I was thinking exactly the same LeythIg.

The only one I can think of was McNally. Didn't he take Leigh to court for unfair dismissal with a handful of other players?

However, thinking of player employment welfare.....

Derek did say that there were 2 full-time players who were threatening the existence of the club for wanting their contracts (contracts presumably okay-ed by Mr B himself) to be honoured after Leigh missed the top 4 last year. Wasn't it Rhys Evans and Kevin Larroyer?

The various forms of Bradford Bulls have not exactly covered themselves in glory regarding player employment over the past few years admittedly. I know that very few Bradford Bulls fans have good things to say about the owners who managed us down to the third tier of rugby league; ripping off fans, HMRC, players and suppliers along the way. But for an owner to renege on contracts he himself agreed to just to save money, and then to actually emotionally blackmail the players (and fans) to accept this is a pretty low thing to do. "There's no way it (Leigh) can survive if it's got to pay two players full time," he said. I'm surprised any fan can believe him after he threatened to actually bankrupt the club he professes to love instead of paying people the money that was owed them. That is quite astonishing.

Personally, I would think twice about working for a club who, while the multimillionaire owner could pay off the contracts, refuses to, and instead tries to bully people to redundancy, while driving out, past them in his Lamborghini Aventador.

But I digress. Sorry about the rant.

Anyway, didn't he say he was leaving Leigh? Has he reneged on that one too?

I didn't like how he went about things last year at all, but out of all the players that have returned, I think you're right, there's only McNally that left under any sort if cloud. That's why I asked who the shafted players were that have come back, not really a defence of DB.

He didn't say he was leaving, but that he wasn't going to bankroll it any more, and invited investors to come in, which doesn't seem to have happened. I guess when you own a club, you don't really have the option of just leaving.

After what we have been through I would feel rather uncomfortable criticising any other team's owner.

I have nothing good to say about any people who actively try to avoid paying their dues, no matter which club they own/have owned.

I take no personal responsibility for the series of charlatans who have run the Bulls down over the past few years, as a fan I have been ripped off as well. I gave a lot of my money to the various schemes thought up by rich owners to drag us out of the mire of THEIR own making. All that money was lost, and I imagine these owners didn't lose a lot of sleep about it.

I wish I had that money now.

That is surely the difference here, DB could have done what many more b4 has done and just put the club into liquidation meaning all the players would have got nothing. But he didn't, he battled on agreed a pay off with all of the squad members ( eventually) then started from scratch again part time. I'm not a great fan of DB's but I do think he tried to do his best in the interest of Leigh Centurions and the full time squad he couldn't afford ( or chose not to) anymore but made sure they all got new clubs or/and a payoff also.

Which is (eventually) a good thing. And that is also something that the succession of financially illiterate owners we have had to bear with didn't care about.

Anyway, good luck for the rest of the season, and hopefully we will meet in the playoffs to resolve this seasons 1:1!

Indeed. But to be fair, we shouldn't count Omar Khan in with the charlatans. He effectively saved the club at that stage, despite at the last minute being put on the spot to receive a one-year full funding penalty. Then at the time he was forced to step down due to ill health we were I think 6th in the league, but he got shafted again as his agreed sale of shares did not go through, which reportedly the RFL had a hand in. He was even then shafted by the administrator, and had to go to court to prove he was owed what he said. Khan was out of pocket well north of a million, and was not responsible for subsequent events.

Was going to say exactly the same thing. Khan whilst out of his depth no doubt had only good intentions when he stepped in.

The RFL and SL clubs in their vote to remove central distribution (purely for personal gain) was a stain on the sport and I have no directly influenced the second admin as there was no way a small scale local business man could sustain the losses that would have been expected.

Green was a pure chancer and his big gamble for a top four finish failed leaving him and the club in financial ruins. I think his previous businesses also failed at roughly the same time and he was left with not much at all. I have less sympathy with Green as he knew exactly what he was doing and what would happen if his plan failed.

I prefer to work with people who keep expectations low and aim to overachieve. I'd place AC in this category.

Maybe the reply was a bit strong. But had DB not started clearing decks would Jordan Thompson had ended up at Leeds?

It was a rash reply to the sort of arrogant up your own rear end posts a minority of your fans were doing when you started your push for SL. Most of you guys are good posters with good debate. The odd tool like that just winds up