And a certain person once quoted on here, that we would never sign Gaskell, despite us being offered him on several occasions

I think we used our ninth life last season. To go into this season with a very inexperienced coach, aging or unproven overseas players and many of the same players who didn't do much last season is pretty much saying we're happy to drop down a league.

Something seriously wrong with our discipline, if that horrendous penalties count is anything to go by , leeds didn’t have to break sweat for the most part to get piggy backed up the field , time and time again .Attack wise , 2 sets of 6 on the leeds line and they wouldn’t have scored if given another dozen . Lacklustre and toothless in attack almost to a point of being non existent . Never in my 5o years of watching our team have I seen absolutely no attacking structures or moves , it’s all hail,Mary’s and one out rugby , even our defence crumble when they realised lynne and kershaw were there for the taking and exploited it ruthlessly. All in all a pretty dour experience, there’s only so much defensive work you can applaud ,when our attack is so woeful . Leeds ran harder , tackled harder and were faster in foot and thought , the dam wall was breached after yet another penalty got them on our line ,and the it was damage limitation

What I can't understand is why would the club spend all this money on the ground just to end up in the championship,and why go into this tough sl season with a weak team ,doesn't make any sense.

Gaskell has a suspected torn pec so it's time for Smith to step up. Langi failed his HIA so won't be available next week. I guess Hall will make his return.

I don't know about Smith stepping up.... Lino needs to !!!!! Doing absolutely nothing at the moment ....v disappointed in him.

He had a shocker tonight.

I blame Chezzy

Certainly left us with some peaches of players who he signed who are stealing a long term wage of us , if that’s what you mean

Nah it’s Poching’s fault, players aren’t getting coached don’t you know….

Somebody mentioned on here somewhere that James Ford had been interviewed for Cas job -IF that's true how committed to the cause is he?
At times like this we need to pull together.
I'll stick my hand up and say I thought we had a good squad this season, expecting more I suppose from the likes of Atoni and Proctor -although I cannot knock his effort in defence (last nights game excluded because I haven't seen it yet) BUT I was never one for Gaskell at SO. I thought we'd go with Smith and Lino but the coach stubbornly sees Gaskell as SL standard.
Like many I don't know where the next try is coming from let alone win.
The whole bunch of them need a kick up the proverbial .
We're four games in out of the 6 games I'm giving them to get a win- if we haven't got a win 6 games in then heads should roll before it's too late.

I was always hopeful the sum of the team would be greater than the parts, as the squad looked short on quality. The first four games have proved that this is not the case. Its already too late, unless now that MC is handing over the reins and we start spending to cash we don't have to get a better quality of halves from God only knows where to direct the team around the pitch, as we don't seem to have any attacking structures to fall back on.

Agree. Speculate to accumulate as they say - may cost us to get the quality we need but what's it going to cost us if we drop!!!!

Speculate just means going into massive debt again really, doesn't it?

We've had a good 25 year run in the top division which is easily our longest since the two division reintroduction back in the 70s.
Even Wally Lewis couldn't save us one year.
Always been skint, with poor crowds. Maybe time's just up again.

Last night was poor.

The question is how much will relegation cost compared to spending to survive. We lose the Sky money, lower away support and we will have to start repaying the ground purchase. The decision is for others to make but the outcome for us to live with.

Let me tell you as a Leigh fan, relegation is not the doom and gloom you think it is.

Firstly you get a parachute payment of £500k, all contracts are null and void so you can clear the roster if needs be and retain who you want.
There are some great players in the championship who have good jobs so playing outside of SL suits them, all games are Sunday afternoons which is by far the best bit and can have a positive effect on crowds and there are some really well supported teams in the championship that will travel due to Sunday games.

The championship has a large Yorkshire contingent so I could see some decent crowds at yours on a Sunday, Championship rugby has some of the most exciting games and is less structured than SL so it makes for a more entertaining game.

Overall it gives you time to clear the decks, reset, rebuild and start to win some games and plan for a further assault on SL with less pressure.

I personally like the championship, it’s a much friendlier place where you can get back to enjoying the game again and now with the new IMG structure is not the death sentence it used to be.

Think you have a point.

I also think we're probably better placed than back in 95 when we were surplus to super league requirements, in more ways than one.

We do have quite a bit of deadwood which it would give us that opportunity, but at the same time we have some good young players coming through, which they may not be quite ready for week in, week out super league, but at this stage would go well in the championship. Added to this, some smart, but realistic signings, things may look better over the long haul.

No you don’t. It is linked to the TV money and that was the figure under the previous deal, something which was still in place when Leigh went down. It it now less than that and only available if you run a full time squad, something Leigh could do thanks to a generous benefactor. Not having that luxury would make that difficult, look at Toulouse this year having only a 19 or 20 man squad. They can cope as they are using the better young from elite one to fill the gaps, again that doesn’t count for us. Relegation would not be good for us in any way shape or form.

That’s a great post,
Some very good and valid points made, there is certainly some positives to playing in the Championship and teams such as Widnes accepted that Championship RL isn’t the end of the world.

At Wakefield we don’t have a Derek Beaumont whose mood can swing him toward an assault on SL at any given moment. That means we have to fight to stay where we are or emulate Widnes and accept Championship level RL thus abandoning the ambitions of being a top Super League club forever

Good post Binosh,you've made the Championship sound quite appealing.The difference between Leigh and Wakey though,is that you have a 'money man' backing you who is prepared to fund whatever it takes to get into,and stay,in SL,and good luck to you.The reality of our situation is that we haven't been able to,in a make or break season, strengthen an already weak squad.This lack of money would not bode well for us if we get relegated.
Just noticed some similar posts have gone in but will post this all the same!

Every time we "spend", the chickens always come home to roost. Ted, Pearman and Glover all wore the emperor's new clothes during the last 25 years. We probably found our true self sustaining level during the 1980's, as a yoyo club, and only had sustainable success during the 1960's with a money man behind the scenes.
It must be tough to accept for fans under 30 years old though.

I accepted last May/June that if, by some miracle, we stayed up given how we were playing, 2023 would be just a rinse and repeat and we'd face the same old again. We are not sustainable at this level and it's really no fun anymore.

Very sensible post!

Still not sure if it's too early to post as last night hurt like hell.
Having gone 3 games without registering a point, it's crystal clear that we have ZERO creativity.
We had enough ball in Leeds 20, especially in the first half, to win 3 games and yet we were utterly clueless.

Well done for those who made the short trip over to Leeds but, based on our opening 4 games, we are staring down the barrel (already)..
Our defence was ok in the first half but, deary me, we were bloody awful with ball in hand.

Too slow, especially in the halves and not enough umph in the pack.

We cleared out all of our top earners last season and have replaced each one with someone of inferior ability and to improve, we needed to sign better or equal to what we had.

Losing Murphy is obviously a huge blow but, with the passible exception of Kershaw, we're just too slow in everything that we do.

Leeds lifted their line speed after the break and it killed us.

Unless we can find a quality HB an a Fifita style prop and persuade them to come to Wakefield, we're screwed

Relegation would kill us...just look what it did to Bradford, London, Widnes, Sheffield and Halifax as that is where we are headed unless something drastic changes NOW. As other's have said, we don't have a Beaumont to bank-roll us and unless we get one in the next few months then sadly, it's Championship here we come