Mark Moore is confident a deal to secure ownership of the Bulls will be completed before the new season as he thanked Omar Khan for “helping us to get to a conclusion”.

On Thursday, January 9, talks aimed at finding a resolution to the long-running saga led to the Bulls issuing a statement which said an agreement had been reached in principle over the club’s ownership.

It is understood the deal would see Khan transfer his majority shareholding to Moore and directors Ian Watt and Andrew Calvert.

Moore resigned as a director last month but said he continues to act as chairman and would rejoin the board after “closure” had been reached on the ownership issue.

The BedzRus owner, who spoke of a five-year plan for the club, was joined by Watt at the Bulls’ pre-season media day yesterday.

Moore said: “Firstly, we’ll have to say thank you to Omar and Gerry (Sutcliffe) for actually helping us get to a conclusion with the situation.

“At the moment, the documents are going through the legal process, and there are quite a lot of solicitors involved. But we’re hoping before Super League starts those contracts will be signed and the shares are then issued to the relevant people that’s been agreed to.

“It should take about a week or so for that to be finalised. We just need closure now because there have been a lot of sleepless nights.

“Even on Christmas Day and Boxing Day we were in talks and meetings. It’s been a constant thing for last two or three months. But a week last Thursday we got over the line.”

Moore said the club had continued to run as normal despite the lingering uncertainty.

A number of sponsorship agreements were announced last week and Francis Cummins’ side recorded an encouraging friendly win over Hull FC on Sunday.

Moore added: “The supporters should start coming back and that will help us massively from a cashflow point of view. However, from the business side of things we still need patience.

“We still need three to six months to get this turned around. We’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel – it’s only small at the moment but we have a plan in place to see that light.”

Watt said that while there were no plans to lose any more players, the prospect of dispensing with the training facility at Tong had been considered among the cost-saving options.