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| Quote ="M@islebugs"This is a very black day for the club.
'"
Slightly OTT there.
Player wants to play for another side - hardly unheard of now is it?
Anyway, Salford promise big spending, we won't. Plus, Whitehead is a "billy big-time" who is nowhere near as good as he thinks he is. Defensively useless and gives away too many penalties.
I assume that we will be adequately compensated.
Time to step up to the plate Mr Khan.
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| Must say, as he is in contract and we should get a good fee I am not too upset by this. His comments are interesting in that we aren't progressing. This is a club who c12m ago were days away from closure, have half the sky money of anyone else, currently sit in a play off place (just!) and haven't featured in the play offs for a number of years.
In fairness I think the club has made more progress in the last 9m than Whitehead has in the last 2 yrs. Would be an interesting question to ask Whitehead, bearing in mind situation last year, what he would class as progress early June
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| Losing a young, british, homegrown player who has previously had international call ups is nothing but an absolute disaster. Forget all this talk of his poor defence - something like that can be ironed out in training in a matter of weeks by a decent coach.
Now more than ever it is vital for clubs to produce and RETAIN their own junior talents. There is no point receiving a fee for Whitehead when the outside player pool is so devoid of quality.
I can see why FC and the club have taken the stance they have, but I honestly think we would have been better going down the Cas/Clark route and telling him to forget about leaving the club. He was contracted to the end of 2016 - who's to say what sort of position we as a club would be in at that time? He could well have had a change of heart by then. Now we will never know.
Instead we have folded at the first hint of unrest, our reputation for being a selling club goes on and on.
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| Second row is the one position we are blessed with plenty of cover in. And not just cover, but decent cover. The likes of Bateman, Olbison, Donaldson, Walker, Langley, Addy and Murphy ("on loan"icon_wink.gif can easily cover, especially considering Whitehead's loss of form in recent times.
If we get £100k for him, it'll be us laughing, not the club that buy him. If that money is used to strengthen an area of the team that needs it more than the back row, then we win again.
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| Quote ="Nothus"Losing a young, british, homegrown player who has previously had international call ups is nothing but an absolute disaster. Forget all this talk of his poor defence - something like that can be ironed out in training in a matter of weeks by a decent coach.
Now more than ever it is vital for clubs to produce and RETAIN their own junior talents. There is no point receiving a fee for Whitehead when the outside player pool is so devoid of quality.
I can see why FC and the club have taken the stance they have, but I honestly think we would have been better going down the Cas/Clark route and telling him to forget about leaving the club. He was contracted to the end of 2016 - who's to say what sort of position we as a club would be in at that time? He could well have had a change of heart by then. Now we will never know.
Instead we have folded at the first hint of unrest, our reputation for being a selling club goes on and on.'"
What is the point of keeping an unhappy player against his will?
And "absolute disaster?". Awful choice of words and totally OTT in any case.
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| TBH I don't see this as anything like the same scale as when we lost the likes of Fielden, Pryce, Peacock etc. Whitehead isn't in their league (and never will be IMO). We should be careful not to blow it out of proportion.
He's not progressed in recent seasons and has issues with his defence and ball security. I was only saying last night before I knew of the transfer request that he would probably benefit from a change of club, provided he went to a better side that could "carry" him a bit. However, that's not going to happen until the end of the season at least.
The bull about the club not progressing as he'd hoped is a bit much. He signed a big long term deal during the final months of the Hood regime and we've come through a lot since then. It sounds like his head has been turned. I'm disappointed he didn't stick it out for his mates until the end of the season as the squad need every hand on deck at the moment. Poor attitude.
Now at least Donaldson will get a game and the defence on Whitehead's side will improve!
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| What a silly boy - his head is too easily turned. Obviously he thinks a lot about himself......
He now has a real job on his hands, he'll be left in limbo for a while till he is sold and I wonder what state (physically) he'll end up in.....
its a big gamble you've taken Elliot, and either us fans will regret it or you will, time will tell.
I wonder if he is changing his name to Yellabelly from Whitehead?
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| An awful position for Bradford. It’s not as if he is an international class player who teams will be queuing up to buy forcing up the price. He is a good player, potentially one of Bradford’s best home grown talents, but has stagnated. It is telling that his deficiencies have not been ironed out &, if anything, got worse. Possibly a sign of the lack of back room support available to Bradford. Presumably this being on leave lark involves getting paid your contract but not playing bonuses? Lose, lose for Bradford unless they can quickly trade him in.
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| Salford bound and definately been tapped-up. If you get 80K it will be a good deal for you guys. He's nowt special.
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| Quote ="tigertot"It is telling that his deficiencies have not been ironed out &, if anything, got worse. Possibly a sign of the lack of back room support available to Bradford. '"
Possibly, but he's had these deficiencies for years. I suspect it's not all down to lack of coaching but down to him a bit too. Hope he enjoys it at the Reds.
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| Quote ="mystic eddie"Slightly OTT there.
Player wants to play for another side - hardly unheard of now is it?
Anyway, Salford promise big spending, we won't. Plus, Whitehead is a "billy big-time" who is nowhere near as good as he thinks he is. Defensively useless and gives away too many penalties.
I assume that we will be adequately compensated.
Time to step up to the plate Mr Khan.'"
I can't see Omar defending any better than Whitehead in that channel but if we got shut of all the players you think are he might be the only option.
Whitehead is in the top 4 Bulls players for meters, tackles, try assists, tackle busts, carries, clean breaks but let's pillory him anyway.
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| Straight swap with Leeds for Ian Kirke?
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| Whitehead's attacking game is good. There's nobody knocking that. Defensively he's got some problems. We'll lose some attacking threat without him that's for sure but defensively I don't see us being hurt that much.
Compared to another young player like Liam Farrell, Whitehead is some way behind.
Thankfully Ian Kirke has just signed a new deal at Leeds.
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| Quote ="M@islebugs"I can't see Omar defending any better than Whitehead in that channel but if we got shut of all the players you think are poop he might be the only option. '"
Give yourself a pat on the back for that witty comeback. Brilliant work. No, really.
Quote ="M@islebugs"
Whitehead is in the top 4 Bulls players for meters, tackles, try assists, tackle busts, carries, clean breaks but let's pillory him anyway.'"
Ah! Nothing quite tells the story quite like statistics. Where does he stand on the table of penalties conceded/missed tackles for example?
Not to mention lengthy bans for biting people.
I don't see him as being too much of a loss, and, for once, looking on here I don't think I am in the minority.
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| I blame Ken Davy and Huddersfield for this, you couldn't make it up.
Also I remember Bradford fans ranting what a great player Whitehead is, he hands in a transfer request and all of a sudden he is Michael Worrincy in disguise.
Won't be long before Bateman gets the same treatment when he pulls his Wire shirt on
FICKLE!!!!
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| There is no point in having a player who does not want to play for the club no matter how good he is (or thinks he is). It`s sad but life goes on. I wonder how much his attitude has rubbed off and disrupted other players. Like others have said he appears to have been tapped up. The club now needs to hold its nerve and try to negotiate a deal like it did for Paul Newlove (obviously on a lesser scale).
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| Quote ="mystic eddie"Ah! Nothing quite tells the story quite like statistics. Where does he stand on the table of penalties conceded/missed tackles for example?
'"
Exactly. Because the stats will be skewed as he is the preferred cover at centre when one of our backs is injured.
He is a 2nd rower.
What we need to know is how many missed tackles he has when he is up against forwards in the middle of the park.
And how many missed tackles he has when he is pushed out to centre , mid-game, and is up against a top quality centre.
Still too many, but stats don't tell the whole story.
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| Quote ="FLYINGPROP"I blame Ken Davy and Huddersfield for this, you couldn't make it up.
Also I remember Bradford fans ranting what a great player Whitehead is, he hands in a transfer request and all of a sudden he is Michael Worrincy in disguise.
Won't be long before Bateman gets the same treatment when he pulls his Wire shirt on
FICKLE!!!!'"
How many people have been "ranting" about how great a player he is then? 
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| Quote ="ifallwerelikemumby"There is no point in having a player who does not want to play for the club no matter how good he is (or thinks he is). It`s sad but life goes on. I wonder how much his attitude has rubbed off and disrupted other players. Like others have said he appears to have been tapped up. The club now needs to hold its nerve and try to negotiate a deal like it did for Paul Newlove (obviously on a lesser scale).'"
Agree with this.
If one of the clubs can't pay cash and needs rid of a couple of players to make space under their cap - we may be in a stronger position. We have plenty of cover in the 2nd row, but if we could get our hands on a couple of forwards, who want to make a name for themselves, then that could work out.
Would be nice if we could get Evans/Blythe permanently but we would not be in a stronger position in the short term.
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| Whitehead signed a deal (or at least agreed it) under the Hood regime. So, all this about signing a long term contract and then jumping is a bit false really.
In the real world most of us are on 1-3 month’s notice and would gladly leave our current employer in the poo if a better offer was elsewhere – more so if we’d been head hunted regardless of how long we may have been in an organisation.
Whitehead is in his mid-twenties (?) and is likely to have only 6-7 years to maximise his income. He’s not played in a major final, is very unlikely to do so any time soon with the Bulls and at the end of his career, what will he be able to say? I stayed at Bradford for 10-12 years……Other players from the past were slightly different, in terms that they had won things with us and just wanted a new challenge (or at least they could say that without stating the money card – I’m pretty sure one, if not all of Pryce, Fielden and Peacock will have received more money when moving on regardless of what has been said in the past in books and interviews).
The lad would probably have had offers to jump ship when the vultures were circling last year, so give the lad some credit when he could have done a Koppy and gone for nothing. Personally I think although the timing isn’t brilliant, he has at least been upfront and honest about it and gone through the right channels – he’s not bad mouthed the club, has spoken with his agent and the coaching staff and it is they who have made the decision not to have him available for selection. If I’d been Franny, given our lack of numbers – I may have stated that IF Whitehead stays professional, trains hard and warrants selection, he will be considered for the team. To have him not training is a bit silly, but not being close to the squad, hopefully Franny has taken the right decision and it won’t impact the rest of the team.
From a personal point of view, I believe that if Whitehead wants to play for England, win trophies, realise his potential etc, he will need to leave Bradford to a play for a better club and be in different surroundings. It’s quite clear that we’re not going to be challenging for honours any time soon and other coaches may be able to iron out the errors and tackling deficiencies in his game.
There have been times when he’s looked as though he may push on and become an England player. He’s not going to do that if he’s not happy and has become stagnant.
There are two ways to look at it as I see it.
1. Moan like hell about him and give him grief and don’t actually make much of a difference.
2. Sell him to anyone who will have him and get as good a deal as possible for the club.
It is clear that we are spending under the salary cap and if whoever we sell him to (for example Warrington for ease of this argument) need to move other players from their cap for the rest of the year, we have plenty of space for the rest of the season to accommodate them.
We could end up in a situation where Whitehead goes to Wire, we receive Blythe / Evans permanently and obtain the services of a couple of fringe players, or potentially a “first teamer” out of contract at the end of the year at Wire who they are planning to release for the rest of this season.
One thing to remember is that there is no prize money for finishing 9th down in the table. If the club have banked on finishing in the top 8 for budgeting purposes (and we all think we’re sailing close to the wind money wise), then we may need to speculate to accumulate….to ensure a top 8 finish and a share of prize money.
At the moment we are short on quality and bodies – any deal that increases either is only going to be beneficial to the club.
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| Quote ="mystic eddie"Give yourself a pat on the back for that witty comeback. Brilliant work. No, really.
Ah! Nothing quite tells the story quite like statistics. Where does he stand on the table of penalties conceded/missed tackles for example?
Not to mention lengthy bans for biting people.
I don't see him as being too much of a loss, and, for once, looking on here I don't think I am in the minority.'"
Who would you sign to replace him?
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| Quote ="M@islebugs"Who would you sign to replace him?'"
Who said we need to replace him? We have adequate cover at second row. If we were going to lose anyone from any position then 2nd row is where it would be.
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| Quote ="Bullseye"Whitehead's attacking game is good. There's nobody knocking that. Defensively he's got some problems. We'll lose some attacking threat without him that's for sure but defensively I don't see us being hurt that much.
Compared to another young player like Liam Farrell, Whitehead is some way behind.
Thankfully Ian Kirke has just signed a new deal at Leeds.'"
One plays behind the most dominant front row in the league and a week or two back one played behind Evans, Fairbank, Langley and Scruton. You're comparing apples with oranges.
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| Quote ="mystic eddie"Who said we need to replace him? We have adequate cover at second row. If we were going to lose anyone from any position then 2nd row is where it would be.'"
Enough said.
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| It seems a strange time from Whitehead's pov, less than a year after signing a long term contract. I guess it puts the value of contracts into perspective.
To say he wants to join a top four club, he's not exactly been in 'top four club' form recently. That said, he has been outstanding[certainly on attackin the recent past and is one of those I'd hoped the club could 'hang its hat on' in the short term future - at least he plays in a position in which we're hardly short of bodies, and if we get some transfer fee, we may be able to put it to a prop, where we have a definite need. Not sure which of the top four clubs is going to look at Elliott and say, "he's better than what we've got", though....nor which club would have a gap on the cap and be willing to spend it on the hope that Elliott grows into the player who fulfils their hopes.
My overreaching feeling though is disappointment that a Bradford born player would leave like this, though conversely I can understand how he might feel.
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