I suspect none of us would have seen this coming at the start of the season. Whatever the practicality of the decision - and the short-term nature of the deal is crucial - it does illustrate how desperate we are.
As I get older, I'm not comfortable in judging players based on incomplete evidence about their behaviour off-field. It's fair to say that Hardaker's behaviour pre- drugs ban was completely unacceptable (even if he did gift us another GF win
), but he has served time on that, and it would be unfair to keep holding it against him.
What he has done since being at Wigan does have a bearing on the decision to sign him, however. I'm not aware of anything in the public domain that is as bad as before the ban. Whether that's because it is more inocuous or whether Wigan have tried to cover it up remains to be seen - we'll probably never know unless he has committed a criminal offence. However, it does worry me that he doesn't come across as a very professional individual from the various stories circulating. This could have a negative effect on creating a new culture at Leeds under Rohan Smith, so we are probably taking a big gamble in this regard.
We can only hope that the short-term deal will work to keep Hardaker in line (he will want to put himself in the shop window), and protect us from any long-term culture or reputational damage...
