Rumours about players coming in aside, getting rid of Liam Sutcliffe (as a member of our starting 13) is something that makes sense if we want to be challenging for trophies again.
He's become more consistent this season, but his best season for us (IMO) is still 2015 by some distance, when he threatened to displace Kevin Sinfield in the halves. Since then there has been a predictable pattern of him going missing for most of the season, then turning up a few better performances around the time other clubs are coming sniffing... So far he's been rumoured to be off to Cas, Wigan, Hull and probably others in different years.
Sutcliffe may be solid for us, but is he ever going to be good enough to play for England, improve significantly, or become an important leader in the team? It's a no, no, and no for me. While Smith might bring out more in Sutcliffe's game, I'm struggling to see why he should be a priority for retention. I'd rather have 2007-9 Carl Ablett at centre in a flash, even if Carl couldn't run as fast.
