Well said Ian.

Adrian - You might have considered it lecturing at the time however, many people, myself included, were just frustrated that this advice was so easily dismissed and (as Clan also points out) we were told that the Bulls situation was nothing like Wakefield's and to butt out. Of course, hindsight (which I admit is always 20/20) has proved that the situation was indeed the same (actually, yours was much, much worse) and that 'you' clearly should have followed the advice given. While I think most would not want or expect an apology, a little more contrition wouldn't go a miss now would it?

Just to add something else to this thread, one of things that lots of people seem not to be questioning is HMRC's role and whether they have got things right and acted in a reasonable manner?

My own recent dealings with HMRC have proven to me that they are just as prone to making errors as any of the millions of companies they deal with.

I won't bore you with the full details but I have spent the last couple of months amicably disputing what they think was a £46 short-fall in the corporation tax my company owed. The long and short of it is that in the end I decided to concede and pay the additional £46 (I still they they are wrong BTW) because the cost of continuing to dispute it would outweigh such a small amount owed . So just under a month ago I paid them by electronic transfer. I was therefore just a little surprised to come home from holiday to find not one, but two letters, dated just 2 days apart, threatening me with the bailiff's for not paying them. Apparently their records say I haven't paid... they are of course wrong.

So they do make mistakes as well and are far from perfect themselves!

Should not have been allowed to happen. 'Oversight'. not good enough, sorry. This sort of thing should have somone employed by the club stuck to that issue like glue. Paid it may be; inspire confidence it does not.

I don't mean to be confrontational in these comments Sandal Cat but you say there is no reason to be concerned then list all of the reasons that concern me massively. If you are receiving monthly visits from the revenue, how TF do you have an oversight? I'm sorry it just does not add up. Yes, we seem to have made progress as a club, or so I thought. Once again, true to the form of my lifetime, we revist rank incompetence. I will stick with the club, I always have but sometimes, Lord, I ask why.

I wish I could share your optimism Tigerade. It ain't good whichever way you look at it

Totally agree and cannot believe the light way that some people on here are treating this. I am dismayed, as you are. To me, this makes me suspect that we are pretty much on the edge financially. This sort of thing happens when you are in debt and are paying creditors hand to mouth as the cash comes in, last minute. I think the club needs to do better than a statement that sounds like the fast show sketch with the Tory polician at the end on the garden gates explaining how he got caught with his trousers down in a men's toilet.

Totally agree and cannot believe the light way that some people on here are treating this. I am dismayed, as you are. To me, this makes me suspect that we are pretty much on the edge financially. This sort of thing happens when you are in debt and are paying creditors hand to mouth as the cash comes in, last minute. I think the club needs to do better than a statement that sounds like the fast show sketch with the Tory polician at the end on the garden gates explaining how he got caught with his trousers down in a men's toilet.

Charlie, when I first read this thread I was as concerned as anyone. I've been through this situation many times before so yes I was worried. James Elston contacted me before I could contact him and explained how the situation arose but because of the sensitive nature and the bodies involved it cannot be aired in public.

Am I satisfied with the explanation and the fact that I've been told that the "debt" has been paid - well I have to be, I have no reason not to at this point in time. I have heard from people that we are experiening cash flow issues and that creditors are not being paid but at the moment they are just "tales" - I've been hearing the same stories for the last 30 years or more - they may be true, they may not, I don't know.

All I know is that the current regime have been doing what seems to me to be an excellent job up to this set back. If we are experiencing financial difficulties there is nothing you are I can do about as we have no shareholders in the Club, something the Trust had hoped would be offered to fans when Andrew Glover took over so that Supporters could have a stake in the Club and a say in how its run. That still remains an aim of the Trust.

If the Club is in financial difficulties and not paying bills and creditors it will eventually be "found out" but up to that point I'm prepared to give Andrew Glover & James Elston the benefit of the doubt both as Chairman of the Trust, a Sponsor and Fan in my own right and if Trust Members feel that the Trust should not be supporting the Club I'm happy to stand down and let someone else do the job.

All businesses experience set backs, its how they deal with those set backs that defines them.

Is it 'typical Wakefield' or 'typical Wakefield fans'? Non story for me but some fans are never happier than when they think they've got something to worry/complain about so they can knock themselves out with this one...

IMO they make lots of mistakes, some small, some large. I am currently disputing with them over something as simple as my tax code. I have been in the same job for ages, with no real recent changes to my personal or work situation yet have had 5 different tax codes in the last 9 months. Each time they change it it is because the previous one had been calculated incorrectly.
I know this is not exactly the same thing but it just shows how poor their systems are that they cannot get this right. They have all the information but keep changing their assessment of the situation.

I'm not saying that the club have not made an oversight, they obviously have from the press releases put out, but it could quite easily be on the back of a mistake/re-assessment of liabilities made by HMRC in the first place.

Nice get out clause from Elston there.

I read it as Elston told Sandal Cat the reasons and he agreed not to air it in public?

exactly how I read it.

Thinking logically about that it would be very hard to imagine the club has found itself in money troubles after just 18 months or so. Add to that we've just had a very successful season on and off the pitch and in the first season AG was here we obviously had a low salary due to player quality and had a decent enough attendance. If there is money troubles we'd have seen signs of it around the place, with player's not getting signed with the likes of Amor, Sykes and Poore going elsewhere . AG even spoke about the importance of running the company as a viable business in the early bird advert, where he talks about wanting to know what money we have to spend next season and not wanting to spend money we haven't got, so it's very hard to imagine anything more than a cock-up.