That was my thoughts exactly!

My thoughts too, never rated Gleeson at warrington his heart wasn't with the Wire
Best bit of business Smith did getting rid!

But if Gleeson realises this is his last chance and plays like he did in the grand final ( and in parts) last season, Hull have got the best British centre by a mile and will be dangerous opponents for anyone!

Come on 2000, that's a bit harsh
Yes, maybe his heart wasn't in it, but I've still not seen a CLASSIER centre in my 30+ years of watching Wire
Gleeson, for his footwork alone, was a joy to watch
Just a pity he's got birdseed where his brain should be.

T'was good business we did with the Pies for him. tho

Should make for an excellent Hull christmas do this year.

All they need now to make it complete is Joey Barton to turn up with a box of cigars.

and Cheryl Cole for a punch up

and her Ashley, with his spud-gun

And Ricky Hatton with his bags of, erm, talcum powder...

Jiffy & Bateman ?

Jiffy was a strange one (he did used to float positions at times)
Bateman was a different type of centre to Gleeson, more of a "commited, all things to all men" one, if you like.
Using a football analogy, it's probably like comparing Gascoigne to Gerrard, if you will.

P.S. You'll NEVER find me picking fault on either of the 2 Welsh princes - fantastic servants to the Wire.
To be fair, I was more gutted when Bateman left, than Jiffy
Jiffy had made his mind up, that he wanted to go back to the 3 point game
We lost Bateman, due to Johnno's pig-headedness (iirc)

and to think, they question our salary cap

Bateman's autobiography mad me shudder as a Wire fan when retells how he was treated at the end by us. If we didn't want to keep him why offer him a crap contract on considerably less than he was on before. Can't blame him for going, but the fact that he went on such bad terms was appalling for such a good servant to the club.
As for Gleeson, not many players have a track record for conduct as bad as him. We all know he can play but can he behave like an adult? If he makes it to the end of the 2012 season still at the KC I'll be surprised.

Quite agree MKC. I cherry-picked my pages of Bateman's book (I have no desire to read about the 3 point code, bits), and i too, found his leaving....shall we say unnacceptable, to one who gave us so much.

Gleeson. Well let's just say that the general public tend to think that the vast majority of RL players are thick northerners. Gleeson does nothing to stop the stereotype.

Not quite. Johnson was a third-party to Peter Higham offering Bateman a lesser contract than four years previous. From Bateman's perspective, he didn't argue Bateman's case though.

That was the start of a 10+ year slippery slope, for me
We lost qualty players (Davies Bateman), some were coming to the (quality) ends of their careers Shelford, Ellis etc.
Yes we had youth coming through (Harris/Penny/Hilton/Roper established, Wainwright/Sculthorpe coming through), but we started to lose our way.