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.

Why would Leeds even consider looking at Gaskell if Brierley is available?



TRANSLATION: Brierley is far better than Gaskell until he decides that he doesn't want to play for Leigh anymore in which case he becomes just an opportunist (poor man's Danny McGuire) who scores a lot of trees(???).

From what I've seen, Gaskell is committed to us, which renders this thread rubbish. The posts previous to this go a long way to back this argument up.

Anyway I've heard that Rangi Chase has flu.....

Well, I've heard he's certainly sniffing a lot

Anyone else seen the rumour on Twitter he's signing for Leigh next week?

I think it's just some Leigh fan on the wind up. I also saw some rumours that we're after either Wood or Ellis from Huddersfield on a season long loan.

Probably best to take all of them with a pinch of salt I think.

Seems genuine but don't understand this signing for us unless Chase is off to Catalans

Obviously it's a swap deal for ridyard and higham

.

Seriously getting boring seeing this rumour rehashed every couple of weeks. Can't see even uncle derek being stupid enough to accuse us of tapping up a player then doing it himself.

Uncle Derek wouldn't have said that unless Ryan hadn't used that to try and get an extra 15k to stay till the end of the season. Have you not heard, giants are gonna loan him to you till the end of the season, well let's add another rumour to the long list of rumours.....or is it a rumour

. Glad it's all over anyway now. He will either succeed or fall on his sword.

Tell us about it! One circus leaves town...........inevitably to be replaced by another!

Gaskell's rubbished this on social media.

It's all conjecture, RL paper sensationalism & FWIW I don't see it happening.

Leigh have potentially 3 Stand Offs in Riddy, Rangi & Ben Reynolds, even if Rangi was to defect & never play again we also have young Foster who could do a lesser job at 6.
Of those I mention, 3 of the 4 could also play 7 so we seemingly have lots of cover there, unless Gaskell directly replaces Riddy & Rangi is seen at 7 then I just don't see it.

Don't get me wrong, I would have Gaskell at Leigh in the blink of an eye, such is my high regard of his talent, but I think a current SL Club will secure his signature, if not in the next window then by season end surely.

I don't believe Leigh would have made an illegal approach on Gaskell, especially given how bitter the whole
Ryan Brierley affair was & neither do I believe Bulls illegally approached Ryan.
Remember that it is in an agents best interest to create a big buzz around their clients to drive up the value & create movement & transfers, essentially lining their own pockets.

So don't worry about Leigh, worry about a SL Club.

Best of British.

Steve.

As another Leigh fan - your posts "take this with a pinch of salt" are correct in my view. I too am a huge fan of Gaskell as was Paul Rowley when he coached us.
If you make it to SL next season then I am sure he will be wearing your number 6 - if not he is at an age where he must consider a move to SL and I am sure he will have a choice of clubs to go to.

Leeds will be looking for a half back for next season, now.

Saw same rumour. Had a bit more specifics to it in that we were trying to sign Ellis on season long loan and Wood permanent. But with being rumoured with just about eveyr HB so far, ia gree lets take it with a pinch of salt.

Think difficulty we've got is even if Hudds and Bulls agreed a loan deal with Ellis, would he really want to come down to the championship and play at Workington, Oldham etc.

He might relish the chance to move to a bigger club.

What do you feel Gaskells best position will be for us, and would he be better with Chase/Ridyard/Reynolds as his partner if in the halves. Has he played 13 before, I believe he has played FB?

Ten metres in front of you facing your way.



Flat out stand off. The only reason to play him at FB is so that you have a FB who plays like a stand off, but you'll have a FB who plays like a stand off who sometimes catches a high ball. Which probably isn't what you want.

God i remember when Cummins persisted with Gaskell at FB

and some in the media had the audacity to say we were harsh in sacking him.