cant understand how people are talking about a match between trout and singieton and completley ignoring the fact that we had a better prospect on our books at the end of last season and if those raving about another clubs youth had took the time to watch our academy they would have seen for themselves

Yes I'm not sure Singleton is the answer to the question either, I think people are putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 5, obviously time will tell.

In an interview Agar gave a couple of weeks ago I think he mentioned that he was after bringing in 2 players, one of those being an out and out prop and a utility forward, surely Singleton's the latter.

Singleton is the size of a prop. Trout isn't and will do well at second row this season I'm sure.

i note in your posts asmadasa that you seem to give big raps to brad singleton ,i wonder how much youve seen of him ,following our academy for the last 3 yrs icould be wrong but ithink not i will have seen more of him than you,for a start im abig admirer of cumbrian forwards but that is the only thing he as in comman with amor. He is no relation to me but id like to know why posters on here ignore the fact when i point out that in adam gledhill we had a forward who with the right training could have gone to the top and yet we have threads talking about young props.dont get me wrong im a wakefield supporter ,but i watch all the age groups at the club , and unlike some the opposition too,i really think im quallified to judge young players and i suppose it sounds big headed but i think most times i get it right

Why let James go if all we do is sign a forward who has less experience in a deal that will benefit Leeds long term?

Mainly because we've made a bit of a mess of our recruitment and he is all that is left available.

Decent back up but we may aswell have kept Matt James.

Can we just take it as read that you believe that Adam Gledhill was the best young forward at the club, to save you repeating it in every thread?

In my opinion if you are looking at basically an academy player from another club i would be a little annoyed. At the beginning of the year a big push through your club was about players within and as people have stated Kyle Trout is a real good prospect. At Cas we have a brilliant young player in Dan Fleming out on dual reg and it annoys me that he won't be playing for us. I think both our clubs junior development is poor.

Disagree totally

Cas have always had a good youth set up, ours is getting there in terms of talent but in terms of set up I think we are ahead of Cas, problem is our clubs are still way behind the likes of Leeds. We have had some good prospects tand that what they are, Trout FWIW and IMHO is a back rower, he played one game at prop the other day as a fill in but thats it, he didnt do himself any harm and I thought he went really well but hes not a prop. The youth set ups generally find the odd golden nugget however until you have a structure where the younger players are totally loyal to the club (like the Leeds set up) then players will come and go, I beleive for a couple of reasons (well 3) . Firstly the club itself (hey I have just signed for the SL champions if I make it I may win trophies etc). Secondly the set up (whats in it for the player so now clubs are looking at parallel pathways for those that dont make it and that is the majority sadly however many go onto play at a an excellent standard outside SL and with a good education pathway can compliment their playing talent at whatever level with employment. The last area is money and as young players develop and agents/parents are involved sometimes the grass is greener elsewhere. So the reality for me is that the minority are likely to get to SL level however the key is the great set up to attract the best to identify the best ala Leed etc.

I trust R.A. who I hope has seen something in Singleton that he didn't see in Matt James. I haven't seen loads of Singleton but I was impressed on Boxing Day.

As for Matt James I couldn't understand why we let him go with another year on his contract and at only 25 could have learned something maybe from Poore. What was the issue with Matt James? Was it the money at Featherstone or a fallout with R.A.? What was the weakness in his game?

I can't comment on Adam Gledhill as I've never seen the lad.

They are doing a voluntary scouting system for the Wildcats to identify young talent. If you believe in your own ability to identify talent as you say you ought to volunteer your services and have an actual impact at the Wildcats.

I dont think James wanted another season in the 20's. He only made about 6 appearences last year which for someone who's 25 and had played 1st team, week in week out the year before for his previous club, must be quite difficult.

As a prop at 22'ish you kind of expect to be in and out of the side at 25/26 you want to be starting to play regular.

Singleton will fill the 5th prop role that James played last year and obviously falls within our budget. Trout can then fill in as and when required as its not unprobable that there will be times next season when we will be a couple of props down. Cant see our luck with injuries been so good next year!

sure can bren,but people who watch our academy and thats not just me, get a bit pieved when folk go in to raptures about young uns from other clubs and never watch our own play

I don't see anyone going into raptures about Singleton; I do see people being realistic though - given that we don't know what happened behind the scenes with Gledhill (unless you'd like to share) then we have to assume that either he wanted too much money, was advised to go elsewhere by his agent or that RA didn't rate him. Either way, we can only support the players who do run out for us next season.

There are usually two sides to a story.
As Fritzy alluded to I think James was probably wanting first team rugby.
He has gone to a top Championship side where he can perhaps make his mark and once noticed can then step back up into Superleague.