Adey, I agree that there appeared to be little time to do anything other than pour money down the drain back in April...............sorry, support the pledge.

You're right in saying that Wakefield fans were never asked to raise half a million quid, but WE WERE asked to "dig deep" in an effort to raise a six-figure sum at the beginning of last year. Ultimately, the fans decided we'd had enough of the Richardsons so WE CHOSE not to contribute knowing that the uncertainty of Administration would follow.

Given what you now know and with all the RFL financial support through the Administration period, it's perfectly reasonable to say that a Supporters' Trust COULD have been put together and (given how much the supporters raised in the pledge) been able to put a bid to take on the Bulls that was worth more than the OK bid.

All you can hope for now is that that Omar Khan (who, just like Andrew Glover never harboured ambitions to own a RL club) is able to put the Bulls back on a sound footing for the years to come.

In terms of the pledge I am happy that my small contribution along with that of others probably allowed us to complete the season, have a reasonable attempt at getting into the play offs and allowed us time to find an owner who seems keen to take us on

Without the pledge we might have had £500k split across many pockets with no club. No brainer for me

There was nothing wrong with the players' attitude at the start of the game. Nothing to suggest they weren't up for the game. If anything I thought they were a bit too hyped and reacted like a pricked balloon after the sin binning and Hull's two quick tries.

Sorry mate, but you people are just not listening.

Whether we could have raised more than £150k is totally academic. Personally, in the circumstances of the time, I very much doubt it since we would have been competing against the club and at the time few people were aware we even HAD a supporters' trust.

The new owners are having to go through serious due dilligence by the RFL, to prove thgat they have the MILLIONS needed to fund the ongoing losses, at least while they come up with ways of cutting costs and increasing income. How the hell would you have expected a supporters' trust to have been able to do that?

This really is getting quite tiresome now.

Had the fans not contributed the £400k (it was not £500k, btw, and if you knock out the contributions from outside of the Bulls fanbase it was rather less than that) to the pledge, do you really think a supporters trust - staffed anyway only by a handful of spare-time volunteers - could have raised that sort of money from a standing start in such a short period of time? Of course not. And we would anyway then have been hailed as the bad guys for undermining the club's efforts. And lets say that as a result the club had been placed into administration just after Easter, as was lined up had the pledge failed, do you realisticaly think any kind of a bid - costed, financed, staffed - could have been put together in time? Of course not. The administration would have been unfunded, and while the fans were trying to get organised the most likely scenario IMO is that a group involving former shareholders would have pounced. The very last thing most fans will have wanted to see.

And how were we to know that certain shareholders were set on staging a coup to oust the board - that Caisley announced the day before the pledge closed and when most of the funds had been raised?

I for one am getting sick and tired of being lectured by people who never actually had to atempt it themselves - indeed who admit that they CHOSE not to attempt it themselves - to do something that they know little about in a political and financial situation that likewise they clearly know little about.

Please note that off topic posts having a go at posters will be deleted.

I suggest that, with indeed the benefit of hindsight, any further Wakey insolvency experts start by explaining exactly how a ST would have stopped the HMRC winding up the club, and then, exactly how they would have acquired the club from the shareholders.

I totally disagree that the players threw the towel in. There was too much passion, if that's possible. They started the game in a manic fashion, flinging the ball about, tearing into tackles and were clearly too hyped up imo. It was lost in the period after Jeffries was binned for tackling player who wasn't tackled, when we shipped, what was it, three tries?

The players, whatever was said before the game, were clearly desperate to win, just look at Ainey's chase and tackle on Foster. They were simply too hyped up and when things went wrong they became frustrated and then became their own worst enemies. I for one won't blame them for anything after all that's gone on over the last few months, the players and staff have nothing to apologise, or feel they've let anyone down for, what they've achieved is way beyond the call of duty.

Also confirmed in T&A. How could they justify calling in the pledge if that was the case?I dont regret pledging now, but wouldnt have if I'd known we were £100k short. Do the ends justify the means?

They did actually raise £500k - the figure I was told was £504k. I was also told that the vast majority of the amounts pledged were subsequently honoured by the pledgers.

The difference was from things like the extra money from the Leeds game, over and above what was budgeted (as they said at the time IIRC?) and things like the auction, I believe. the £400k referred to in the joint administrators' report, which I saw last week hence my reference to the number, was I believe the amounts directly from fans pledging, not through other fundraising. For example, not sure if the £400k includes or excludes the very substantial amount raised by the Bullbuilder bucket collection at the Leeds match, or the donation from Steve O'Connor.

Maybe the could show they have Millions in their bank account - but of course that does not mean if the going got tough again they would choose to put those Millions in - they are not giving an unconditional guarantee. I would have thought the more relevent test would be the quality of their business plan to balance costs and income

bit hard to balance their books when the income will be determined at a future date by the RFL:
Will they be in Super League
If yes, what will they be getting from the RFL as regards Sky Money and what will the RFL be charging them to play at Odsal
How many fans will pay up front for season tickets and at what price.....

That's a lot of unknowns to base a business plan on to balance the books

Ok thanks

There is also the fact that most of the money was raised, or paid in, by cards which would lead to an automatic C2% lost in transaction charges.

I was always amazed how they just managed to hit the pledge targets whether it was cash raised or season tickets sold.

If I was more cynical I might believe they were lying about that as well as all the other lies we were told.