If Gustard isn't going to play him then makes sense - no point having him around otherwise. Shame it didn't work out, I thought he made some good points on the podcast about where Quins are at with their mentality and seemed genuinely frustrated. To be fair to him he's hardly played due to injury and not been given a decent run to prove himself at the club, must be frustrating to see lesser player picked above you after all he has achieved. Probably in both parties interests if he moves on now tbh

I just wonder if you can pin this all on Ashton. I mean he left his club with nothing to go to. Harlequins came along and an immediate job offer is always attractive in those circumstances. We all know Gustard can talk the talk, he does an excellent job every time we lose. You end up thinking it was only some tiny mishap that meant another win down the drain.

So I wonder if what Ashton expected, what he thought he'd been told and what he found were different things. Sounds like attitude of the team is not all it might be - I can't believe Mike Brown would be leaving us if he was happy with the direction the team is going, especially for less money. I wonder if perhaps Ashton was expecting a mental attitude more like Saracens given Gustard's past with them, and found something different when he got to The Stoop. Disillusion might explain some of his drop in performance. I mean, I'm sure he tries to give 100%, but it's hard if you don't believe. And that leads to frustration and that leads to silly penalties and lack of commitment, as we saw.

Not saying the fault is all on one side, but pointing out there are other factors that may be at play here. Clearly this quick "marriage" hasn't worked, and it's best for both sides if there's a quickie divorce.

Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.

Is that fair?

He wasn't trouble at Saints (he left because he wanted to - Saints were happy to keep him) for six seasons. Nor at Saracens for 6 seasons. Nor at Toulon for a season, a club with high turnover of players. He had a run in with the gum-chewer at Sale in his second season, which is the first time anyone actually seemed to get grumpy with him.

I agree with the positive sentiment about Ashton as a player. He is a winner, and all that comes with it. These characters often get branded by those who weren't winners as arrogant sadly only to make themselves feel better.

Sadly it feels like we have been intimidated by him or taken a similar negative approach. And in my eyes if you are intimidated by a winner without looking to learn and raise your game to operate at their level/expected level - then maybe you are thinking small when you should be thinking big. Have the wrong mentality etc etc....

I hope I'm wrong.

I agree, going slightly off topic, but it is why I never really pay much attention to interviews after/before games.  You never really hear that much that is earth shattering, just the usual cliches.  TBH that is the way I would expect.  Do all the talking behind the scenes, in the changing room. That is the place to air the dirty laundry etc, not on some podcast etc.  Its why I never get too stressed about what PG has to say, if I were a DoR I would probably trott out the same lines each week

Can't disagree with you on his performances. Sadly his errors tend to be in defence when he is the last man and he creeps inside leaving a man open. Always been the same but he has managed to play for all the aforementioned teams and his attacking flair has outweighed this, whilst being drilled to do what he is meant to do in defence (which we don't seem to have managed).

We would have known all of this when we signed him which we chose to do without a gun to our head.

Sadly, it's not a good news story whichever perspective you take and I wonder how other clubs might have used signing him to their advantage OR known it wasn't worth it and not done it is the first place.

It wasnt the weaknesses in his game that made the performance bad, it was the total lack of effort and heart.  Special mention goes to the moment he bottled out of contact with the oppo player. 

I'm just disappointed that a player signed in line with Gustard's much talked about younger player policy is seemingly leaving  :)

I think he was an exception, in the fact that Gabs left and we found ourselves short.  He needed a club so short term deal suited