[urlhttp://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/9614049.Bulls_need_to_raise___1m_or_go_bust__says_chairman/[/url

Would now be the time to cherry pick a couple of youngsters for a decent fee. Bargains galore to be had at the Odsal fire sale me thinks.

Could Matt Diskin still do us a job? Or have the Bulls broken him?

Diskin is one of the top performers week in, week out. Personally I'd bring in Craig Kopczak. Best young prop in SL at the moment and would be a tower for us for years to come.

Only player that really impresses me at Bradford is Elliot Whitehead - and I'm not convinced that he's any better than what we already have.

I never thought I'd say that 7-8 years ago.

Maybe you should change your name to the Leeds Vultures, it has a nice ring to it

Whitehead is overrated IMO. I prefer the prospects of Bateman and Addy in the 2nd row. Whitehead is weak in defence and doesn't make much impact with ball in hand. He is very quick though and can expose a gap.

Terrible news for the Bulls, and proof that their Chairman has been not exactly truthful with their fans for some time.

In terms of players that we would be interested in, I think Kopczak, Whitehead, Diskin and Bateman would be worth some interest, but I would be looking to sign them for a fee and then immediately loan them back to the Bulls so they could continue their season.

Kopczak would be a good replacement for Kylie, and we could still bring Amor back to take some of the weight off Peacock. Whitehead has the potential to be another Peacock but is very much a work in progress, and so is Bateman who has the potential to go all the way. We know all about Diskin and we are light at Hooker IMO, but resigning him is more about doing them a favour than a necessity.

I don't think Diskin would be a good move. Give Hood a go at it and Mcshane still has time to develop. Look to future. Kopczak would be a nice signing to hear about!

Kopscak, Bateman, L'Estrange. Kear is also another good one for the future.

But would rather see Bradford keep all their players and get other investment to help them survive.

I wouldn't want them to vanish, but we could help them out be investing in some of their talent.

And the Dulls haven't been doing the same for years? It's called good business my friend.

This would clearly not be good news for Rugby League. Questions must be asked of the way the club has been run.

I hope they are able to resolve their problems, although if I were a fan I'd be wanting some good answers and assurances before I handed over my hard-earned cash to a club that seems to have been losing it hand over fist for a number of years.

Just a couple of quotes from that linked-to article at the start of this thread...



If the tables were turned and it was Gary Hetherington asking you for £100 to save the Rhinos, would you send him a cheque by return ?

I wouldn't.



I know nothing about the club, I know nothing about running a professional rugby league club, I do know something about running a small business and I do know an awful lot about how overheads can very quickly kill a small business when just one piece of the turnover jigsaw is removed - but to me that seems like one hell of a lot of staff for a professional sports club, a hell of a lot of staff, and if most of those are full time employees and not match-day only agency staff then I would be very, very surprised and at the same time not at all surprised that they are in trouble.

It's not exactly a secret that the Bulls aren't flush with cash. Odsal is a huge millstone and falling crowds haven't helped, but did anyone suspect that it was really this bad?

They are a poorly run club. Abosulte joke for super league. To think the abuse Wakey got (me included), but at least they have the excuse of been a smaller club.

I wouldn't want any of their players. Not one could improve us.

No. If the club was in that situation without some sort of force majeure (accidentally becoming s**t so nobody will pay to watch you and wearing out your copy of Cotton Eye Joe doesn't count) I wouldn't be handing over a penny for anything other than a match ticket unless I was convinced it was going to a different and better management team.

The idea of a club run by the fans seems like a good idea, until you read an internet message board.

One other point - what damage did last years season ticket bargain basement sell-off do in the long term ?

Not half.

It shows for sure that the licensing system is a complete and utter farce.

of that sort of size, my thoughts too

if £2.5m is in salaries, that makes a minimum of £0.7m in non playing staff, probably closer to £1m, which IMO seems a huge amount. 150 staff seems a large number

Very sad news, but I guess this is why the RFL had to buy Odsal, in an attempt to give Bulls a chance

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Won't lose any sleep over it

I thinks time the RFL introduce some kind of deeper accounts checking with EVERYTHING exposed by clubs who want to be in SL.
It's clear this hasn't occured over-night and re-Cut price ST's it's clear they were way out of their depth just as they were when taking on GH.
I also remember the then Bulls board voting the London Broncos out of SL when they originally folded be interesting if there's any kind of vote what the repercussions will be.

It doesn't do the game any good at all too see any team(s) in this predicament. Reading the article it looks as though the bank have reduced their overdraft and it it has happened at Bradford you can bet they are not the only RL clubs affected.

Very bad news for our sport. Selling the ground was a big clue that the club was in financial trouble and the RFL will have some questions to answer if their money has gone down some big black hole in return for a white elephant with an appetite for more than just buns.

Quite how a club, which not so many years ago had the best team in SL with large crowds and income, can be so mismanaged beggars belief.