You don't come around here no more
You don't come around here no more
Whatever you're looking for
(Hey) Don't come around here no more
I've given up (Stop)
On waiting any longer
I've given up on this love getting stronger(
I don't feel you anymore
You darken my door (Ooh, ooh)
Whatever you're looking for
(Hey) Don't come around here no more
Don't Come Around Here Any More - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
The strongly worded statement from Coventry chairman Jon Sharp, published in last weekend's The Rugby Paper, appears to have ended any speculation on the part of most Championship supporters that there's any conceivable route back into professional rugby for Premiership club Wasps via rugby's second tier.
Whilst Mr Sharp made it clear he was offering his own views rather than officially speaking on behalf of all Championship clubs, what he had to say can only be seen as the final nail in the coffin of Wasps' aspirations for a place in the elite of English rugby.
The lid, already all but closed prior to his comments, now seems tightly shut, ready to be interred for all posterity once the RFU makes the announcement official, presumably later next month.
After the collapse of the Coventry-based Premiership club, the RFU gave Wasps 6 months in which to put into place structures of governance that would ensure all rugby debts were paid and a robust plan devised to enable the club to participate in the Championship for the season 2023/24, including the procurement of adequate finances, the engagement of staff and players and the provision of a suitable home ground.
Wasps were unable to meet these requirements so the RFU had no option but to withdraw Wasps' licence that would have enabled it to continue to play in the league structure.
And, in so doing, it gave a green light for an interim Championship structure for 23/24 which included the inaugural Premiership Cup.
Yet the Championship structure for the season 24/25 has remained unclear, in particular whether Wasps would be allowed back into the Championship creating a degree of uncertainty that has led to growing tensions between Wasps and the Championship clubs and their supporters.
But by releasing his statement last weekend, Jon Sharp seems to have almost single-handedly bought any such speculation to an abrupt end in a much-needed clarification as to the direction discussions between the Championship clubs and the RFU are currently taking. Quite often when a statement of this nature is made, it requires a good deal of reading between the lines, with the real meaning hidden beneath the superficial wording.
Not in this case, though.
And for that Mr Sharp should be thanked by the many supporters of clubs across the Championship who had been left wondering whether the RFU would eventually get its way and insist on Wasps, Worcester and London Irish being given a place in the proposed Prem 2, despite previous rulings to the contrary and much against the will of the majority of supporters from all the clubs involved in the Championship.
In Sunday's edition of The Rugby Paper, JS stated that for weeks Championship clubs had been forthright in demanding of the RFU that 'Wasps, or any other franchise-style team, would not be welcome in the second tier without having earned their place on merit' and that 'the RFU got that message very clearly'. he went on to add that as a result it would 'now be looking at a new model for the Championship and will be working with the Championship clubs to achieve that'.
To me, that's a pretty clear message - one that Jon Sharp spelt out as clear as clear can be for anyone who still might have doubts: 'The RFU statement has given Wasps the clue that no we are not going to be shoehorned back into the Championship even if you meet the Minimum Operating Standards'.
You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to work that one out.
In essence, the Championship clubs are in agreement that there is no Cinders and the glass slipper scenario here and there's definitely no Prince Charming either.
He's Adam Ant on that (sorry...couldn't resist it).
And Wasps won't be going to the ball, either. The club will have to learn to live in the real world and, for Wasps, life in the real world has to start at the bottom of the English pyramid if it wants to be part of the league structure.
It's a clear and unequivocal message.
And JS has played a blinder here, I reckon.
By making the thrust of present discussions so public, if there were those in the top echelons of the RFU who were still having serious doubts about distancing themselves from any franchise agreement, then they've had their arm well and truly twisted - renege on this now and there really would be hell to pay. It's clear the Championship clubs simply wouldn't tolerate any sort of a volte face.
It was what most supporters in the Championship had wanted to hear months ago when the RFU initially confirmed that Wasps wouldn't be allowed to start anywhere else other than in lowest tier, only for rumours to the contrary to abound. But because the RFU was far too busy searching for its collective backbone, rugby's governing body failed to put the discussions to bed at a reasonable hour.
With nothing official announced until April, clubs yet again have been given little or no time to plan ahead for next season but from what JS has said, there does at least appear to be some movement regarding both funding and the composition of the league, so hopefully whatever's in place for September will be an improvement on this year.
Mr Sharp's statement seems to have been the result of an 'update release' by Wasps on their own website to the effect that it had been able to secure appropriate funding, had located a suitable stadium but had yet to find a competition 'which would allow us to compete at the highest level - and one that shares our values'.
The 'sharing of values' is the interesting bit for me. By including it, the club is clearly ruling itself out any involvement in English rugby's pyramid structure that has, at its core, the idea of a meritocracy where promotion and relegation are sacrosanct. It's a statement that by definition prevents the club even being considered for inclusion into Prem 2 as for Wasps to be included, it couldn't align itself to such a belief given no promotion would have been achieved. It would simply be a grace and favour approach, courtesy of the RFU.
Much of the response from Wasps' supporters has been pretty predictable, merely highlighting the weakness of any arguments they might have to justify why they believe Wasps should be allowed to make a fresh start in a newly created Prem 2.
Most stress the 'hypocrisy' they feel Jon Sharp is demonstrating in his comments regarding Wasps - Coventry went into financial difficulties in late 2009 but were relegated from the Championship to National One with no debt etc. The precedent is there, so why the arguments?
What this fails to take into consideration is that it was a different era back then. Regulations regarding insolvency have since changed and Cov met the requirements of the RFU within the given timeframes that enabled them to continue, which of course wasn't the case with Wasps. I also think I'm right in saying that most of the debts Cov incurred were paid off, although I'm happy to stand corrected on that score.
In short, most Wasps supporters seem to have taken Mr Sharp's statement as an attack on Wasps by Coventry Rugby, an extension of the dissatisfaction most of the Cov Rugby fraternity have shown towards their club since it arrived in the city back in 2014. This just isn't the case though, missing the main point entirely of course, namely that Jon Sharp's comments were representative of all 11 of the Championship chairmen and aimed not at the supporters but at the previous owners and administrators of Wasps who had let their supporters down so badly in the past.
I genuinely have a great deal of sympathy for the vast majority of Wasps supporters. I know it's easy for me to say that in hindsight, but even back in Jan 2023 I felt a remerging Wasps would be a welcome addition to the Championship (https://www.covblog.org/post/wasps-webuyanyground-com).
That was at the time the club was looking for an alternative venue as part of the conditions the RFU required of Wasps in order for it to make a return to the game at this level. Wasps' presence in the Championship would have certainly raised the league's profile, as Saracens' did a few years ago now, but that all changed for me when it became apparent the club was willing to walk away from both its financial obligations and its supporters in order to maximise its opportunities elsewhere.
Wasps' supporters local to Coventry and the surrounding area, the very people who had poured millions of pounds into the club since 2014, were seemingly forgotten overnight - if there was any public statement thanking them for their commitment and apologising for the situation the club was in, then I certainly didn't see it.
The latest club statement, asking for supporters to 'Sign the Pledge' makes no mention of any previous loyalty shown by them, it's as if this is an entirely new club wishing to attract new supporters with no acknowledgement at all of those who have contributed so much in the past. To me, it comes across as contractual and corporate with little concern for the individual supporter.
'As we navigate through our most challenging period, this is a call to all of you who have shared this journey with us. Whatever entity we join will want to know the level of support we enjoy. By signing up to our new database, you're not just showing support; you're becoming a foundational part of our return.'
And herein lies the difference between Wasps and all the teams in the Championship. Nomadic in nature (albeit by circumstance rather than design), Wasps just isn't community-orientated in the same way that Coventry is.
Wasps, as the very name suggests, doesn't have an over-arching attachment to any one town or city. It hasn't stayed long enough in any of its stadia in the past 15-20 years to lay down its roots, to build links with the local community and to build trust.
If there really is such a thing as nominative determinism, then Wasps is a victim of it, flying from one area of the country to another stirring up ill-feeling in the process and seen by the outside world very much as the intruder, a pest everyone could do without.
Yet the ordinary folk from Coventry who supported (and presumably still support) the club are decent people who have simply been discarded because they no longer serve a purpose. They're surplus to requirements in a utilitarian, Thomas Gradgrindish sort of way. I've spoken to a few Wasps supporters who have ventured down to the BPA in the intervening months since the club's demise and they have been very impressed with the friendly, informal atmosphere that Cov supporters tend to take for granted, a very different sort of experience to watching rugby at The Ricoh as was.
It's as if those currently involved in trying to resurrect Wasps believe the club has the right to be at the top of the rugby pyramid even now not because of what the club currently is, but because of what it once was. It's not that dissimilar to Coventry in the 80s and 90s and we all know where that led.
Cue Lawrence Dallaglio.
Great player but not the greatest ambassador for the club, although that's probably me committing heresy in the eyes of the Wasps' faithful.
8 of the 11 clubs currently in the Championship have been promoted into the second tier since 2011 - a league built on the foundations of promotion and relegation. For Wasps to take a place in the Championship or its future equivalent, or any of the other clubs recently forced into liquidation, would be to ride roughshod over the likes of Chinnor, Rams and even Moseley who currently are battling for the right to join the second tier of English rugby. Clubs that have striven for years to get where they are and sacrificed much in the process.
Wasps knew what the consequences of their financial mismanagement would ultimately be and because the directors chose to believe that the Championship clubs wouldn't have the collective power to prevent the club from usurping a place in tier two, they chose to ignore them. Many of the individuals making the decisions that led to the club's bankruptcy have been able to walk away, leaving the supporters in Coventry out on a limb, one that is detached from the main body by what will be a good 160 miles plus.
The sheer affrontery of those involved beggars' belief and one can only feel the utmost sympathy for those Wasps supporters left abandoned. But, even in recognising this, if other clubs are to learn anything from Wasps' current predicament, then the RFU has to stick with its initial ruling and insist Wasps starts at the very bottom of the current rugby pyramid.
Unless it decides to play its rugby elsewhere, of course.
Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
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