I personally think the post by TrinfanX was a very well put and accurate piece and one i agree with. I felt that the statement by Carter was another slightly desperate attempt to try and divert attention from the blatently obvious, that the club is in an almighty hole. Everything he mentioned is all well and good but whilst the focal point, i.e. the on field product, is so bad it matters not, we are only currently heading in one direction and that it towards the championship which will render much of what is contained in that speech immaterial. It is up to him to take the tough decisions needed to prevent that happening. Has he got the guts to do it? Then there is obviously the ground issue which will probably scupper us anyway in time so as nice as the sound bites are i'm afraid they will wash over most who can see the rather murkey waters which lay ahead.

Firstly, to the people who defended me, Thank you. Nothing more to say on this point, I don't want to derail the thread.

I think some have misunderstood the meaning of puff piece.

Here is the entry from Wikitionary:

Noun
puff piece (plural puff pieces)

A journalistic form of puffery; an article or story of exaggerating praise that often ignores or downplays opposing viewpoints or evidence to the contrary.

Ok then, dropping the journalistic analogy, you could easily say the elephant in the room.

To me, that elephant is purely our performance on the field. I know this is a narrow, blinkered view but, at the moment my thinking is very much blinkered by thoughts of relegation.

All the other things in that letter are super important. My son and daughter both play rugby at a very junior level. So I am thrilled that Sky Try appears to be a success. I have argued for years with friends and supporters of other teams that we need a stronger academy. That too seems to be going in the right direction. Of course sponsorship and external revenue streams are massive for the club.

I just worry that it will all be for nothing if we don't turn this thing around.

Maybe things are going on behind the scenes and our Top Brass have a plan. If they do, would it not have made more sense to let us know that?

If Webster is staying put as he seems to be then I think he needs some help. There has to be a very defensive minded coach somewhere that can come on board and help out. I know there's an old adage that says "Anybody who is any good will already have a job". But often these types of things are done on a part time basis. I know a group of professional players shouldn't need someone to tell them how to tackle but, clearly they do. Also, people keep saying Webster has lost the dressing room and they are not playing for him. Unless I'm missing something, they're not playing for him, they're playing for us!

So I guess the point is, would you rather he said nothing, or say what he has said in this letter?

Personally I didn't need the letter to keep me interested but I think he's done it to try and do something to raise interest just slightly.
He clearly doesn't want to , and shouldn't in my opinion, talk about the team. That's Webster's job......unless he is sacking Webster, which is MC's job.

I thought it was harmless. So I'm not having a go at your post particularly, but I don't see why it draws that kind of emotion about it.
We used to get complaints about there being no communication, then when Glover started we had complaints there was too much. We are back to that again by the looks of things.

I think most people just want to see the on field stuff improve. The rest is just fluff to most people...........until it goes wrong.

That's a very fair point Pop Tart, and a little two faced of me.

I have certainly in the past complained about not hearing from the club. I guess when things get this bad and tensions are high, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I think from my point of view, it was more a raising of expectations and then dashing them. When I read "Open Letter to the Fans", I thought here we go. I guess I was just disappointed to find there was nothing about the team or the coaching setup.

But as I say, a very fair point well made Sir.

Without wanting to start a group hug here, I do agree that the false raising of expectations is a problem at Wakefield.
We don't have people who are professional public communications experts so often make gaffs unfortunately.

They aren't bad, but the very fact that MC is so vocal on social media and brings emotion in to it, imho is not very professional.
Sometimes it hits the right cord but when it's important comms that really needs to be exact and correct, it can sometimes miss the mark.

I respect Mr Carter for the honest, open and forth right response to the fans. I'm sure the vast majority of Wakefield supporters admire and respect the excellent job he's done since coming on board. He strikes me as an honest and hard working man who is doing what he feels is in the best interests of the club.

If Mr Carter's made one mistake, IMHO it was giving the inexperienced Webster the deal he did. I felt this was a bad move then and it's clear for all to see that is also currently the case today. I think Webster over achieved last year and huge expectations we're therefore established for the season ahead. We caught 2 teams cold game 1 and 2 this season and since then we've been well and truly hammered on a weekly basis showing no sing of improvement.

Carter's loyalty towards this man could cost him and the club dearly and undo all the good work he's done at the club.

The squad we have is good enough to retain SL IMHO, the harsh reality is the coach and his support team are not up to the job. The players are not blameless either but the book stops with the Coach. They are simply not getting the best out of what we have. We're getting worse not better. Even London last year as bad as they were seemed to show more fight and spirit than we are currently.

If we lose against Leigh which as much as it pains me to say it I think we will, then I feel Carter must act immediately and replace Webster if we are to stand any chance of retaining our SL status.

Rather than "can we afford to do so?", I'd flip that question and ask, "Can we afford not to?"

I suspect we have an interesting few weeks ahead.

Yes, that's a fair point.

I guess when you are passionate and it's from the heart, it can hard to bite your tongue.

I have also slated what Webster said about not playing until the 8s. This though, was said straight after a very disappointing result when emotions were high. I think the guy was just saying what was on his mind. It certainly didn't help the cause though.

You mention the spirit that London showed last year.

That is all I want to see from us.

We are where we are and the table doesn't lie. But, we have been here before and turned things around by digging deep and showing spirit. If I saw just a little of that, I would believe we could turn this thing around. Even if we fell short, I would know that we gave it a go.

I think we will beat Leigh. I have no idea what I am basing that on, just gut feeling I guess.

IMO it's just papering over the cracks. I actually felt a bit deflated reading that.

This open letter means nothing now. Absolutely nothing.

The open letter means nothing now. Just what did it mean last week. NOTHING THEN NOTHING NOW.

Time to stop writing letters to the newspapers and start writing P45 s

And you can make that 51k below salary cap next year (5 in our house not renewing )

Grow a pair and sack the ginger whinger !

To be fair it meant very little last week, today it truly does mean nothing.

All very quiet on Twitter tonight.

It was always a load of guff to try and deflect attention to the disaster that is taking place on the field. I see the u19's shipped 50 against Huddersfield as well this week. Seems endemic. If he thought he could pull the wool over peoples eyes with that then he was very naive. Todays events have just blown a bigger hole in the entire damn thing.