Wakefield Trinity to ignite transfer market with ‘special players’ heading for club

Wakefield Trinity are taking the Championship by storm and are highly likely to secure a Super League spot for 2025 but the exciting news doesn’t end there as recruitment manager Steve Mills has hinted at some “special” signings.

Trinity’s stay in Super League came to an end in 2023 but the club have embraced their relegation and look to be bouncing back considerably stronger.

They’ve been taken over by a new owner with Matt Ellis bringing ambition, positivity and most importantly money to the project and so far that has seen lavish spending on players and foundations such as their stadium.

As such, Wakefield Trinity are now a whole different prospect under IMG with the club pulling huge crowds for the Championship level and often surpassing the figures that they achieved in Super League.

They’ve started their Championship campaign with seven wins from seven and will look to secure a spot at Wembley with the 1895 Cup Semi-Finals this weekend. Whilst they have proven dominant in the second tier, Wakefield must start recruiting for Super League, just as Leigh did under Derek Beaumont.

It would seem that is the plan with Trin’s recruitment manager Ste Mills providing an exciting update for fans.

Wakefield Trinity aiming to build “top four” club

Wakefield Trinity wasted no time after the May 1st deadline to announce that they had signed England international Mike McMeeken for 2025 on a four-year deal, whilst they are anticipated to bring back former Trinity man and fellow England international Tom Johnstone.

Johnstone making the return to Belle Vue has been a rumour swirling for quite some time and he could well be one of the ‘special players’ that recruitment manager Mills is talking about.

Speaking via the Wakefield Trinity YouTube page, Mills said: “I feel like we couldn’t have probably had a better start in the last two days, three days.

“We’re on a really exciting journey. There’s going to be some special players coming in here, ones that the fans will really go for. Matt Ellis is not hidden away from the fact that we’re trying to build a top-four club here, and everything he’s doing off-field for IMG.

“My job is to get a real special team on the field for Daryl and his coaching staff to work with. I feel like the first couple of days of this window has been successful for us and it’ll be an exciting couple of months for the Wakefield Trinity fans once they start to get over the lines. ”

Can Trinity become Rugby League’s most exciting project since Toronto?

Mills would then go on to clarify that it is a long-term project being built at Wakefield Trinity, underpinning the fact that they have brought Mike McMeeken in on a four-year deal, hence their commitment to the project of becoming a top-four club.

“I think a lot of what we wanted to do was build a team that’s going to be together for a number of years. Obviously, Mike’s coming on a four-year deal. All the coaching staff are on a four-year deal.

“For us, it’s about making sure that all the work we do is a long-term plan. It’s not a two or three-year project, this is a long-term plan to make sure we get the targets that we need.”

He did note that the current 2024 season was somewhat different for the club given that the Championship season started slightly later, but he referenced player talks that are in the pipeline which will excite Trin fans.

“It’s been a little bit different for us this year, obviously coming behind the eight ball really with the late start. We had a couple of contracted players when we first joined the club.

“Despite that, we didn’t want to rush and bring players in that were not going to be part of the long-term plan that we’ve got here at Wakefield.

“We’ve got a lot of players taking forward, and now the goal is to add a little bit more quality into the squad that’s going to help us get into the Super League.”