That coming from a HKR fan? Wow.

And you know they took it blindly. Where of course everything you and Fax offer is gospel and beyond reproach. You have a new owner after going into admin and so do we, why do you seem to think your so much better than us. You are one arrogant sod.

First off, characterising me as angry is very far off the mark. I'm not angry. I'm not a fax fan and my club has not missed out, so you are wrong.

I don't listen? I don't listen? This is the VT. No one listens. If they did, I and others would not have come under such unjustifiable criticism over the crusaders issue. Let's not get personal. I've not made judgements on you, and you shouldn't make them of me.

The rest of your post bares no resemblance to anything I've ever said so I'm ignoring it.

Of course it doesn't - it's an attempted explanation of my original point which you didn't understand. Chris, it's not all about you

What do you think the various external professionals roles where? Clearly, they were there to interrogate the data in the business plan, facilities etc and determine what was good (and achievable) and then make comments to the RFL independent board based on their professional acumen.

If as has been suggested the Fax application was full of holes, then the external professionals would have no choice but to point out the flaws and the score would be affected accordingly.

I haven't seen any proof that Wakefield was chosen over you. It's been said from good sources that ours was not the worst application from the Super League. Just because everyone has been slagging us off for years does not make it.

Good luck anyway. Would rather see you in than Quins.

Suggested on here by Wakefield fans but not in any way shape or form substantiated with any evidence.

Halifax's bid was seen originally in the first round of licenses when they were up against Widnes and Barrow. Widnes were thankfully successful, but Halifax were then told it was good enough to be considered later, that they made all the valid criteria. It obviously wasn't swiss cheese as people are suggesting, otherwise they wouldn't have put it through for later consideration.

I have never agreed with anything you have said before, as im sure you're aware.

But this actually makes sense.

It has been said also that we put in a bid that was much better than expected. Fax were told to stay in because of worries about Crusaders, in my view, but we fouled things up by putting in a much better bid than expected.

"It has been said" where exactly? Rumours from fans.

But didnt he say he put in nigh on a million pounds in the first four months or so he owned Widnes?

Its ok saying O'connor has made it a priority to make Widnes self sufficient, and I have no reason to doubt that, but if he needs to spend £1m, £2m, £3m, £5m, £10m to do that, he needs to have £1m, £2m, £3m, £5m, £10m to do it.

What we have seen with Crusaders is the costs involved in making that jump are massive, and if they had a Steve O'connor prepared to pump in the money to make them self-sufficient like he wants to do with Widnes, They likely could have done.

There are some fans whose stated facts I accept, and it is a small bunch, but that was the prevailing wisdom not so long ago. Wakey fans always thought we had a good application. We just expected to be dumped out because it had become an easy option for the RFL: it had become the accepted opinion and Cas were doing too well on the pitch.