Worst is yet to come at troubled Trinity, fears coach Agar

A 40-0 defeat at Huddersfield Giants was secondary in light of the latest cash crisis engulfing the club, barely two years after it last entered administration.

Michael Carter, who replaced owner Andrew Glover as Trinity chairman a fortnight ago, declared on Saturday the club is “completely under capitalised” to the tune of around £400,000.

He was forced to sell Australian scrum-half Tim Smith to Salford for a “substantial” fee to ease pressing cashflow problems last Friday and, while he rejected a six-figure sum for captain Danny Kirmond, it is clear one of the game’s founder clubs is in danger of collapse once more.

Carter and another director – Chris Brereton – have taken over the managing of the club on a day-to-day basis which leaves chief executive James Elston’s position opaque, to say the least.

Wakefield are expected to reveal more details of a management restructure today and Agar last night said: “It’s been a difficult few days.

“For me, I’d say some eyebrows have been raised now over a period of time and started to emerge a couple of months ago.

“But the true extent has probably been more so in the last couple of weeks and I still don’t think I’m completely aware of everything.

“At the back end of the week when we lose Timmy and we sit the players down to tell them he’s been sold to pay the wages it becomes a difficult weekend.

“Seven or eight out of our blokes tried to manufacture some spirit and desire out there but I sensed before it was a very, very quiet dressing room.”

Agar admitted Wakefield could not afford to keep Smith for the final two games of the season given the severity of their financial problems.

“The transfer fee was paid immediately so if he’d played for us and got injured and couldn’t fulfil the medical then the move’s off,” he said.

“And I don’t think we could jeopardise that and seeing the money not being paid into our bank account straight away.

“I think, to his utmost credit, the chairman is telling the truth. I don’t think he’s tried to hide from the fact we needed money in the bank account straight away.”

Agar is unhappy several of his players have been approached by a third-party agent, who claimed to be working on behalf of Salford.

“We notified the Rugby Football League quite a while ago about this and they’ll deny it – and there is a third-party agent working for them – but I know players under contract have been approached.

“That’s a disappointing mode of operation.”