Doing what, if you don't mind me asking.

Sure.

In the Accounts Department.

I was responsible for day to day duties such as chasing customer payments and processing purchase invoices etc. Unfortunately I wasnt in a position to make any financial decisions like who to pay and who not. James and Andrew got a weekly report as to who were chasing.

I think we spent beyond our means on players those years and Eric France going pop didnt help but to pay a creditor after it goes to court increases the debt.

The near demise of this doesn't rest on the shoulders of Ted, Glover or MC it goes way further back than that. It actually started in the 1960's and gradually went down hill from there with some of the worst BOD any RL club has ever seen until eventually the Council bought the ground 1985 I think (see not the first time we've lost our only asset).

When Rodney Walker and Stuart Farrar came in they at least stabalised the club on the pitch but did little off it. Ted and his partner arrived after an abortive take over by Duncan Developments. In Teds reign he got us back into SL, kept us there all be it by the skin of our teeth and yes got the ground back! It's a tragic and sad irony that arguably Teds biggest achievements, keeping us in SL and getting the ground back were ultimately his demise and what he will always be remembered for.

Glover by comparrison was transitory, 2 years versus 15 and although he had his moments and as I say wasn't malicious he did virtually nothing in real terms. Now we have MC and we shall see.

Truth is we are still deep in the mire, we are now on life support but with hopefully a much more gifted surgeon.

You're brave to admit that I have to say.

I thought so too, but why not be open and honest.

I loved it though to be fair, working in an industry I love and to top it all at the rugby team you support and have been watching since 1980.

It was at the aame time hard and sad seeing the struggles and bot having any power to buck the trend.

Good for you, honesty is in short supply in this world and even though I think you're misguided it's nice to see you have a bit of loyalty for Glover and your time at the club. To many people on here snipe and scapegoat from the safety of anonimity so all power to your elbow.

On a personal level I don't have a problem with uncle Ted, but perhaps he might have been better off merging his alleged Entrepreneurial spirit towards the club instead of pursuing other interests

The reason why I mentioned Eric France was I think there are quite a few people who forgot that they went under owing the club money.

The sponsorship deal was a six figure sum, it was paid monthly to the club and several payments were missed. This happened out of season so must clubs are reliant on their sponsors to pay bills. We may have got a new sponsor as the season was starting but in comparison to the Eric France deal it was a bit lower.

Had all this not have happened the club may not have been as badly in the mire as they were. There were things that happened that snowballed on from there.

I dont feel comfortable to share the value, as one of the main things regarding finance is confidenciality.

Steve Parkin was serious about buying the club! He had accountants and solicitors do due diligence and found nothing in terms of debt or hidden debt to scare him off.

He offered to place a bond with the RFL and to introduce many of his business clients to the RFL marketing team. His offer was to pay off all the debt and spend whatever it took to make the club viable i.e. employ qualified staff in all departments as well as funding a competitive team.

The sticking point was that if he did things the correct way and spent a couple of million securing the club, he wanted a guarantee the RFL would not demote Wakefield by revoking their SL licence. All he wanted was to know that he wasn't going to spend 2 million to buy what would effectively become a Championship Club worth one tenth of that within weeks of the purchase.

The RFL flatly refused to give that guarantee either officially or unofficially, hence a Mexican stand off began which went right to the eve of the Millennium Magic season opener in Cardiff. The RFL were buoyed by the fact that if Parkin walked they had Glover waiting to step in and so stood their ground.
Parkin walked and the rest is history!

Yea I remember most of that.

It doesn't change your argument but Ted and Brian were already on board when Duncan Developments came onto the scene.
Rodney Walker, Ted, Brian and another bloke (Peter Robinson?) were the majority share holders after the share issue. Rodney and the other bloke then left the scene leaving Ted, Brian and Stuart Farrar to run the club. If I remember correctly, Duncan Developments were given shares in lieu of upgrading the east stand with Jim Duncan becoming vice chair. Duncan Developments went bust not long after and Jim and his mate left the club.

You can say what you want about Glover. At least he tried waking up this sleeping giant, cheaper season tickets, TV ad's etc. Unfortunately he came along when the club was on its knees and not much breathing space. The risks didn't pay off and errors were made but at least he tried to shake things up a bit. Elston and his missis were the biggest thieves of that era. Overpaid and incompetent.

Agree there Mash Potato.

Think there was a lot of money squandered over a period of time which caused the club to heamorrage money out of the club in various ways and it went beyond over inflated salaries.

Even basic cost cutting exercises which you would practice at home such as energy tariffs and bills were initially ignored.

There was also a very high amount of player compromise deals for ex players dished out during this time which mounted up.

Pure fantasy I'm afraid - anybody could do what Glover did if you weren't going to pay for it. If he's a hero then I give up, we might as well hand the club over to the moonies!

You do realise the only reason we still exist is because MC stepped in initially to save his own investment then the club and thankfully had the decency to pay most of the creditors.

Had he not done this Glover would have been the man to take us down and then you could definitely say what you like about Glover couldn't you!

As for blaming Elston and his girlfriend this is a new level of blame shifting - poor Glover being fleeced by a chippy ex player and a dancer - give us a break. How these teflon dons fool people in the first place surprises me but to still be fooling people is stunning.

my friend had a conservatory built by glovers company. damp comes up through the floor and the roof leaks. he has had them back a dozen times but they have never sorted it. says everything about glover . all mouth and no trousers,

Quote ="ball-in-hand"my friend had a conservatory built by glovers company. damp comes up through the floor and the roof leaks. he has had them back a dozen times but they have never sorted it. says everything about glover . all mouth and no trousers,'" Tell your friend to report them to FENSA.... www.fensa.org.uk

Quote ="ball-in-hand"my friend had a conservatory built by glovers company. damp comes up through the floor and the roof leaks. he has had them back a dozen times but they have never sorted it. says everything about glover . all mouth and no trousers,'" Tell your friend to report them to FENSA.... www.fensa.org.uk

I can't claim to know the ins and outs of Glovers time at the club, but no one has ever heard his side of the story.
Nieve he may have been, but there were people at the club that were a lot more experienced and supposedly clued up that either encouraged him or gave him stinking advice.
The rumours of the crazy salaries that got handed out must have been true. Elstons missis was a particularly shocking example.
If you know a lot more then why not reveal it ?
I'd love to know more about this devil incarnate Glover.

You may have a point on the players but that applies to all new Owners.

However as a supposed business man he knows about balancing the books and filling in a tax return. Failure to do those is hard to excuse and can't be blamed on Elston or his wife. The buck stops at Glover imho.

Ted made similar poor decisions but at least it took him 15 years before he finally lost control of the finances, took Glover two years!

Don't think I can explain it any better hth

Yes those rumours of crazy salaries were true.

Even small things like I mentioned previously such as energy on wrong tariffs over a period of time mounted up. On top of that meters werent read so what had been paid in the past were inacurrate.

Brian Smith mentioned heating of which I have a story regarding running up the bills. I wont go into it though.

Then why bring it up?

Ok I will.

Ive already mentioned regarding tariffs.

Anyone not familiar you get charged per unit and that the prices vary if you are on domestic or on business. We were on domestic, and we are a business.

In the flats they use electric storage heaters which as an element is involved thus using more energy and on a higher tariff. Sunday night, you still with me.

On top of that, staff went home, management too, leaving the heaters on full and with doors open.

Call me tight, picky or whatever, but isnt all the above a goid example of wasting money:

We all have kids and can hear all parents say, put the light out, its like Blackpool etc.

Could have paid for an extra player or creditor if we had paid less on our fuel bill.

I know it is small fry but is an example as to what happened.

Shouldn't Brian Smith have been concentrating on onfield matters rather than electric misuse?

I shared a box with a mate during the Glover era - he had a very successful business, and approached Glover with a proposal that could have generated *significant* income for the club; he was directed to Elston, who listened politely, then did absolutely nothing to follow it up. We tried a few more times to push it forward, but gave up in the end as it clearly wasn't going anywhere.

Match days were highlighted by Glover and his hangers on getting leathered in their box, and poor old Martin Hopkins running round like a blue-d fly, trying to leverage the corporate clients all on his own; Martin was the unsung hero of the Glover regime in my view.

Sounds about right that Bren to be honest.

I once had a suggestion of something, which I suggested to James Elston, and I got that line "your not paid to think", and then blanked me.

I agree about Martin, and would even mention Dav Longo in that bracket too.

This is interesting stuff, giving an insight into how the club ran in those days. I remember being impressed with the sheer hard work of Martin Hopkins and Davide Longo. Wasn't there also a bloke called Martin Empsall who used to run himself ragged for the club? He could have been a volunteer though, in which case Feline would also need a honourable mention!