: Thu Nov 12, 2009 6:59 pm
snowie wrote:
to lock the thread isn't going to change the fact that the news that we received just shows how volatile sport can be one day you can be in the black riding high the next season out of control and in debt,
you only have to look at the way Leeds United fell into debt and we haven't been successful for some time,
personally its like water off a ducks back we've been there had the taunts so I don't see what harm it can do as the club had announced that has made arrangements to fore fill its commitments to the HMRC and I'm sure the trolls posts can put trash bin.
As for the comment of Mr Hexley letting us down with PR, it wasn't an ideal situation to walk into the job was it,
having spoken to him he comes over as very enthusiastic and I have also had good reports from where he came so I would like to think he has this all under control and is ready for the coming season so at least allow so time to settle in
I'm the last person who needs to be told about how quickly business can seem rosy one minute & be seeing it go down the drain the next. My work has seen me very closely involved with a number of seemingly successful businesses hitting the buffers over the last couple of years. Some could be linked directly to the credit crunch and others to management that was either incompetent or corrupt.
I'm not making any criticism over the way in which the club have found themselves with this tax bill. I'm sure that this whole mess will be either linked to taxes they were advised would not be payable or simply taking advantage of PAYE/VAT deferral that HMRC were encouraged to offer to help companies cope with the impact of the credit crunch. It would also be interesting to know how early the bank manager got told about this - I wouldn't expect he'd be too pleased if he found out through the various media reports!
I have no doubt that we'll come through this without any problem, but I feel that the new PR guy (and I don't doubt his credentials) could and should have done a lot better with this. The club statement came out before any press reports were being widely circulated so having just a little bit more explanation could have allayed a lot of people's concerns.
I don't want to see us going the same way as Cas have done in recent months spouting PR tripe for the sake of keeping certain issues in the public eye to give the impression of progress (before any Cas fans moan about this, my work has allowed me to be close enough to the truth about some comments from the club to know that they were doing almost as good a job as Campbell & Mandelson did in the late 90's with "New Labour") but Wakefield simply cannot tell half the story with major issues that affect the club in the future.
I'm glad that as a shareholder I'll have the opportunity to ask for more answers from the Board. Hopefully the answer won't be as woolly as the official statement.