www.totalrl.com/gossip-gaskell-m ... gh-switch/ Hope this is not true

www.totalrl.com/gossip-gaskell-m ... gh-switch/ Hope this is not true

Plenty of reason for him to make the switch, closer to home. A higher salary and similar chance of playing super league.

We need to let the lad know how important he is to us as a club.

Briefing the press to unsettle people and get under their skin doesn't seem like something that would happen at Leigh so there's probably some truth to it.

They wouldn't be talking to anyone before the "tapping up" deadline, would they?

Uh huh. Slightly odd timing of such a story just after Leigh are in the midst of all there trouble regarding a half back.

Pinch of salt needed here, I feel

Doesn't matter if its true or not, his contract is due to run out and, like any one of us, he will look to do what's best for him and his family.

If he looks elsewhere I doubt it would be Leigh, simply because like us, they won't know whether or not they will be in SL, and so cannot offer him SL wages. Unless they are mad, which of course no-one can rule out.

Even then, would he WANT another potential season in the Championship?

If the answer to that is a "yes" or "maybe, it depends", then it would be up to us, if we wanted to keep him, to make him an offer he couldn't refuse. He won't make any decisions until he knows what's on the table here, so it doesn't really matter whether there are any approaches. He doesn't strike me as the type to get "unsettled" by paper talk.

Agreed. Gaskells happy and settled here but if we're still in the championship Gaskell won't be here, he'll be in SL.

Would imagine Gaskell will be playing SL with someone next year, hopefully us but if we dont go up and leigh do then it could be them. If Leigh dont go up either then Gaskell will be off to a SL Club. cant see him switching to leigh if thy stay in championship.

It would be ludicrous to sign up with a non-SL club unless the deal was unbeatable. Even then he may want a guarantee of SL rugby.

The problem with the MPG for the clubs concerned is they have to try to make deals with players for the next season, but without knowing which league they'll be in. The problem is the same for the players either currently playing for, or being approached by, those clubs. By the time of the MPG most clubs are pretty well sorted for the next season.

Even SL clubs would need to leave a pretty big hole in their caps to have room for a Gaskell, and so i'd think it more likely that he will sign for a SL club whatever happens , although its not impossible that he might wait and see if we go up, but who'd risk their livelihood on that chance?

He'll keep his options open I reckon. Why wouldn't he?

If he gets an offer in SL and we don't go up I think he'll go and I wouldn't blame him.

If Leigh go up and we don't he could go there and I wouldn't blame him either.

He's good enough for SL for sure. Depends if he has ambitions to play there.

I say let's swap him and let us have Gaskell and u have Brierley,the lads quality and any Leigh fan would love him at lsv

Looks like the story on Ryan has been just about done to death, so it's time for 'totalrl' to home in on someone else. looks like it's your turn now!

Can't see a swap happening? Who would be stupid enough to let their star half back walk out mid season due to a clause in a contract?

*puts hand up

if he odes move it could be another cap bending year for Leigh

From what I've seen, the "journo" that broke this story seems to put a lot of non-stories on Total-RL, but occasionally hits it spot on.

He isn't going this year. We all pretty much agreed that if we don't get promoted this season, he'll leave. So even if it's true, it's still kind of a non-story, isn't it?

You would hope everyone in the current team has ambitions to play in SL otherwise it will be even harder to get there

Wonder how many more Coaches will leave and clubs will suffer before they realise this system of middle eights is not going to work. As far as promotion and religation goes, we shall see?

The game is suffering due to the lack of games for the players who are coming back from injury, being unable to rehabilitate in the reserve team. Plus squad players we wish to retain who are over the age limit can only get game time by going on loan to other Clubs, which it not ideal when they play against you in important matches. The over 19's can see no future in Rugby League if they have not made it as a first team player... The game needs an overhaul before it is too late from top to bottom. Its no good saying it is down to money as it has been proved that sponsorship etc could generate this.

I don't expect to see Gaskell with us next season. He will need to decide in the summer - months before the play offs start, and that is the problem for him. I can just imagine his agents reaction if Gaskell says "let's wait till October to see what happens with the Bulls". His reaction to that would probably not be printable on here.

If he is telling the truth about enjoying being at the Bulls then why go to Leigh if they are also not guaranteed to be in the SL. Also, he may not want to go into that atmosphere at Leigh if there are problems.

All the bulls can do is to offer the highest contract they can without unsettling other "star" players and hope that it is good enough to keep him if no top SL team come in for him.

Can anyone please explain to me why we have had all of these rumours about Leeds signing Brierley at the end of the season when his contract ran out but as far as I know nobody has ever considered that Gaskell could be a better signing for Leeds than Brierley as he is also out of contract. To me, that would be a better signing for Leeds and he would be their type of player.

You have hit the nail on the head woolly! If I was Leeds I'd be looking at Gaskell rather than brierley! Gaskell is more of a ball player who can lead you round the pitch, brierley is a opportunist who scores a lot of trees (poor mans Danny maguire you could say) if you end up with brierley and we get Gaskell I'd be over the moon. Honestly though it's just another bullc**p article written by a clueless journo

This is actually an adaption of a story by the same "insider" in the latest edition of Rugby League World (published 3 weeks ago) which claims that Gaskell was currently on the brink of signing for Leigh this year on an improved contract and giving the Bulls a decent payday to boot before he was Out of contract. So already this story on TRL is a backtrack of some thing they have already said and is probably trying to save face at a huge claim that has yet to come to pass.

Problem Gaskell has is, if he wants to play Super League next season, he'll have concrete offers from May (officially), so would be a gamble to wait till MPG.

I'd say there's more chance of him moving to a safe (or highly unlikely to be relegated) SL team than there is of him playing for Bradford or Leigh next season.

Why does he, though? All the SL clubs who might be potential suitors would know his situation, it is not compulsory (as we know) to have your star halfbacks signed by the playoffs, and frankly there are not that many around anyway.

The Bulls could even sign him up on a new SL deal, or less if we don't make it, but with a clause that he's free to leave to a SL club, if he wants. That would suit everybody, pretty much.

Of course, if Salford come in and offer him £250k plus a Maserati, then he's gone, we all get that.

FA sums it up quite well.

Gaskell holds almost all the cards but he's already shown commitment to us for last season and this one in the Championship. I'd be surprised if he decides to spend any more time in this league after this season.

I can think of a few SL clubs that could use him at the moment.