Forgive me as I’ve been away, but who have Rinaldi and Griffin signed for?

Doesn’t everyone?

No doubt Andrew Glover has left the recruitment to jK with some input in terms of wage negotiations from James Elston. In that sense we might be justified in pointing the finger at JK for the standard of player we are recruiting, in mitigation there top quality players will be hard to come by although my personal belief is that deals can be done with GOOD players who are are vulnerable to an offer.

As for AG, let's not forget that he's pledged a £500K funding package to revamp Belle Vue! The franchise decision may render that offer impotent but there's always the chance we will be spared the chop and then we will see the true value of Andrew Glovers ownership.

As a businessman he really can't be expected to pour too much money into our Super League set up because within the next three weeks any finances or gains made may well go up in smoke.

What I really would like to see is some of the top juniors in our game being signed to contracts, whether we are in the Championship waiting for 2015 or in the SL, our future will lie with the quality of the juniors we sign now. If, IF there is money available to invest in Wakefield Trinity Wildcats future the only place it could be spent at this moment in time is on recruiting juniors who otherwise might go to Leeds, Wigan, Sts or Warrington. There is absolutely no reason to wait on this one, the franchise decision has very little bearing on this element of the clubs future.

We are either a top SL club with ,via 1873 Club, the best funded junior system in the game or we are a Championship club with, via 1873 club, the best junior system in the game and a greater prospect of 1st team opportunities being available.

If estimations are correct then there are approximately 1,500 1873 Club members which equates to £156,000 per annum.
Minus 52 X £300 per week draws
Minus 2 X £5,000 annual draws
Minus £24,000 (estimated lottery Managers Wage)
Minus £6,000 other costs (printing, banking etc)

That equals £90,000 per year into our junior system, when added to the budget we already allocate to junior football, which I hope is ring fenced or we've been duped, should give us well in excess of £100K per year.

If AG has any money to spend now he could begin signing the best talent NOW! and it will kick start our future.

Hard to argue with any of that. It's pointless him splasing out cash with so much uncertainty and if we go down he's gonna need as much as possible because I would assume the sky money bites the dust?

Yes, have I missed something ,who have Rinaldi and Griffin and who is all the blame of because to me, if we take what you say as fact,cthis all sounds liker a coaching or Elston decisions.

Did we not start that process a few years ago and then turned them into an academy winning side? What will become of them - especially if we lose the licence?

I am beginning to wonder if it is worth our while spending any money on juniors -all we achieve is a production line of players for other clubs - and has been the same for as long as......

Rinaldi is alleged to have signed for quins or whatever they are going to be called, and presumably Griffin has been linked with someone?

I agree Clan, except, the best youngsters, who are destined for GB honours or at least Grand Final medals in future will want to sign for a top club, whether money is on offer.
From a parent point of view, long term training, development and success, is more valuable than signing on fee.
So if the money is going into the infrastructure of the best academy with the best coaches for young people, then I think it would work, if it is just being used to get them through the door, they'll soon be leaving by the same route.

Was it? why was it inevitable, that Trinity went bust because if it was run properly, it shouldn't of. Also, how is it that this regime will go 'pop' without NM?

On the face of it you'd think that to be right, but i can speak of fev's u15s and u16s academy, which is very good, always competes with the academies of SL clubs and wins half of its games.
I think a lot of people can see fev as a good grounding club for youngsters rather than being lost in the leeds academy set up.
Good is good, big isn't always better, a lot of people can't see it, but good development is able to be achieved away from SL.

Both for the same reason - expectations that don't match resources. The clubs current set up at BV IMO simply cannot sustain a SL team let alone one that will succeed.

Sports clubs are unique in that there reason to be which is to provide entertainment and trophies is diametrically opposed to good business planning which is all about profit. Especially in our case. You see we don't base our business strategy on profit but on league position which is hard to predict. We are continually forced to take risks based on non profit pressures and invest far more than we should in assets that may or may not pay off - Hickey is a good example - no reason until he arrived to assume he wasn't a good addition to the squad. These are risks most businesses don't take. If it were just about profit as other businesses we'd sign 20 17 year olds on pin money and count the cash. But as you know that wouldn't work because no one would pay to watch, they say they would but they wouldn't and we'd still lose money

Yes the club could be run better as could all clubs but our specific problem is that we can't absorb the mistakes like others because we don't have the turn over. Leeds could write Hicky off as one of those things but for us it's a huge drain.

It's just my opinion but I can't see this club ever being sustainable at any level whilst still at BV or at least BV as it is now.

Martin Edwards (ex Man United Chairman) said, you cannot run any football team as a business, all you can do is run it in a business like manner which isn't the same thing.

I would expect the club to be investing in the infrastructure, beefing up our scholarship to include organised tours to Australia and university degrees. I also expect them to offer better training facilities and a wider exposure to coaches of different disciplines and finally to offer a contract that competes with other clubs, we lost a few young players to Castleford because Cas offered more money.

In the long run we may or may not keep the players we develop, Newmarket and the ability to spend the cap might mean we can keep them. Even if we don't keep them signing them to contracts would mean that we received a transfer fee for them and that should go back into the junior cycle.

I take it, this is from a perspective of playing in SL next year and not, if we went down to the Championship.

Actually, that I didn't think of. Good point well made.

Some of our more promising junior talent is being targeted by the bigger fish again by the sounds. It really is quite disheartening.

Yet some believe Kear nurtures our young players

the salary cap was supposed to stop clubs being able to monopolise all the best players.

that worked well didn't it?.

The grass is not always greener though you ask Cain Southernwood. How many games has he played. He would have been given more of a chance with us.
My only frustration is the persistance with Rinaldi when Davy as been one of our stand out performers.

You are spot on, we need to prove that there is a pathway into the first team for our kids. This may entice players to sign with us in the future.

Salary cap my ar5e - if Wigan, Shudds, Warrington and Saints are under the cap, I'll eat my hat.

For the record, it's a pretty awful hat - it'll be chewy and difficult to swallow.

And will taste of celery!

you dont by a rugby club to make money, can anyone tell me if there is a rugby league or even a football team thats in profit.

Sheffield Eagles reported a profit last week, Im sure I read in LE.

They made an operating profit which isn't the same although it's better than a loss. It's long term debt and cash flow that get you in the end. Eagles may have been lucky, for instance they may not have incurred any bad debt say a supplier not paying a bill for an executive box. Or just had a year of low expenditure. I doubt there are any clubs who's long term or historical debt doesn't increase yearly it's just that their income probably increases enough to cope. However should interest rates go really high as predicted some could be in real bother.

Ok clever clogs.