The selling of the ground is a bit of a red herring and frankly I wouldn't have trusted Glover with it even if we had still owned it.

Truth is the ground was never really ours because the club had such a historical debt you couldn't really do anything with it. Nor did it have a huge value.

Ted actually did nothing wrong, he didn't sell the ground he used what value there was as collateral to take out a loan as many businesses do. He did this to fund various works required so that we could retain our SL licence - remember them. Only 18 month later they were scrapped and nobody gave a stuff about minimum requirements anymore - typical half cooked nonsense from SL/RFL.

He was further convinced that borrowing this money short term was a good idea because a certain deputy council leader had stood up in front of a packed meeting and told us all Thornes was a certainty. It's fine in hindsight to say you knew she was lying but at the time Ted had to make a decision and that was to keep us in SL until Thornes was ready.

It all turned to crap but it was far more good intentioned than people make out.

Glover was just playing at being a RL Club owner, and I said it from the start - I don't think it made any difference to him whether we owned BV or not - either way he'd have squandered it

As for MC you'd have to ask him as I don't know what his long term plans would be if we did own the ground. I would have though owning BV would have advantages over being a tenant but as I don't know the clubs current situation or future plans so I can't be sure.

TRB or Prince Buster knows the story better than me.

What is for sure is that ground or no ground MC has managed to create some kind of a business out of the whole mess which is a stunning achievement IMHO - he probably has to subsidise it a bit but he must feel its worth it.

We at least seem to be stable and we no longer have silly press releases promising things that will never happen and above all we have stopped being a selling club - though we won't win them all.

So definitely no additional Aussie prop like Allgood coming in. Looking for an English or French prop and a second rower.

Anthony Tupou looks as though he is going to have one last swan song before retirement. Let's hope he re discovers the form and fitness that got him into the Australian team a few years ago..

Just for the record I wasn't doing any finger pointing and I never have. I've always said I don't envy the position of our owners and respected each of them individually, even if it's ended up going tits up at the end because ateotd it's the hardest gig in SL running Trinity, especially if said owners aren't multi millionaires. They've all took great financial risk taking on our club and although they've made mistakes, we're still here and what more we're looking forward. I know that Ted took a calculated gamble and it didn't pay off and the last thing he wanted was to lose control of the club and it end up in administration.

It's just that without a home, one that we own, no matter how much the land was worth, it provided the Club and fans security. Personally though, even though MC has done wonders balancing the books but also putting a good team together plus the rest, it's just the one thing that worries me. If for example we got demoted and had to leave Belle Vue, I'd genuinely fear for our survival & the future of the Club. Like I said before though, hopefully this year we finally get a bit of luck come our way on the Ground front.

Agree with all the previous posts and MC the number of fans I know who were big Wakefield fans and don't go to matches is massive ,so come on wakey fans please get down support the club YOUR CLUB NEEDS YOU

I know you weren't pointing fingers your point was fair it's just a very complex story.

So it seems a load of rubbish yet again about who is coming to the club {Allgood and Ferguson} by people who seemingly know nothing really.
Reading earlier posts, I obviously have different views of previous owners but what I will say is that without Andrew Glover we would not now exist, whether he shared Ted's 'love' for the club or not I don't know. Sorry if I don't share the same worship of Ted but he sold or used the club as collateral (whatever) using my shares without consultation to do so.

If you believe Glover saved the club then you'll believe anything. What he did do was get in the way of other people who could have genuinely taken the club forward. You believe what you want.

Like who ?

Agree with this the glover and elston regime was a disaster

OK vastman name them ,now

Vastman I understand that AG put a substantial amount of money into the club, which he apparently 'wrote off'; MC himself said at one meeting, he insisted on AG putting it into writing that he would not take his money out of the club if he (MC) took it over. My natural assumption from that is that without AG's money we would have folded - is that not right?

Yes agree Trinity 1315 I was there at that meeting

Andrew Glover did pump a fair amount of money into the club both on the playing front and off the pitch.

He was the chairman that put a roof over our heads in the northstand.

I do think, if anything, he didnt get the support he needed when it came to decision making, bearing in mind he had never ran a rugby club.

No its not, from what I can gather he took more out entertaining his cronies and various other misjudged ventures. You do realise we owed the tax man and Rodney Walker bailed us out on that one - where was Lovers cash then, let's get real.

Give me strength.

I could have done that seeing as he never paid for it in full, I mean that's why we went up wasn't it.

As I say you cling to believing in that snake oil salesman if you wish, some of us know different.

What's done is done, pointless going back over it all now. The club was in a terrible state whichever way you look at it and who ever you choose to blame. It's taken a few years, but the club looks to be heading in the right direction

Let's look forward instead of looking back

Who did he stand in front of? I remember that time pretty well and the huge thread we had on here & we weren't exactly swamped with people rushing to takeover the Club just before the start of that season. We'd had Steve Parkin's interest and it was only when he dropped out when the RFL couldn't guarantee him SL status, Glover's name popped up and he got accepted by the RFL. I remember it was Elston that talked Glover into it when he'd gone round to the Club to talk about his sponsorship that year & Parkin was messing around. IMO Glover's mistake was not getting someone better than Elston to run the club at the time because apart from the marketing side of things Glover didn't have a clue about running a RL Club and neither did Elston.

To say he made all that money from his business I find it hard to grasp because he was so gullible and easily led by them around him.

James got the gig because he brokered the deal for Andrew.
Steve Parkin had form for messing the club around.
Not sure how much cash Andrew actually put in - he placed the debt against his company, but in the end I think much of it is the debt that Michael inherited.
Ted was just being Ted. I do not believe for 1 second he wished for any of this, and once again the delay in the Stadium issue is the one which comes out on top as the reason for his undoing.

This club will never move forward until we finally resolve the Stadium issue and have facilities suitable for this day and age.

In the meantime, I will continue to support those who are brave enough and willing to take on the role of running our great club, but the stability Chris and Michael have brought is something to be extremely thankful for!

A guy with lots of.trucks and a taste for football. As stated it's old history all I'm saying is that where we are today is complex and to state Glover saved the club is false.

I don't think he was malicious as it happens just rubbish and imho he got in the way and derailed the club rather than saved it.

You're right there was not a big cue but there were other and perhaps better options at the time.

The thing sticking in my mind and I may be wrong but I'm sure Glover did something during negotiation to buy the club that was dodgy and stopped others. Old history now but I just can't recall what it was. Not worth bothering about now it's just bugging me.

Your right though we've ended up ok bar the stadium.

I think it was the Parkin thing you are thinking of. Parkin wanted Andrew to step aside on the pretence that he would then step in and buy the club. I don't believe that he would have tbh, and therefore perhaps Andrew, on this occasion, should be allowed some slack.

If we could merge the Entrepreneurial spirit of Ted, the marketing nous of Andrew and the business acumen of Chris and Michael we would be well sorted!

Yes we should be thankful that in Michael and Chris that the club are now heading in the right direction.

I do agree though with an earlier poster that the state the club were in when he took over wasnt all down to Glover. I dont think he had the support he needed at the time. He had never owned a club before and some decisions made on and off the pitch were the wrong ones. Bearing in mind that when Michael took over Kath Hetherington came in but like her or not, the Hetheringtons know all the ins and outs of running a club.

I say this about Glover and Elston as I spent time working for the club between 2012 and 2013.