Quote: The Ghost of '99 "The idea that sponsors forced Hetherington to take a lesser role in Leeds affairs is utterly bonkers, as is the idea that Leeds didn't spend cash on the squad. The club consistently spent up to full cap; unfortunately since 2015 the players have mostly not delivered in return to the value of their contracts.
Hetherington remains the most experienced and astute administrator in British RL. What might be true is that he's been pulled in too many directions in recent years, including presently dealing with the crisis at Leeds whilst also having to oversee the near liquidation of our tenants, of whom he remains a board member. The first team contractual matters moving to Sinfield have shown perhaps how steady Hetherington was in the role.'"
What’s bonkers is thinking he just relieved a huge and key chunk of his duties at the drop of a hat midseason of his own sole decision. That’s not Hetherington’s style at all and anyone who has watched him operate wrt to Leeds and the RFL over the years should know that he likes things his way, not giving them to someone who immediately came in and criticised the culture and this week slammed the way the club was run previously as rotten. People pouring big money into the club will want to know where that investment will be heading to over the next 2-5 years. Less likely to spend if the setup Leeds had with Hetherington and McDermott which was constantly viewed as the problem amongst many Leeds fans for a number of years remained the way it was.
Spending to the cap is a bare minimum that most clubs do (and Leeds actually always leave a space for a midseason signing if needed...which it was last year but they wouldn’t do). Given we spent over a decade winning trophies and competition money, the best crowds, good sponsorship/merchandise sales/exposure etc. from the success that others barring Wigan don’t come close to matching then no way did we spend what reflected that success. Hetherington went big in the late 90’s signing the likes of Harris and Senior. Brought in the likes of Ali, Webb, Buderus, Peacock during the 00’s. Last several years not even close to that, the most significant ones were ones we kinda fell into unplanned with Ferres’ off field issues causing his departure, Briscoe was meant to be heading to the NRL until it didn’t come off but he’d already announced he was leaving Hull, Segeyaro only because Hardaker had run out lives and got a loan move to the NRL.
