When it emerged on Tuesday teatime that Bulls players and staff would not be paid for up to another week, the alarm bells immediately started ringing.

After the stress and heartache that last year’s financial crisis caused, it was little wonder.

The year 2012 was of one the most tumultuous in the history of Bradford Bulls.

It saw the club beg supporters to rescue them from financial ruin.

It featured the soap opera of a chairman and his fellow director being ousted by the previous board of directors.

It culminated in a meltdown which saw the Bulls enter administration, docked six points as punishment and the entire coaching staff made redundant.

Such off-field drama had not been witnessed since the legendary Trevor Foster helped reform Bradford Northern in 1964 after the club had folded.

Nobody is saying the Bulls are headed for another flirtation with oblivion but the failure to pay wages on or around the 28th of the month gave cause for concern.

A number of Francis Cummins’ players admitted yesterday that the communication from club management could have been better this past week.

Cummins is certainly not pressing the panic button – not yet anyway.

As assistant to Mick Potter, the Bulls coach was among those made redundant last year before returning to work for the club on a voluntary basis.

“I lived for three months without getting paid and I can tell you that’s a little bit more serious than this situation,” said Cummins, a father of three young children.

“I’ve had a long old career in rugby league and it’s happened to me a few times. Leeds went bankrupt when I was there, although we never not got paid.

“Yes, you think that after last year that the club is over its financial problems.

“But you know in your first year of business, especially in rugby league, that there are going to be times when your cashflow is not there.

“We’ve got some open wounds there from last year but the bigger picture is that the wages are getting deferred for a few days.

“You take people at face value and we’ve been told it won’t be paid any later than August 8 and it could be paid earlier. If everything else is fine, then I can live with that.

“I’m confident it will be paid and we’ve just got to make sure that the lines of communication continue.”

It is understood that Bulls owner Omar Khan is working to put funds in place to pay players and staff on or before his self-imposed deadline of August 8.

Deputy director Robbie Hunter-Paul yesterday addressed Cummins’ squad and assured them that a significant sum was set to hit the club’s coffers in the coming days.

It is not clear whether the monies will come from but Cummins said: “We’ve had the full situation explained to us in that when the money drops in, the club will be as cash-rich as any club in the division.

“The figures they are talking about, there are not many clubs who have that money in the bank – but we will.”

With such a pivotal game at Wakefield on Sunday, where the outcome could shape the club’s hopes of reaching the play-offs for the first time since 2008, this has been a distraction the Bulls did not need.

“Has it affected the players? Yes, I’m sure it has,” said Cummins.

“It’s not a nice position to be in but the good thing about it is that the majority of us have got experience of it after last year.

“One thing is for sure, you can’t sulk and you can’t jump up and down and blame whatever because we can control how we train and how we play.

“The one thing that showed out last year when we didn’t have a clue what was going on about anything – we didn’t know if or when we would be paid – the one thing we could control was on the field.

“We’ve got to do that again. We had a great win against Hull and we’ve got to back it up against Wakefield.

“I truly believe that if we perform then we can beat the rest of the teams we’ve got to play this year. We’ve got to keep chipping away.”