Confirmed today on our local newspaper, will be official in the next few hours... Article in French (sorry but use a translator) : www.lindependant.fr/2011/08/23/l ... ,53936.php

Confirmed today on our local newspaper, will be official in the next few hours... Article in French (sorry but use a translator) : www.lindependant.fr/2011/08/23/l ... ,53936.php

Good to see Catalans are showing some ambition. Dureau, Pryce, Bosc AND Carney? They will be immensely creative next season.

If this turns out to be true it's a very puzzling situation. Why? What the hell are the club playing at?

Official : en.catalansdragons.com/index.php ... 08-23_1374

Official : en.catalansdragons.com/index.php ... 08-23_1374

Confirmed by saints! On the website

Lance will tear him apart



Good luck Leon you've been a great player for St Helens

Good move by Catalans and it is the 3 year deal is probably what put us out of the running. Pryce is 30 this October and if they have offered him decent money on top of 3 more years we'd always struggle, especially after the last year of significant injuries and us not liking long deals.

Be surprised if the add Carney to their line up though - with Greenshields at FB could they fit them all in?

this was always going to happen saints were never going to give leon the wages he wanted

Wish really wish we'd have kept Leon, but Catalans are gonna have one hell of a team if Carney goes there too. Potentially Greenshields, Pryce, Bosc, Dureau and Carney in the same side.

Some doubted the decision to let Longy go but looking at that now, with hindsight, that was a good decision, hope this proves to be the same.
Good luck Leon but not Vs the saints

Why ever not? Give him his own wages plus Gary Wheeler's?

Was it just the wages? not also a three year contract. There is no doubt that Catalan is a success story just under 10,000 at the weekend, they seem to have ambition.

He'll hate their beaches, nothing like Blackpool...

Longy was older and we allegedly had a long term replacement, we also had in Leon an established halfback who was staying put.

That can never be said about any player.

And besides, we have got two thirds of a season out of him since Longy left. Wow.

Exactly as I said last month.

somethings you can plan for and some things you cant. We had Pryce under contract so in theory disruption would be at a minimum. The Longy situation is nothing like this debacle

Which debacle exactly? We offered Longy a one year deal and he wanted two. So he ended up going for two years to Hull. We offered Pryce a two year deal (apparently) and he wanted three. So he ends up going to Catalans. Seems to be very similar circumstances to be honest.

Are you playing dumb on purpose? With Longy we had Eastmond and Smith ready to replace him, we also had Pryce under contract as our 'experienced' half. With Pryce we have no experienced halfbacks left and our plan consists of playing a fullback there or throwing Gaskell in as first choice.

why is it a debacle? by all accounts we offered a contract, and he got a better offer elsewhere - so has decided to leave - exactly the same situation as when we signed him.

Hohaia and Lomax will be our starting halves - a world cup winner for NZ, and an England international (very likely by the start of the 2011 season). You make it sound like there is no strategic planning behind this and it is a cock up; it is fairly clear that there was a plan in place whether Pryce re-signed or not.

It sound like a strategy Northern Rock would be proud of . Lomax emergence as a 7 was driven by the Eastmond saga and injuries the 'world cup winner' is a fullback who fancies a crack at halfback..

thats not planning. Planning would be thinking .. ok Pryce might be leaving at the end of the year and we know Eastmonds gone so lets see if we can bring in a proven experienced half to help the kids.

Lance is nowhere near the level Pryce is at as a half back. He's completely unproven. Him and Lomax at 6 and 7 leaves us with no kicking game at all.

We desperately need a new fullback, perhaps Lance will play there? We'll concede a couple of times a game from his dropped balls but hey ho.

Ah. The sound (or vision!) of sense at last!

Exactly! That's precisely what happened. Well done.

Problem being he lied about it having never really played there. It's like IBM or Microsoft needing a new Chief Financial Officer and you saying 'I work for Apple at their shop in the Trafford Centre, but I really fancy being a CFO'. It doesn't really work like that.

Lance COULD be a revelation. COULD. But he's got NO experience of organising a team from HALFBACK and he hasn't shown any signs of having a kicking game, something we'll lack if he's partnered with J-Lo.

How about J-Lo to fullback and Gaskell and Lomax in the halves?