I do think he will tie up with McDermott at Toronto but I would welcome him here with open arms.
He is far from finished. Leeds have been playing with only one recognised half back all year and their back row has been non exist ant (Delaney ret, Ablett, JJB and Ward have all missed the majority of games)
I am sure I heard a stat that in a recent game he had made over 40 tackles and that gives an indication of where Leeds are at.
It looks like the captaincy is a big burden as well.
But he is still a class act

As a Leeds fan, I am sorry to see him go. But sometimes a change of scenery can be just what you need to get you back playing well. Things are stale at Leeds, if not rotten. It'd be a huge burden for anyone to Captain the club right now.

Perhaps Sir Kev recons KW is the nucleus if his 'rot' in the club.

Spot on.

Who knows...

Wouldn't be worth the gamble for me, can imagine he would demand a hefty wage

Wouldn’t be so sure of that,he has been granted release without already signing for a new club,bargaining power lays with the clubs interested.

THere's a lot of noise coming from Sinfield about lots of things, but I find it strange that Watkins was given the Captaincy at the start of 2019 if the club think he isn't 100% committed to Leeds. The first thing I'd do in that case is give it to Dwyer or one of the few other Leeds players that looks at least half-committed to pulling the club out of the mire.

At 28, Watkins has years left in him so I hope he can recapture his form.

Please, i'd love it if they gave it to dwyer, headingly would implode.

Why would it implode?

He’s got the pedigree for sure, but we’re gonna end up like emergency ward 10 with all these crocks on board
Ratchford
Currie
Brown
Watkins
Johnson

“Calling Nurse Roberts”

Widdop

He has had a shocking season to date. I watch them every game and the last injury has left him with little or no pace. Candidly he isn't fit, he seems to have lost too much weight and his confidence is shot. If he has asked for a pay rise then its his own fault.
You cannot keep increasing pay to under performers in your team. This may sound harsh but he doesn't even deserve to be in the team. I really hope he gets back to full fitness, but he should be no where near the team at the moment. With the return of reserve grade rugby next year he may have been better advised to keep Mum, got back to full fitness in the reserves and if what has been said is true, then once he was back to his true form he then ask for a pay rise. Underperformers do not ask for pay rises.
Surely even if he had been made a promise by the club, you don't ask for something if you don't deserve it. I hate to say this because he is a good lad, but he simply has not performed and if a captain leads by example, he is no example to follow.

I haven't commented on his value for money - I'll leave that to Leeds fans, I presume you are one?

Its a difficult situation for the club and not an easy decision to have to make. Fact is though they promised him a pay rise, and now they are telling him he isn't getting one. Watkins will feel betrayed by that I'm sure and my comment really was around how that would affect the club in terms of the intangibles.

I think it could well work out well for Watkins in the long run, he strikes me as a player who needs to be in a good head space to perform well, similar to Tyrone Roberts for us last year I guess, so the move could do him some good.

I do agree with a lot of the comments on here, but once a centre loses any pace you start to become less important to the team. There was talk about him going in the back row but he is not big enough, and playing him centre its going to upset the young lad who is trying to take his place. He never has been the biggest of players, so to lose pace will not help him. If they promised him a pay rise common sense would have told him to keep Mum but taking the money and not performing would have only put more pressure on him. I do wish the lad well, but at the moment he would be hard pressed to hold down a place in the championship.

No doubt Watkins will still be in the Great Britain squad along with Currie.

Sometimes people just need a new challenge to get themselves going again.

To me he's clearly not fit or fully recovered, but if he does recover (and that is a big "if"!) then someone is going to get a bargain by the sounds of it. He's still young enough to make a full recover and even though he's been massively over-rated at times, he's still a very good player when fit.

I'd take him...if we could afford him.
Westwood Atkins and Goodwin contracts might cover his wage.

Theres only Wire Catalan and Toronto or the NRL with sure clout....
While out of them, only Wire have enough depth to take the risk and it not to have anything more than a graze upon that current campaign.

Today’s trade papers can’t remember which one it is in quotes KF has saying we not interested.

Huge difference in value when you compare what he was with what he is now. The gamble is what he could be in the future.

With unlimited funds and no cap then it’s purely a financial risk but with the salary cap it’s a much greater risk if the costs are close to marquee level

And that's why it's be a no for me if we were interested.

Having dead salary on the cap would cause big issues.

He is a massive gamble, no doubt he would be a good player for whoever he signs for but, he won't come on the cheap and so is a big salary cap gamble IMO.

Despite being one of Leeds best players they don't think it's worth the gamble. He has been very unlucky with injury but hasn't come back the same unfortunately. Watkins of 3 years ago would be a no brainer for any side.

I wouldn't say a massive gamble. The fella is playing again and recovering form.
I'd say without a transfer fee, there could be a bargain.

What I mean is its likely anybody would have to pay him what he was worth and not what he is currently worth. There is quite a big performance gap in that. It's a gamble that he will get back to what he was, from an England fan point of view I really hope he does. I wouldn't exactly put my house on it though.