The thing sticking in my mind and I may be wrong but I'm sure Glover did something during negotiation to buy the club that was dodgy and stopped others. Old history now but I just can't recall what it was. Not worth bothering about now it's just bugging me.

Your right though we've ended up ok bar the stadium.

I think it was the Parkin thing you are thinking of. Parkin wanted Andrew to step aside on the pretence that he would then step in and buy the club. I don't believe that he would have tbh, and therefore perhaps Andrew, on this occasion, should be allowed some slack.

If we could merge the Entrepreneurial spirit of Ted, the marketing nous of Andrew and the business acumen of Chris and Michael we would be well sorted!

Yes we should be thankful that in Michael and Chris that the club are now heading in the right direction.

I do agree though with an earlier poster that the state the club were in when he took over wasnt all down to Glover. I dont think he had the support he needed at the time. He had never owned a club before and some decisions made on and off the pitch were the wrong ones. Bearing in mind that when Michael took over Kath Hetherington came in but like her or not, the Hetheringtons know all the ins and outs of running a club.

I say this about Glover and Elston as I spent time working for the club between 2012 and 2013.

Doing what, if you don't mind me asking.

Sure.

In the Accounts Department.

I was responsible for day to day duties such as chasing customer payments and processing purchase invoices etc. Unfortunately I wasnt in a position to make any financial decisions like who to pay and who not. James and Andrew got a weekly report as to who were chasing.

I think we spent beyond our means on players those years and Eric France going pop didnt help but to pay a creditor after it goes to court increases the debt.

The near demise of this doesn't rest on the shoulders of Ted, Glover or MC it goes way further back than that. It actually started in the 1960's and gradually went down hill from there with some of the worst BOD any RL club has ever seen until eventually the Council bought the ground 1985 I think (see not the first time we've lost our only asset).

When Rodney Walker and Stuart Farrar came in they at least stabalised the club on the pitch but did little off it. Ted and his partner arrived after an abortive take over by Duncan Developments. In Teds reign he got us back into SL, kept us there all be it by the skin of our teeth and yes got the ground back! It's a tragic and sad irony that arguably Teds biggest achievements, keeping us in SL and getting the ground back were ultimately his demise and what he will always be remembered for.

Glover by comparrison was transitory, 2 years versus 15 and although he had his moments and as I say wasn't malicious he did virtually nothing in real terms. Now we have MC and we shall see.

Truth is we are still deep in the mire, we are now on life support but with hopefully a much more gifted surgeon.

You're brave to admit that I have to say.

I thought so too, but why not be open and honest.

I loved it though to be fair, working in an industry I love and to top it all at the rugby team you support and have been watching since 1980.

It was at the aame time hard and sad seeing the struggles and bot having any power to buck the trend.

Good for you, honesty is in short supply in this world and even though I think you're misguided it's nice to see you have a bit of loyalty for Glover and your time at the club. To many people on here snipe and scapegoat from the safety of anonimity so all power to your elbow.

On a personal level I don't have a problem with uncle Ted, but perhaps he might have been better off merging his alleged Entrepreneurial spirit towards the club instead of pursuing other interests

The reason why I mentioned Eric France was I think there are quite a few people who forgot that they went under owing the club money.

The sponsorship deal was a six figure sum, it was paid monthly to the club and several payments were missed. This happened out of season so must clubs are reliant on their sponsors to pay bills. We may have got a new sponsor as the season was starting but in comparison to the Eric France deal it was a bit lower.

Had all this not have happened the club may not have been as badly in the mire as they were. There were things that happened that snowballed on from there.

I dont feel comfortable to share the value, as one of the main things regarding finance is confidenciality.

Steve Parkin was serious about buying the club! He had accountants and solicitors do due diligence and found nothing in terms of debt or hidden debt to scare him off.

He offered to place a bond with the RFL and to introduce many of his business clients to the RFL marketing team. His offer was to pay off all the debt and spend whatever it took to make the club viable i.e. employ qualified staff in all departments as well as funding a competitive team.

The sticking point was that if he did things the correct way and spent a couple of million securing the club, he wanted a guarantee the RFL would not demote Wakefield by revoking their SL licence. All he wanted was to know that he wasn't going to spend 2 million to buy what would effectively become a Championship Club worth one tenth of that within weeks of the purchase.

The RFL flatly refused to give that guarantee either officially or unofficially, hence a Mexican stand off began which went right to the eve of the Millennium Magic season opener in Cardiff. The RFL were buoyed by the fact that if Parkin walked they had Glover waiting to step in and so stood their ground.
Parkin walked and the rest is history!

Yea I remember most of that.

It doesn't change your argument but Ted and Brian were already on board when Duncan Developments came onto the scene.
Rodney Walker, Ted, Brian and another bloke (Peter Robinson?) were the majority share holders after the share issue. Rodney and the other bloke then left the scene leaving Ted, Brian and Stuart Farrar to run the club. If I remember correctly, Duncan Developments were given shares in lieu of upgrading the east stand with Jim Duncan becoming vice chair. Duncan Developments went bust not long after and Jim and his mate left the club.