By AARON BOWER
MATT ELLIS has pledged to transform Wakefield Trinity’s fortunes on and off the field, declaring he will do whatever it takes to deliver success and that “second-bottom is not good enough” any longer.
Ellis, a multi-millionaire with a successful kitchen empire, has agreed to assume full control at Trinity after completing a takeover last week.
He has promised supporters that he will spend the required sums of money to ensure an immediate return to Super League before investing even further to try and deliver success among the elite.
He has warned the rest of the game that Wakefield will spend more than any team in this year’s Championship, under new head coach Daryl Powell, before pledging to spend above and beyond the salary cap via marquee signings in 2025 should Trinity secure promotion.
“The ultimate goal is Super League and when we get back into Super League, second-bottom simply isn’t good enough anymore,” he told League Express.
“When me and Daryl are there, we’re looking at the top six. The bonuses in Daryl’s contract aren’t for staying in Super League, they’re for winning Super League titles and Challenge Cups.
“It’s 60 years since we were the best team in the country, I’ve never seen it and there’s a whole group of supporters that have never seen it. That needs to change.
“Second-bottom isn’t the aim, third-bottom isn’t the aim: we want to achieve something. It’ll be tough, as the Super League clubs are well established and we’re behind them on lots of things but I believe we can turn that around.”
Ellis has already confirmed that Powell will become the club’s new head coach on a four-year deal, replacing Mark Applegarth – with talks set to be held between Powell and Applegarth in the coming days to determine whether the latter remains on at Belle Vue in a different role.
He has also promised to revolutionise the club off the field as well as on it, at his own expense.
“Next year, it will cost me over a million pounds of my own money because that’s to build the squad and progress with some of my new ideas,” he said.
“We want to build a new supporter app, and the cost alone for the development of that and a website is £200,000 but it’s a long-term investment.
“We’ve been low in backroom staff. Mark didn’t have an assistant for large periods of the year so there’s going to be an investment there, there’ll be another on the field.
“In reality, it’s more like £1.4 million or £1.5 million when all is said and done. I’ll spend a million on playing and coaching and then there’s off-field stuff on top.
“But people follow a winning team – Michael (Carter, outgoing CEO) spoke about getting 6,500 supporters one day – we can do that if we’re winning.
“I’m going to try hit it with both barrels, get the fans a winning team and get them a good matchday experience.”
Ellis also pledged to maintain Wakefield’s record on youth development – but warned rival clubs they will now find it much tougher to poach Trinity’s best homegrown talent under his watch.
He said: “The next Tom Johnstone won’t be leaving Wakefield because they’ll know they can get the right financial package and they can win something. That’s why we’re losing them because they think we’re aiming for second-bottom.
“Moving forwards, your (James) Batchelors and Johnstones of this world will not be leaving. That’s one of the things I’m determined to deliver.”
Ellis also revealed how he invested £250,000 this year to try and keep Wakefield in Super League – but believes that with a blank canvas, relegation could give the club an opportunity to bounce back better and stronger.
“If we’d stayed up, we’d be behind the curve for next year so it might be tough to recruit. We’ve got about 13 players signed for next year and all 13 of them will be excellent Championship players,” he said.
“We’ve a budget to fetch in another twelve players probably, and they’ll be good quality players.
“The budget we’ve got is competitive; I’ve heard what Featherstone have spent this year and we will spend more than that. Quite significantly more than that too, because we want to bounce back first time and be ready for Super League.
“If we’re in Super League in 2025 we’re going to spend over and above the cap, because the next five years are massive. Daryl is signed on for four years and we want to target these four years to get the club back where it belongs.”
