Septi, with regard to your comments on Cas and Wakey. The wake-up call is clearly happening in the minds of the fans of both clubs who post on their forums. Talk about doom and gloom. The proverbial trap door is opening in front of them, from which there is unlikely to ever be a return, and they are worried. Smug pre-season assessments about finishing in mid-table security are looking fanciful by the minute and by each defeat.
It's like the moment on the Titanic, after the bump with the ice cube, that someone does a headcount and works out the maths and suddenly realises that they don't have enough lifeboats.
Yes, I have seen the Derek interviews. Mixing my metaphors again, I suspect that Derek would say it was a case of chickens coming home to roost if Cas, or more particularly Wakey, now got relegated.
Two seasons ago when Leigh were last in SL they (Wakey) had the chance to vote against relegation and to boost SL to 14 teams. They even put their club's name to the proposal but ended up changing their position and voting against their own plan due to complete self-interest, as did the owners of several other clubs who had put their names to the proposal. They felt that by the time of the vote at the meeting of the club owners that they no longer had to support the plan. They chose instead to safeguard for themselves a larger slice of the SKY financial pie - do the maths, same TV rights money divided by 12 or 14 - under which of those calculations do you get the bigger figure!)
This was because, by the time of the vote, Leigh's league position had become so parlous that it was obvious that Leigh were going down under the existing structure and that their own clubs were safe from the drop. Talk about being short sighted for short term financial gain. Idiots!
Derek will have little or no sympathy when this season either Wakey or Cas drop through the trap door. He might just raise a bottle of San Miguel, or whatever he drinks, to toast them when this occurs. What's the Chinese proverb - he who laughs last, laugh's longest - or is it a case of revenge is a dish best served cold. Never cross a man whose personal wealth is so sizeable when that means he will always outspend you if he choses to do so and Derek's spending on the club since that vote 2 years ago has been somewhat impressive. I wonder what his motives for that have been. Let me think.....
Anyway, if you look at the comments of Leeds fans, they are not sounding so chipper either. They are lucky. Under the IMG proposals they will never go down, or can they this year before the changes come in? Maybe they are right to be worried as well.
For my money, Leeds may not be as good as their fans (and just about every pundit) mistakenly thought they were but they are not bad enough to go down, neither are Hull, but for Cas and Wakey.......Good luck chaps and welcome to one of you to permanent semi professional rugby in the Championship for the rest of your club's existence. |
