Unlike Gotcha.

In fairness it is not a bad bit of business if you think about it logically.

Leeds have bagged a loan fee (undisclosed)
Cas get Zak for a year on a try before you buy basis
Leeds then get the remainder of the fee in 2017 when Zak goes permanently
Leed get cash for Zak. Cas get Zak and are able to pay in two instalments.
Hopefully Cas will be paying some if not all of his wages next season.
So actually from a business point of view win win all round

Great deal for Cas. I don't see any mention of a loan fee, just an agreed fee to make the move permanent at the end of next year.
If he plays well and behaves Cas will pay the fee.
If he can't recapture his form or continues his off-field antics, he becomes Leeds' problem again.
Just shows how desperate Leeds were to get rid of him.

Its going to be a bit of an awakening for him from the pampered life at Headingley either way.

I hope it works out.

Fees agreed,contracts not.Still a Leeds player.You may have to pamper him again.

If a loan is what has been agreed I think it is great business by Cas and very poor business by Leeds.
What if he gets MOS does his value go up?
If he messes up he goes back to Leeds and we are faced with the same problem trying to get rid only this time it will be at a fraction of the supposed £160,000.
It also means we have no cash in the kitty to dip into the market should we even contemplate doing so this year.
We do appear to be on a bit of a slippery slope.

"Leeds Rhinos and Castleford Tigers have agreed a undisclosed fee for the loan of England full back Zak Hardaker to the Tigers for the 2017 season."

The above is the first line on the Rhinos Official Website - I read that as a "fee for the loan of Zak". Happy to be guided on my interpretation of that sentence

Indeed. Its win-win for Cas. The fee doesn't go up if he regains his form, but we can dump him back on you if we don't want to keep him for any reason.

Interesting, it does read that way. The Cas site only mentions the future fee.

What happens if Cas get relegated?

You get him back.
If we get relegated, we have bigger problems than a player on a one-year loan.

It will be to England's advantage as well as to Cas' benefit if Powell can get him to chime into the line & pass as well as Dorn did.
It will also make a massive statement about the effectiveness of all the coaches he's had at Leeds.
It all looks like very shrewd business by Cas & a monumental cock-up by Leeds that they could not sort Hardaker out.

Certainly not a great outcome for Leeds. As it's only a 1 year deal, with no guarantee he won't be back in 2018, it makes it difficult to use his cap space on a long term signing - we're only guaranteed his cap space for the 2017 season.
Having said that, that's probably a bit of a red herring, as I highly suspect we've got plenty of space left on the cap even including his money - if not, something is seriously wrong with our wage structures (which I can't imagine GH would let happen). This current squad should have plenty of cap space left.

If he does play well is it possible another club could come in and offer more money to snatch him off you?