Any news on whether his paperwork/visa has gone through?

Problem with signing Albert on a short term deal could be that, I THINK... he's only exempt from the quota for the duration of his first contract, if we signed him on a short term contract then decided we wanted to keep him, he'd then take a quota place on signing a new deal. A 2 year deal means we get him without using a quota space for the full 2 year, with the obvious risk that if he's rubbish, we'r stuck with him.

We could get around this by giving him a 2 year deal which is made up of a 1 year deal and an additional year with the option in Leeds favour.

Well, now I'm pretty confident we need to sign a new 6. Albert might still prove useful but he isn't the answer.

We're going to have to really cut in this time and let a number of players go in order to free up cap space for some proven quality.

You can't save cap by "cutting" players who are contracted and based on performances who'd want players we don't?

We have one player suitable to play six who isn’t getting a game at all, then we have another out on loan and probably won’t return, then another that’s just getting to grips of the game again. We won’t be going out for a six anytime soon. I’d be surprised if Lolohea is still here next season though on the subject.

In the post match interview Furner was asked directly about whether he thought Tui played well enough. He very pointedly avoided answering. Like I keep saying, whilst he can't do much about his skillset, he needs to be made to meet basic fitness standards or be fired.

Yeah I think we know the answer to that. The sky pundits were pretty scathing about lolohea last night. They all were saying hes looking very uncomfortable as a standoff and isn't doing enough. McDermott said mags and drinkwater played our halves off the pitch

I'm not sure I agree about the skillset. Look how much the Saints players in particular have improved individually under Holbrook. Or Cas players under Powell. I agree he is a useless fat lump at the moment though.

Both those coaches have had a couple of years (or more) on the task. A player’s ability is a mix of nature and nurture of course; lower ability players can be made to look better when playing with confidence amongst better players, in good structure.

My view is that we have a few players who quite clearly aren’t up to standard in that squad; and a general lack of physicality in terms of pace and strength. Those things are not going to be fixed with a new coach, and neither are we going to make any further progress as a club if we get into knee-jerking.

Realistically we are still probably a couple of years out from challenging towards the top of the competition (and I’m not entirely sure which competition that will be!)

Briscoe
Briscoe
Handley
Lolohea
Cuthbertson
Peteru
Parcell (these days)
Crosby (might be harsh he might pull boots on again one day)
Singleton
Albert
Ferres
JJB
Ablett
Donaldson

All played (or would have) first team this year and not good enough for Leeds. Sounds pompous? Probably, but doesn’t change the facts that they are simply not good enough.

There are probably more, that was just off the top of my head. Just shows where the problem is and has been for a few years.

In a salary cap sport you couldn't avoid having at least a few players of that quality in your squad. Our problem is poor players are the vast majority of our top 20. Its even sadder if you ask who would definitely be in a top 4 side - Watkins and Ward if fit, Merrin, Hurrell. Who else if we're being honest?