The right decision of course .... No question.

Jones-Bishop has had a lack-lustre season, IMO. His chase back and support play has often appeared laboured - don't know if he's been carrying an injury or just been low on confidence/uninspired by the quality of coaching but he's just been out there and little else.

Whether Broughton would or wouldn't have had more to offer outside Watkins is an unknown. He appears a very enthusiastic player though and there can be little doubting his true winger's pace. He took yards out of Peter Fox last weekend in a straight foot race and Fox is no slouch. With his degree behind him now I hope he can push on and fulfil his obvious potential.

He's crap though don't ya know.... ? AL Rhino says so.... The Leeds management let him go. Nuff said

I just think GH has more than earned the benefit of the doubt with regard to decisions made on young players, and whether they are retained or released.

Perhaps you could come up with a list of instances when he's got it wrong, and when said players have gone on to bigger and better things?

Your new obsession Daniel Smith - how often have you seen him play out of interest? I fully admit that I never have - all I have top go on is he's never played a first team game for Leeds, had a short spell at Oldham this season where I didn't hear that he did anything spectacular, and now he's been let go. If I'm missing something here, I'd like to know what it is - but it seems to me that the lad just isn't good enough to be a first teamer at Leeds.

Shame for him, but he's not the first and certainly won't be the last.

Well from the two props we were hoping to get a look at, Walmsley has signed for Saints. And Taylor is rumoured to have signed for Wigan. Is this southstand project restricting our spending ? After all Wigan dont have own a ground to improve so does that put them in a better position in paying transfer fees ? On the topic of transfer fees are these totally outside of the cap ?



I would move heaven and earth to get Scott Taylor but I suspect when it comes to transfer fees we are well behind and the sleeve likes to keep it to a minimum.

The only "we" hoping to get Walmsley and Taylor that we are sure about are people on these boards. GH has said he doesn't want to sign anyone for depth - he wants a definite first 17 player - which Achurch will be, but there was no guarantee either Taylor/Walmsley would be, at least next season.

the reason singleton and amor are not at leeds in the team is because our esteemed head coach prefers to flog our ageing props week in week out. you agree thats good i suppose.
amor has played better than any prop in our squad this season, he has been top class

If I have an 'obsession' it is simply that the club gives its youth the opportunity it quite rightly afforded some of the present first team squad in the naughties. A very recent proven model, would you not agree ?? I might not have personally seen Daniel Smith or any other u-20's player in the flesh as it were, but I respect the opinions of others that [ihave[/i seen them in action. It's the principle I support. If they're good enough they're old enough. Give them a chance. As others have stated, without seeing them play alongside the quality established players as 17/18/19 year olds how will we ever know ?

The bottom line is we appear to keep missing the boat in favour of ageing forwards, who are being subjected to ever more demands on their battered bodies, without the respite these younger guys could complement them with by sharing those first team duties on a Warrington-like-rotation-policy.

I might sometimes purposely irreverently prod and poke to perversely wind up the likes of AL Rhino, BUT I make no apologies in supporting the principle of promotion of youth......especially within this present non spending climate that GH is obviously, it would seem, to be subscribing to.

So you trust the opinion of other people on players you haven't seen, just not the people whose job it is to decide whether they are up to the task

....I know that those in positions of power or authority do no always know best or make the most honourable, trusted, open decisions. Very often they are compromised by politics, vested interests and ulterior motives. I am not and never will be a slavish follower of somebody annointed reverently by others.

Those who I perceive ( I might, of course, be wrong ) to be of equal or similar status, with no compromises made on them by "authority" I do, yes, tend to trust more so.

So recruitment plans are on hold, then 2 days later we announce £1m to be spent on the pitch - plus the ongoing Southstand plans. I for one don't see any 'major' signing imminent, though I hope im wrong.

You're comparing two very different scenarios. When McGuire, Sinfield et al. were making their debuts we'd won one CC in a generation. We've since been witnessing the most successful side in our history. I'd have been disappointed if, for the sake of giving young players an extended run, we'd jeopardised that success. Consider last season: it could be argued that we should have rested/dropped senior players during the regular season in response to some abysmal performances. It's only my opinion but I reckon the season would have panned out very differently had we done so. The senior players dug the hole and subsequently hauled themselves out but it was a very, very close run thing and for me it required pretty much every one of those senior players to achieve it. To have replaced one or more of them would have been counterproductive and possibly disastrous.
Lastly, you mention recent proven models. Surely the most recent of all was last season's decision to stick with experience?

So it appears the new high profile signing is a pitch.

Interesting to see we just had the "looking for a big name signing" interview and the postman just delivered my membership renewal and season ticket detail.

You old cynic. Purely a coincidence.

Now get your chequebook out otherwise Gary won't be able to and if he can't it'll be all your fault.

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