..but if its not, it won't be too long before the wolves come knocking and i don't mean the warrington ones

A shock announcement that sets alrm bells ringing.
Usually a chairmen goes with some kind of notice (ie 'At the end of the season I'll be leaving' or 'xyz will be taking over control of the club from next month' etc, etc).

To just leave is worrying and the Press release doesn't give much away (other than we are in a good shape).

That natural hope is that we have people in the wings waiting to take over and AT feels the time is right to hand over (or he has had enough of top level involvement - as fans we feel injustices with whats happening in RL, Imagine how you would feel if you was paying as much as AT has been to keep the club going whilst witnessing some strange decisions in RL).

I'd say information is needed from the club tomorrow (positive or negative) before this effects the new found optimism in the team and in the (increasing) support.

History has shown us that EVERY TIME this club seems to be heading in the right direction, it inevitably goes pear shaped and the fans are left broken hearted. I wouldn't be surprised if Millward is gone by the end of the week.
I would like to thank Arthur for his efforts, but I'm still gutted and have a sinking feeling.

Guess it's sink or swim for us now! From AT's point of view what better time to step down...playing very well on the pitch and publicity is at a premium and good publicity at that! Good things are being said on tv about us for once almost weekly! So hopefully someone will see something worth putting their money into! Fingers crossed!!

Many thanks AT!!!

The break even figure at Hilton Park was around 2,800 , at the LSV it is closer to 4,000 , do the Maths

We needed a Hull FC / KC stadium , Warrington / HJ stadium type upsurge in attendances , it didn't/ we didn't make it , happen

The answer ? Simple , another 1,500 fans turning up on Sunday , and every home match after that

The club have to give more information asap.Already ive been hearing the pub intelligencia predicting the downfall of our great club.Theymusnt let the excellent work by arthur thomas,ian millward and the players go to waste.Information please...and quickly

strange timing, very strange indeed.

i to think theres something coming off and it could possibly be basil going to salford.lets hope not,be great if basil stepped forward and said he was seeing us through the next year or two.would relieve some of the fears that are now growing.
have a great retirement arthur it is well deserved and us leigh fans will be forever grateful for what you have done for leigh centurions

The club needs a figure head.

Other than ill health i can't believe he has stepped aside without something/someone already being in place.

Hear that. It's the sound of the dreams of the loyal fans being flushed down the toilet. It's a effin shame that once again its all turned to sh 1t. If the club ends up in administration then it will be atleast 6 years before we can apply for Super League and who's going to want to invest in that,

Administration no longer counts.....see Crusaders/Wakey. SL chairmen voted to change the rules a few weeks before Cru went into admin remember.

...and to JC, you may have to believe just that

dont you beliebe it Derek they will use anything to slap an upstart team down

I'd suggest discussing applying for SL in three years time is the least of our problems right now

Well as I see it there are two options:

1) There is an angel waiting in the wings and there will be announcement from the club tomorrow saying basically "ha ha fooled you...this is actually good news...so and so is coming on board with a wad of cash, Millward is staying etc. etc."

2) There is no angel in the wings and we are cast adrift. If we see coach and players disappear I think things would go downhill pretty quickly. I would certainly fear for the future of the club and whether there was a will for fans to carry on. What a sad day that would be.

I really hope its option 1, but would be pretty annoyed that the club led us up the garden path like that. But I cannot bear to think about option 2. Timing is really odd though and I cannot figure it out.

I was talking to someone on Saturday who told me and another Board user that there are Investors waiting in the wings.

Fingers crossed.

He meant you and Glow , you daft bugger

Heard a lot of rumours the last couple of years but none of them have seemed to come off. No doubt that someone will want this club who you have to say is already the favourite for a franchise in 2015. We have a young good leigh team with a state of the art stadium with a growing fanbase with every game we win. We proved last week we can cope with playing Super League opponents. So come on potential investors fight to be part of this exciting club!

I can't believe AT would just cast the club adrift ,he has put too much time and effort and money into this club to see it go down the pan

What surprises me is that there are no rumours. No-one inside or near the club seems to know why AT has gone. No-one has talked to Basil. The usual twitterers are not tweeting.

It is ominously quiet.

What we have here is the eternal ' Chicken and Egg ' scenario

What comes first , the investement , or the support ?

If you look , it is usually the support first , there tends to be no shortage of investors in sports clubs with strong fan bases , only rarely does the investement come first

the only silver lining I can see if the club went belly up would be that Scarborough Centurions would hopefully get a couple of sets of kit before the bailiffs got their hands on them! Black humour is the only comfort I have at the moment.

I have to say that the timing of the announcement does suggest that there is a Plan B in effect, but it is odd announcing the departure first. Still, nothing was said about removing financial support, we are just making an asumption that this will go along with it....

Dave Parky on twitter says that the staff were only told at 4pm today and Allan Rowley failed to appear on his podcast tonight. Says he is finding it difficult to find anything out.

like most people say the timing is weird.a semi final a few weeks away (possible final around 8 weeks away).unbeaten in the league,crowds growing (slowly),playing great rugby and a real good feeling factor building all the time.
im only hoping that arthur has done a deal with someone to come in and finish the great work he and basil have been doing.
lets get behind the team in numbers on sunday and make a racket,there might just be someone in that crowd coming to see what they are going to get themselfs into.......i hope

I doubt Mr Thomas has taken the decision lightly but he has obviously said 'enough is enough', he has been looking at a "build it and they will come" scenario but despite his continual investment, a very good coach and consistently excellent performances on the field, they didn't come in sufficient numbers.

Unless his investment is replaced, the duals will go straight away, Chris Hill and a couple of others will go before the end of the season , the coach will go sharpish (if he is still here); the latter could have been the catalyst for Arthur's decision.

I personally think that this as been on Arthur`s agenda for a while and there is a new backer coming in to take over....... when I was leaving Sheffs ground yesterday I saw the chairman and he looked very happy - would someone who was gona walk out and leave us in the poo look like this?........ lets all just wait and see what happens.