There was always a danger that the system would create a lame duck and that seems to be what has happened. If I was spirit of 1873 I'd be deeply disappointed that my options and opportunities had been so limited by the adminsitrators. Why cough up for a club that is being effectively liquidated and driven ever faster towards the championships? I'd be tempted to start over from scratch now.

Chances have gone from slim to vanishing.

I agree it's a terrible for the Wakefield fans. No supporter deserves this.

The administrators have no duty towards the failed business, the supporters or the potential buyers. Their duty is towards raising funds to pay the creditors. In this case, the business has a number of saleable assets (namely the players) that can be sold. In any other business it would be things like freehold property or plant and machinery for example.

If you buy a business coming out of administration you can't realistically expect it to emerge with the same assets it went into administration with.

Oh, absolutely. But there are different ways of securing value for the creditors. If I was So1873, I'd now be cutting what I was willing to pay the creditors by roughly the transfer fees received for Obst, Ferguson et al. Or saying f' it, go ahead and liquidise, there is nothing left worth saving. This may or may not be better for the creditors.

But isn't it shortsighted and irresponsible of the administrators to sell (presumably at knockdown prices) the most necessary assets that can allow the business to run as a going concern in the future?

It's like a t-shirt business going into administration, and the administrators selling off the printing machinery to rival manufacturers and paying some money to the creditors (minus substantial administration costs, of course). After which the business can't make any t-shirts.

The only legitimate reason for doing it is if the thinking is that the business, even with its most necessary assets intact, will *never* be profitable, so in effect it's not an administration it's a winding up.

That's just not true.

Look, the Administrators don;'t walk into a job like this with buckets full of cash, ready to pay wages, rent, rates, trade creditors etc. They are having to trade a loss-making business and have the costs associated with that, until such time as somebody decides to buy the club.

They can't sit around racking up costs and not having a plan to pay for them. What if all the proposed purchasers pull out? How do they pay salaries then?

They are taking these steps to pay for the process that could eventually save the club. No Administration, no Wakefield.

The administrator HAS to get the maximum amount of cash into any business to pay off creditors. If they get a "reasonable" offer for an asset of the business they will sell.

Whether it is good RL business is a different question.

It's happened before (Leeds screwed the Cougars), it's happening now and WILL happen again in the future.

I was wrong.

I assumed this was going to be a prepack.
Maybe it was with Parkin before he pulled out (what nasties maybe did the due dilligence uncover?) - dunno - but it clearly is not now, if indeed it ever was.

On that basis, God help the Wakey fans.

Crusaders didn't do too badly though.Went into administration in November and allegedly came out of administration on Christmas Eve.Much larger reported debt and still managed to sign players during that time and sold one player to Leeds.

But they promised to pay back their largest debt and had a ground to mortgage.

But wakefield don't just have one asset, they have several (i.e. 20-odd players), which individually aren't integral to the running of the business

Same thing happened to Fax when they went down.

The players could have said 'no'

Why would someone like Dale Ferguson turn down going to Hudds and stay at Wakey? I know where I'd rather be!