Greg Florimos Boots wrote:The situation above is as cut and dried as it can be. Wakefield are a SL club until their players SL contracts expire for this season.
I think the only interpretation up for debate is what angle Wakefield are using to achieve their desired goal which is to sign Walmsley for as little money as they can. I do think this is the part where people are getting confused as to what is actually going on, and in my eyes it is very scummy what Wakefield are trying to do and I will say that until proved otherwise, but Wakefield could sign Walmsley today if they liked(presuming end of month contract expiry as mentioned above but the same applies before last weeks Grand Final) as long as firstly, Walmsley agreed personal terms(maybe this is holding it up?), and secondly they were willing to pay the fee that is in Walmsley's contract. The fact that they have yet to announce his signing suggests to me Wakefield don't want to pay that fee and I would go so far to say that they are pretty confident that they can get Walmsley to force a release and they can negotiate a lesser fee with Fax knowing they will not want to keep an unhappy player.
How often will you see a player coming out in the press basically saying he wants to leave and then goes back on that and ends up re-settling at his current team? Another interesting angle is that it may be in Walmsley's best interests to wait a couple of weeks and then London officially become a SL team and could be another possible destination for him and could give him some negotiating power of his own. If I were him that would be my play, this would also be a good thing for Fax as well in regards getting more money for him.
But Walmsley isn’t a Wakefield player so what applies to their current squad can’t be applied to him and my understanding is that the SL season ended on the 14th with the grand final and their players contracts became null and void after they were confirmed relegated and their last game which was before that date, either way it doesn’t change what angle Fax are disputing it from whether their right or not is irrelevant that’s the point you apparently don’t understand.
Concerning that I’m not confused at all, this thread was started with the Matt Shaw link which specifically says what the sticking point is mentioning the exact sub rule that covers it and that is what I am basing all my comments on and my opinion is that out of everybody who has said anything about it I choose to believe him.
If it was something other than that why would he not simply say so?
If you want to say me basing a discussion on the original link equates to not understanding, being blind and he can’t be trusted and you know better and post multiple speculative alternatives with no factual evidence to support it that’s your choice but it’s not mine.
On Wakefield talking to Walmsley again as per the terms of release rule no club can make a direct approach to the player and offer personnel terms, negotiations must take place between the two clubs and once they reach an agreement then the buying club can speak to him, of course if it gets to that stage there won’t be a problem as Walmsley himself said he wants to go full time to have a better chance of getting into SL but if you accept he said that then you must accept what he said about the clubs reaching an agreement in the same interview he can’t sign until that happens or whilst he’s away in Europe.
If you want to speculate and say Wakefield are playing for time it could well back fire if a current SL club comes in and legitimately triggers the release so if they really want him would they take the risk over 10 or 20 grand when they have a millionaire backer?
And it could be Fax playing for time putting the pressure on Wakefield knowing that they can’t get less than what’s already been offered or could even get to keep him.
Likewise if you speculate he can demand a release then as far as I’m concerned it would be demand and be dammed, your our player, your in breech of contract and your going nowhere otherwise you could open up the floodgates for an endless repeat episode in the future with anyone else with all the disruption that could cause.
Stepping away from Matt Shaw and the link I personally think it highly likely Walmsley will end up at Wakefield or somewhere else, Liam Finn admitted it would be hard to keep hold of him but at least for the fee specified in the release clause in my opinion.
PS. I have to edit about 20 times because when using an iPad it writes what it wants or the page fails before finishing .
