So according to rhino phil leeds are going to end up with no hardaker, watkins, mcguire, jjb, delaney, segeyaro and hall. On top of that one will be signed and there will be a half demolished south stand with financial difficulty.

F*ck me I think I need anti depressants after having the misfortune to read that lump of sh*t.

Abletts retirement party will be a somber affair!

Had we had a goal kicking quality half back we would now be at the other end of the table despite the terrible injury list and other factors. Our first priority last year should have been to replace Sinfield followed by a hooker. This still remains the same now if Segeyaro is returning down under and should be the focus before any deal with Ferris.

IMO JJB despite missing a lot of games has added more to the side than Ferris this year. He made 200 tackles more than any other Leeds player (6th in SL) and 270 more than Ferris with far fewer errors and better tackle busts and clean breaks.

Firstly, I'd advise you don't believe every rumour you hear. Secondly, money is clearly and definitely not the big issue - the club spends full salary cap, as usual, and paid out a transfer fee earlier in the year to bring an England international into the squad (whose deal in turn needed to be carefully structured so we wouldn't break the cap).

With the regulations in place within the league you have to manage your cap carefully but also take a pragmatic view over several seasons. We are largely left with the squad we have for next year because most players are on long term deals. The stability and security of those long term deals induced them to be here and at their best in 2015. Sure if times have changed, next time contracts come up for renewal we say thanks and let them go. But you would never have had the success of last year if Leeds hadn't had a very settled culture and team over several years.

If Hetherington had been the sort of CEO to react to whinging fans by constantly chopping and changing the squad it might have kept you happy in the short term but it would have made the club immeasurably less successful in terms of trophies won.

Yes, because they're always very vocal about potential signings aren't they?



Leeds Rhinos - papering over the cracks since 2007.

How any Leeds fans can criticise Hetherington is totally beyond me!!!

I don't think most think money is an issue. Longer term planning is possibly more of an issue. I have said this before Kevin Seinfeld' made a lot of people at Leeds i.e. coaches, players, CEO look a lot better at doing their job than they actually were.

2015 was a great season for Leeds but was it worth compromising the following 3/4 season for due to a squad hamstrung with inferior players tied into long term contract where longevity of contract is traded against pay? Do Leeds really want Delaney until 2018? This strategy restricts the agility of the club to react when things start to go off plan. Perhaps Handley only signing for two years is acceptance that young players will not be tied down for long periods on miniscule monies in sport where lack of talent is an issue.

Is this squad strong enough to compete next season, does it have the quality in the right positions - only time will tell.

As you say if GH was the type of CEO to listen to fans then maybe things could have been even better not replacing Kevin Sinfield' has proved a monumental oversight and has seen the team now facing the likes of Batley and Featherstone rather than Wigan or Warrington. Perhaps if he had listened to the fans this could have been avoided?

The desperation at HQ is plain for all to see - I was run in June to see if I would renew my season ticket - when I asked what would happen if we were playing in the championship the girl on the phone was unable to proffer a response.

Who would you have replaced Sinfield with Sal out of interest??

Oh look, a fan who thinks he knows more than GH.

I'll give you a tip - you don't replace players like sinfield. They are pretty much irreplaceable. You adapt without them. Could someone have been signed to mitigate his loss? Maybe. But who was really available? for what price? what was our cap looking like? what was their mentality like? There's lot's of ins and out's to it we don't know.

Furthermore, at times this season the entire team has been fundamentally broken. It's too simplistic to simply put it down to a failure to sign a sinfield mark II, because there's been so many different factors.

Everyone is a realistic scenario I know for a fact Delaney has wanted out for a while. Im not saying all could come to pass but some my well. Keeping hold of Segeyar has to be the number one priority but thats entirely out of the clubs hands if he wants to go. If we dont have a new half back in place next year the club will have been grossly mismanaged.

so this is a successful season is it? Avoiding bottom place on the final game and playing in the middle 8s? Are you expecting a late run to the grand final or something! Top 4 should be a given with a club Leeds size, anything else is a failure. If you start accepting this sort of season as the norm it wont be long before we are in the same position Bradford find themselves in