I would rather have him than Laffranchi (and Tony Clubb for that matter), we should not let the short term issues the club has cloud long term goals. He is a good player that would add a lot, if we could sign him as well as a stand off and a couple of props that would be good.
As usual the question is the transfer fee. I do not see why the club is again them. For example, if Laffranchi is on £120k pa and Whitehead is on £100 pa but we keep him for 10 years then surely he is worth a 200k transfer fee given that he is a better player.