Quote: Fordy "Why were your Supporters Trust not doing everything in their power to be that body? That is one of the main aims of Supporters Direct of which I assume your Trust is a member.
Having been through this with Wakefield 18 months ago, the Wakefield Trinity Supporters Trust was not set up and established at the time and by the time we were, Andrew Glover had rescued the club. Your Trust has been up and running for quite a while hasn't it? Surely they should have been liaising with Supporters Direct to help them achieve this aim.'"
I can tell you why. It's because we foresaw the consequences of administration that so many are bewailing now, and we wanted to help prevent them. There was one plan - and one plan only - on the table to achieve this, so we threw our weight behind it, while expressing our reservations. The plan failed anyway, but if we had opposed it, it would
definitely have failed at the first hurdle, and we would have been handy scapegoats.
If, we had gone down the route of asking people to contribute to us instead of the club, as well as scuppering any chance of the pledge, we would have contributed to the confusion, brought the full weight of the club down against us, fragmented fund-raising efforts and been very lucky if we had raised a five-figure sum, let alone £500K. Bear in mind that, before the crisis, only around 150 people had cared enough to join. During the crisis, about another 10 or 15 have been galvanised into action.
Let's be generous and say that we raised a couple of hundred thousand (of which there was not a chance IMO). It wouldn't even have paid a month's wages. Even 500K would have been utterly inadequate to take the club forward.
Add to the fact that all the existing committee had volunteered only on the basis of meeting our initial aims of supporting youth development. All of us hold down full-time jobs. No one was beating down our door to come on board with the kind of expertise needed for what you suggest.
I appreciate your sincerity in asking the question, but suggest it would have been utterly impractical at the time. Whether it will be possible to use this approach to salvage things in future, or even to work alongside future owners, is of course an entirely different question.
While writing this, I see that Adey has posted something similar. I don't share his anger at Wakefield fans - I do believe that the advice is sincere and well-intentioned - but I do echo most of the other points he makes.