Trying not to be emotive about the issue but its difficult. Without wanting to downplay the very careful financial management of the club - we're hand to mouth at Wakefield, and probably most clubs. Income has dried up due to something that no one could see coming or really mitigate against. I've got sympathies with both sides but fundamentally all that matters to me is that the club survives. I find it hard to believe it will come to a point where there is a walk out of playing staff and lets hope its all resolved this week. Unfortunately looks like there will be bridges that cannot be mended.

Its been pretty public all along that someone was playing up, initially when the squad was furloughed there was a comment about someone earning 10k a month should really have some savings, there was then some pretty public comments about attitudes of not some players not being forgotten and now we have the grand newspaper hyperbole of a 'strike' threat. Would have to believe its the same player at the centre of it. If a player thinks they can do better elsewhere then I'd invite them to go seek a move because I don't believe the contract they are looking for will be out there, and if they're that special we'll have a transfer fee.

I've had suspicions about who it might be like most of us will have but I hope I'm wrong because I'd be very disappointed.

Wasn’t it carter who stated a player was asking for strike?

The Mirror article says so:

"[iChief executive Michael Carter says that the average loss for players in net pay would be 11.5 percent over the year with the highest loss being 16.7 percent, but has confirmed that one senior member of Trinity’s squad has been calling for a strike.[/i"

Advocating a strike is ok when the employer is flush with cash and not doing the right thing.
However, with the current situation, it looks more like everyone needs to help "carry the load" in order for the club to survive.

It's a very tough ask for all concerned.
Most seem to have been furloughed and of course, everyone has spending commitments / families to support etc.

However, we all hope that this year is a blip and that things will eventually return to something like normal, even though this may take 2/3 years ?

If this boils down to a reduction in salaries or the club going bust, I guess that players have a simple choice or, they could ask for a move.
As a sport, we need to cr@p or get off the pot.

How long, time wise, can we actually go, before time has to be called on the season.
Somehow, games need to start up again and soon and if an odd one or two players aren't up for it, we have to move on without them.

It's OK everybody being all hung ho about what they would do but you don't actually know what's happening. (neither do I of course)

Saying you'd take a pay cut is all well and good but what about if everyone else has say 10% cut and you have 16%
Abd you only just pay your mortgage,
And you have kids and the 10% dont
And you had a contract offer elsewhere but decided to stay for the good of the team
Etc etc

It's never as clean cut as the papers make out.

Personally I would never strike. It's an out of date concept now. But when you don't know the reasons it's difficult to draw conclusions and easy to blame.

We do appear to be one club that likes to do their dirty washing in the public. This in itself reflects badly on the club or all the rest would do the same.

Thats well known little wayne69.


In fact its legendary.

Get a grip ffs.
If someone releases this info to the press or suchlike, there's not much the club can do about is there???

I knew it would only be a matter of time

The problem is that it is the club that is doing it which I thought was pretty obvious. If it was such a good way to handle negotiations why are no other clubs doing the same. It appears we are looking to replace large parts of the existing squad with cheaper options the club believe will be available. This is not me saying this but the club made it clear this was their plan.

The info has come from the club hasn’t it?

No it hasn't, it's come from an agent.

The agent must be called Michael Carter because the article in the Mirror clearly indicated that the strike threat from a senior player came from a statement he made.

Ah it must be right if the mirror says so.

Back to the point. Don't you get zero pay if you strike?
why bother you can't get blood out of a stone.

Whilst some people might think sky are calling the shots on when teams play, over the super league era they have pumped millions into our game which as been totally squandered on overseas players and 30 odd year olds who should not be still playing. The administration of the clubs and the rfl as not been fit for purpose and although we are in strange times we have been asking for trouble as a game. When you get Bradford going bust when they were getting tv deals, sponsers, prize money and gates over 20000 at some games says it all.
Is a player in the wrong or breaking any laws by refusing to take a pay cut or is he in his rights to walk away as a free agent if the club refuse to pay his full contract and would downing tools be breaking his contract in the circumstances. If any players wants to walk then I hope the club use the money to pay the players their full salary.

The RFL was given 16 million to safeguard the future of the game and Ralph rimmer said it would be used wisely, I’ve no idea where this money as gone but 500000 each equates to 6 million spread through the super league clubs with 10 million left.

This could actually be a blessing in the long run where we could bring a sport back from the brink by producing our own players and stopped wasting money, I think the game well I know the game is in a bad state, let’s just hope it survives

Nobody can argue with this.
If any of us have a new contract put in front of us, we're not obliged to sign.
However, if the correct channels have been gone through, the only option left is to sign or, walk away.

The £16,000,000 IIRC wasn't allowed to be used for wages, although I'm sure that some clever administrators can divert some monies in all sorts of directions to engineer anything taken from the "pot" to use in different areas. However, it's a loan and not a gift and will still need paying back.

You have to have sympathy for all businesses, effectively prevented from trading, to stop the spread of the virus and there will be 1000's of businesses that simply run out of money and football / rugby clubs etc are certainly vulnerable.

Although things in England are generally better than they were, in terms of the virus, Covid is spreading like hell in other areas of the world and even scraping to the end of the season may only delay the inevitable.

If they can manage to do so, the players need to do all they can to help keep the sport breathing.
It wont suit every player but, the alternatives dont bear thinking about for the players or the clubs.

The £16M was a loan that needs to be repaid and I believe Michael made the decision to safeguard the future of the club by not taking on debt that will need to be repaid down the line for short term benefit. When you consider that every club is going to lose £280K (I think that was the figure) from next years Sky funding then having a debt that needs to be repaid out of reduced funding seems the wrong thing to do.
I'm pretty sure that Michael knows what the club can and can't afford to do, after all he has masterminded getting us out of debt and onto an even keel over the last few years. I'm also pretty sure that he will be constantly evaluating the options to see if we need to do something different.

At the end of the day, without a sugar daddy that can pump millions in each year then we have to cut our cloth accordingly.

Doesnt a 12 week consultation have to take place befote any alterations to contract can be supplied

Yeah, and about 5 minutes consultation before a business or club goes bust.

What sickens me is the likes of multi-billionaire corporate companies like SKY who would willingly stand by and watch Super League disappear. OK, they have kept the game going for twenty-four years but look what they've had in return. To finance the cost of survival of Super League would be the equivalent to the likes of me and thee losing a pound coin out of our pockets.
It's the same with Barnsley FC. Their American /Chinese multi-billionaire owners have stated that they will not dip into their pockets to save the Club going under.

It makes you feel sick

Still the only weapon that the working man has got, PT.

In the main I agree with you but equally Sky would say they have given the game millions the people running the game over the years have done very little to support the game wider than Sky. They have taken large salaries and delivered little in return so a good proportion of the game being so fragile lies with the SL and the EFL.

Only if everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet RC, I’m afraid the majority are happy to keep their mouths shut and keep nodding their heads. I keep going on about my experience, I’ve done what I thought was right and still do, but since then with the public opinion at the time from all the other industry’s, they fight their own battles like sadly we had to unfortunately.

Sorry to say you're right in what you say BLM. There was a time when you didn't have to all sing from the same hymn sheet. Decisions were based on the majority vote. I think they called it democracy.