I'm sure Samuels is a litigious man, so I'll keep this careful. But he strikes me as a person who I wish we'd never let anywhere near our game.

TBF the RFL should tell Samuels to take a running jump. He clearly has either A) shafted the Crusaders or B) is a very very poor businessman if he isn't going to stick around more than one season. I'd tell him he either rights off his debts and lets someone else take over the club or withdraw the clubs license and let someone else start up fresh in Sth Wales and issue them with a license. I can't belive the licenses don't actually stipulate that they are for a certain geographical area.

I think history shows he is quite a shrewd guy when it comes to maximising income from sport

Would anyone advocate we write off the crusaders and allow someone else to come in and directly take over their license, in effect bypass Samuels completely and allow someone else to take up a South Wales club, if they wanted they could take Noble and the lot with them

Thats a fantastic idea.

So in effect you would like to close a club that has lost money since the day it began because of the location and lack of support and replace it with an identical product in exactly the same area?

Ever considered pitching that one to the Dragons Den show on telly?

No but it would wipe the debt, most probably owed to samuels himself and samuels from the game. It looks as if he was looking to do this from the beginning, lets beat him to the punch.
Warrington have debts to Simon Moran, decent sized ones but he isnt walking away after one SL season.
Its probably not possible in this instance but Broncos did it

Ultimately a footy club is a BUSINESS though.

Would you bankroll 'Celtic' Crusaders from what you know about the club, results, the area and the likelihood of you making money?

Me neither.

There seems to be interested parties though that dont want to buy off the debt and shares.
Eliminate both the debt and shares issue in one push

Presumably Samuels feels that he is in a strong negotiating position.

It's possible that the only way that Crusaders can remain in SL is if somebody takes over the ownership of the existing company.

If that were to go bust they would be in breach of their licence.

So, however parlous the financial state of the club, LS probably feels those shares have a value because they bring with them a SL place.

Sadly that's the only thing of value and that was given to them.

... and LS is no stranger to brinkmanship judging by his dealings with the Welsh RU back in Celtic Warriors days, not to mention his alleged threat to walk away if Celtic Crusaders did not gain a SL licence in 2008.

No it is not

Nobody makes money from sports clubs except the players and coaches

and AGENTS!!!

Parasites/pimps take your choice, living of the efforts of others!

it has been reported that only 15 players are at pre-season training.

in addition an "employee of the club" claims to know that they are unable to sign anymore until the venue issue is sorted.