Pryce, Ferres, Wardle, Atkins, Bridge, Bateman, Cook,Higham.

All playing on the telly this week, all left us in recent years, most of whom were a result of the Harris deal and a crap youth policy under Noble, and financial mismanagement.

Imagine the improvement we would have if they were all still with us?

And that is before we include the injured Peacock and Henderson.

You can't really put Higham on the list

I didn't mean to. I did mean to put Whitehead though.

Thought whitehead left as he didn't get on with fc

And Eliza wanted to raise his kids in France iirc

Bridge was sacked\released for off field problems (think Gareth hock), Wardle rejected a new contract to join Hudds who were offering a silly amount for such a young player, Atkins & Ferres were part of the deal for Solomona deal (I think) Matt Cook never reached the heights he was predicted to, Peacock always insisted he wanted to finish his career at Leeds as he is a Leeds lad.Higham was part of Newton brokered deal. The only two directly lost due to Harris or finances were Pryce who wanted to play stand off & Bateman.

Actually, going by Peacock's story, he was lost due to Harris' signing as well.

Atkins left because he was low down the pecking order for a centre spot as he was behind both Hape and Ben Harris.

Bateman left because his agent went looking for a payday and as Bateman isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer he tends to believe what he's told.

Bloody hell, you must be desperate. Most of the above were downright poor this week. God knows what their attitudes would be like were they going through what your current squad is.

We are. Next?

by then chairman Caisley. Not getting the rise was, I'm pretty sure, tied in very directly with the Harris signing.

Agree with most of the others; Ferres was one I would have liked to keep even though he never gave the impression he was going to play for England. We were out bid for Wardle from a club with no real success in their own academy. Bridge, say no more, as least said soonest mended. Cook never really showed 'top' quality at the Bulls, Higham was a ruse by us and Wigan for them, to get Higham and us to get Newton. Losing Pryce was a disappointment, though in some respects I think the change of environment helped his game.

Having them here now though would be a no brainer really.

Peacock was the biggest loss he was all for staying but they said they were unable to offer him any more money as there was nothing spare in the pot (salary cap I guess). A few weeks later the signing of Harris was announced, as such Peacock had been lied to felt betrayed and took the offer he had from Leeds. I'm sure your right that been a Leeds lad and fan it wasn't a massive hardship for him but he never insisted he wanted to finish his career at Leeds and had the right offer been made would have been more than happy to stop with us.

Ferres had a superb season the season prior to him being a makeweight for the disastrous signing of Solomona. The older end at the club who saw him playing for the England acadamy against the Aussies years before knew he was something special. Seemed to lose his way a little after leaving us but thought he was top notch in the world cup (slight negative is he does try to offload too often when it really isn't on) and looks a monster running out wide in super league now. A bit uncanny really as sure the signing of Solomona was meant to bring us an xfactor in Mcnamaras words yet now Ferres has that himself with the bit of mongrel in him which he has always had from been a kid. He has developed into a top top player that many thought he would.

Solomona was a super player in the wrong team; we really needed some grafters [like Ferres and Cook rather than fancy ball players like Solo, imo. Leaving aside academy teams, Brett was always a steady player, to me. The sort of 'bread and butter', solid and dependable bloke who provides the backbone to every team, but I never saw anything to suggest an England call-up, but credit to him, he upped his game and deserves credit.

Matt Cook was similar in a way, he was even better as a junior and became the same sort of 'solid' SL player, even though both were regular players for us, neither ever really kicked on to become 'indispensable' in the first team whilst with us. I guess some decisions would have been better with hindsight..

wondered why we signed ferres from cas when we did but wow im glad we did! one of the top forwards in super league now.

I agree hindsight is a wonderful thing but I would argue Ferres always looked like more than just a steady player he certainly knew his way to the line whilst at the Bulls and something he has continued throughout his career unlike Cook who I agree was just a steady grafter (similar to Donno).

These debates never really get anywhere. Look at what we have right now. Donno, Olbison and Addey. Some supporters think they are good but still talk about bringing in two ne back rowers. If we keep these three and they do not get any better the coach gets condemned. If we sign new players and let them go and they become top internationals the coach gets condemned. There is a very fine line between keeping and letting go. You win sometimes and lose sometimes. Leeds fans must have this problem with all of the players they have let go because they bring so many through. You just have to accept that some don't fully develop with us but a new club does bring it out of them and they probably wouldn't have done the same with us. Would Deacs have been the same player with another SL club (a bottom club) who didn't have the stars we had at that time?

What you Bulls fans must get used to , is you are NOT a Big Team in the SL anymore , that's history , next season you are more than likely to be playing in the Championship , wake up , this is how life is .

Good point, well worth making.

Peacock was telling people he planned to join Leeds at the start of the 04 season well before Harris joined. He then used the Harris signing as more than convenient smoke screen to move on it took all the heat off him.

For every Ferres and Atkins, there's a Parker and a Moore.

It's funny because I was talking to my Dad about this other day about the amount of players who have left us and that are doing well at other clubs but has we now know most of these players were let go because of the lack of money at the club or mismanagement I remember been so annoyed when we let Ferres go after he had such a good first season with us and then to sign someone like Solomona who was average at best.

Bingo, no one knows the future, an average player in one team may flourish in a different environment with better coaching.

"What you Bulls fans must get used to , is you are NOT a Big Team in the SL anymore , that's history , next season you are more than likely to be playing in the Championship , wake up , this is how life is"

^Bongo^

Actually, I think the debate is very interesting, though I'd accept there is no real benefit to be gained. Does this matter on a msg board?

The rest of your post I totally agree with. All ins and outs are made in the situation as it exists at the time and if a youngster [Say, Ryan Atkins is fourth or fifth in line for a spot at the time [which he was but goes on to become an international, it's a bit rich to blame the coach for letting him go, remembering that money is finite and there is a cap to be adhered to and sometimes the player just doesn't want to hang around waiting for his chance.

The decisions for Ferres and Cook were reasonable at the time imo, even though hindsight shows it didn't work, Solomona was a very different type of player, a much more skilful ball player but also inconsistent, and in truth, a luxury we didn't need and couldn't afford, particularly given the players around him.

Deacs was fortunate to play pretty much his entire career behind a dominant pack, to be honest the kind of pack [iany[/i half would love to have making space for him to play in and he definitely wouldn't have been as good at a lower club, but then, of course, neither would any other half.

Brett Ferres hasn't only developed as a player and definitely a leader, he has put on some real size which makes him extremely difficult to handle. Ferries and Wardle are arguably the best right sided backrow/centre combo in the competition and Steve Mac let them both go iirc.

We maybe couldn't have kept all of these players together with the lads we currently have but if we could have probably have kept a good portion of them then we would have a side competing at the other end of the ladder.

There's little doubt we'd welcome them back with open arms right now..

Actually, I don't think we "let Wardle go", it was more a matter of being outbid when his contract came up for renewal.

They shouldn't let it get to that point IMO.