Josh, the issue is much deeper than what you have identified. The real issue is that the club should never have been in the situation it got itself into. Gradel repeatedly stated he wanted to stay and just needed to be offered a new contract. I don't recall reading anywhere that one was presented to him. Howson should have been offered a contract extension at least 1 - 2 seasons before he was transferred in the last 6 months of his existing contract. As you have correctly stated, these repeated occurrences only mean one thing - Leeds United management (what an oxymoron!) has totally bottled the management of player contracts during the last few years.
Well yea, its stupid to get yourself into a situation where one of your best players only has a year or in howson's case 6 months left on his contract which just means your backed into a corner. The club really need to assess this (and more specifically harvey) to see why its going wrong (I think its pretty ****ing obvious) and change it so that it at least reduces the amount of times this happens in the future It just looks like the club have accepted the fact that it happens rather than changing it
sic! I'm sorry Josh, but grammar and style are clearly not your thang. Maybe you shoud attend a few more courses? You may improve in your job But I wouldn't go around claiming to be all high and mighty with your recent GCSE English qualification - it has not worked very well