From Whitehead and his agent's point of view I can see it playing out along the lines of:

Put the transfer request in now - if a club comes in now, great.

Realistically most clubs cannot afford to bring him on board now given the salary cap and complications of any swap deals and moving players on loan to various clubs.

If he has to sit in the stands until the end of the season, it's no good to the Bulls. At the end of the season, they will then look to offload him for whatever deal they can - however minor that will be.

At this point he may have a club or two lined up who can fit him into the salary cap for next season once other players have been released or moved on of their own accord.

The timing is purely for Whitehead, but actually helps the Bulls in some ways if they are ready to let him go at the end of the year for a pittance. They can plan now for replacing him with players from other clubs, or offering others improved contracts who may leave but we wish to retain (ala Kearney).

Have a like. Superb.

Would whitehead be covered by the mandatory payment system for players who come through a clubs academy but leave before age 24 despite club wanting to keep them?. Not sure if it applies if a player leaves mid contract rather than refusing a new deal, but if it does apply then we get something like 5k a year for every year since he signed his first professional contract. So that would mean a mandatory minimum transfer fee of 40kish, unless he's prepared to sit on sidelines until he turns 24 in September.

If he holds firm to his stated intention of signing for a 'top four' club, he's pretty likely to be sitting on the sidelines until September anyway as I doubt any would have the space under the cap to sign him before the end of the season, even assuming they wished to do so. Unless he [ihas[/i been tapped up, of course, and the tapper has already 'made arrangements' to lose someone from their cap? If the one they wish to lose is a prop, maybe we can do a deal!!

I'm a mate of Elliotts,but I would be very very surprised if any of the current top 4 clubs would be interested in him

By the timing of his announcement, and the words used in the press, it sounds like Whitehead already has a club to move to.

The fact that he states a top 4 club is the biggest clue to this. Without a club lined up, this comment would be ridiculous as it basically puts off all other suitors.

By my guessing, he's already been in contact with a 'Top 4' club and his terms have already been agreed. The transfer request is just a means to push this move through. If I had to guess his destination, I would say the club that has made contact is either Leeds or Huddersfield, and based on previous rumours, I would most likely go with Leeds.

I think you will find Eliot already has a deal lined up.

Look how many tries he's scored as a forward in a poor team.In a good team he'll be a top scoring forward don't worry about that.He's scored tries a plenty throughout his career up to date.Hope he carries on coaching the youngsters at his former amateur club.

The question you should be asking is why he wants to leave his home town club.Why an investor pulled out after seeing something she didn't like?

Anyway,if the BULLS get a decent fee many on here will be glad to see the back of Eliot as they don't seem to get him at all.So WIN WIN for them,YES?

Cummins?Can he inspire?Can he improve players to play above themselves?Can he bring young talent through?Those are the questions on my mind right now.Eliot wants to leave---not a good start imo.Bateman next?Don't rule it out.

I've not given up on FC yet. He had one of the hardest tasks this year, and he's just gone through the toughest part of the fixture list. A decent win (hopefully at Saints) will get the confidence back up and we should see the team competing again.

I'm not classing FC a Mcnamara yet.

As for why he wants to leave, I'm not overly convinced with some of the things I've seen by the management at Odsal, but I suppose they are still learning how to run a RL club. There does seem to be a few 'distractions' coming from the actions of the board members, but without full knowledge of what is going on, I don't think it would be fair of me to criticise.

I suppose only time will tell how good of an owner OK will be for the Bulls

Quick question, would a transfer fee count on a potential club's salary cap or is it just wages ?? Thanks

Just wages to the best of my knowledge.

I'm thinking it counts,could be wrong,if I'm wrong it probably doesn't count