winning the Championship in 2005 from third though.

He didn't do too badly at Leeds considering he never wanted to go there in the first place.

I won't be applauding him. He had a choice about the way he handled things. For instance milking the crowd's applause at Franny's testimonial game when he knew he'd already signed for Bradford. My son got his autograph that night and was devasted when he didn't come back. Explaining that grown ups lie and don't keep their promises ain't pleasant.

If he'd been honest about it all I'd respect him for what be achieved at Leeds but I can't respect someone who behaved like he did

According to Peacocks autobiography he would have never come to Leeds and signed a new deal had Harris not arrived at Bulls!

He stated that he couldn't trust the board any longer, as Caisley said that there was no more money in the pot at the club to give him<JP> a contract up-grade. They then went out and signed Harris on megga bucks

he could not keep a promise to return to Leeds

Harris from when he joined us from the Wire was world class and he won so many games for us, he is an all time great. However it is hard to forget what he did in 2004 going to Northern breaking an agreement and some of the stuff he said about Leeds was bad. But there again at the end of the 2004 GF who can forget the song at the end. Harris whats the score.

But it is time to forget, in the long term he has badly damaged Northern and remember what a player he was for the Blue and Amber

We never forget Judas at Easter, so why should we forget Harris

quality player i will be applauding him, he almost single handly got us to 99 cc final, try against bulls in the semi springs to mind

I wouldn't boo him but I wouldn't applaud him either. I don't regard him as an all-time great at Leeds and would be nowhere near my all time Leeds team - John Holmes was a far superior stand off for one.

Off the pitch, he broke two contracts with Leeds: one to leave to go to Union, the other by going to Bradford when he returned (I wasn't bothered from a playing point of view but we should have been able to get a transfer fee).

On the pitch, he was very good for Leeds for about two years - 1998 and most of 1999 when he started games at full back and moved up to stand off after 55/60 minutes. Besides that, he and the team were good in fits and starts only and, ultimately, disappointing. I don't think he lived up to the hype and transfer fee he had.