Any journalist worth his salt would have all the info required by hacking into MC's mobile. Scum.

To the people supplying the inevitable personal attacks, this is not about me, it is about the club. Just to set the record straight on a few points. The only reason I mentioned being a journalist was to point out that I could spot a puff piece when I see one. I am a humble scientific journalist. I deal in measurable and provable facts. I do not deal in scandal or innuendo. I will also thank you not to call me scum. Also, I am neither Ed Balls, Martyn Sadler or any other perceived arch enemy of the club. And, this is indeed my first post on these forums under any name.

It is entirely your right to disagree with my point of view but, please do so without resulting to personal attacks. I will not be baited and I will not respond in kind so, I see no sport here for you.

Back to the matter in hand.

I believe Mr Carter's letter was to try and instil a new feel good factor around the place. This would be fine as part of a cohesive strategy involving matters on and off the field. However, on its own, I find it sadly lacking.

If we are to save our selves for the 8s then something needs to happen before they begin. If we hit them with no momentum, no confidence and no team spirit, I fear we will fall flat on our face. Waiting for the back end of the season is not an option, we need action now.

After all the troubles, be it playing or financial we have been through in the last 10 years or so that internet forums have been popular and this letter is the first thing that has made you want to post???

On a scale of problems i would say it is well well down the list.

The thing is TrinFanX

You start off by saying "As a journalist, I can spot a "puff piece" a mile away" and then proceed to criticise the piece based on your opinion. Mixing things up there.
If it's a puff piece it means that it is just a story with no real impact but just fills out the room in the 'paper' or keeps people reading until something earth shattering comes along. I would agree in some ways that it is exactly that, but the point of it is to show some positives when clearly the on field showing has very few positives.
For me, it did it's job. I understand why he hasn't detailed anything about Webster or the team. That is for a much more formal and important communication.

But for you "as a journalist" to try to take the positives away from it, like saying the fact that the academy is improving is no good because other teams will just come and poach them, simply suggests you are out to throw a negative spin on an attempt by the club to be positive.
There is no value in what you ave done either. It's hardly Washington Post stuff is it.

I wish you well with future posts and you can clearly communicate intelligently, but if you reserve your posts for only these types of spins, you'll probably find people will come back with comments like the ones above.
There should be no personal attacks, and I'll defend you on that, but people are allowed to disagree with you.

TrinFanX I reiterate that I believe and support what you say.

I am not even contemplating whether you have posted under a different name or not. I believe it was your first post and if it wasn't I don't care.

I thought your post was well presented and explained. I'm not one for issuing personal attacks when there are no grounds to that.

I also think it is sad when people stereotype people by occupation. As you've explained your form of journalism is quite different to that alluded to by at least one poster on here. It's like people who assume all those who work in the banking industry are greedy, selfish and undesirable people. The more rational of us know such comments may only apply to a small proportion of those in that industry. The vast majority of those in the industry are like you and I, just doing a job for a moderate or low pay.

As for everyone else. think what you want to think people but please show some respect. I for one responded to TrinFanX based on the content of his post, not a personal bias or prejudice.

Yes PopTart, people are allowed to disagree. However I think it should be constructive criticism not what it has become.

I agree, no more name calling on this one. I will simply delete it.

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.