They've shopped Burt, Grothe, Inu, Oake and Hauraki around though Gronk. Methinks it has more to do with who is the most attractive prospect in terms of the salary cap as opposed to how well they did or didn't play. ;-)
Football is becoming more and more like a business these days, and with player-manager involvement and player expectations I don't think we're far away from having mid-season transfer windows like the English Premier League. Contracts aren't what they used to be even five years ago, when there was such an uproar here about Jamie Lyon - now that stuff is common practice on both sides.
I see the shopping around of various players (and now Inu) as purely a reflection of the club's view of their contract value versus their real/current value to the squad - nothing more, nothing less. It started with obvious ones like Oake and Hauraki being permitted to look elsewhere, and since the signing of Tahu it has spread to any back that might be surplus.
I can't for the life of me understand why a club would assist another club by selling one of their high profile players to them, unless they're prepared to use the money to buy another player, it just doesn't make sense
As a club wouldn't be doing this if we were well within our cap for 2010, so I reckon we could possibly be borderline on/above the cap, unless one more player leaves for another offer very early in the season...