DIRECTOR of Rugby Dai Young admits he does not know what the hold-up is with the Wasps takeover and says he doesn’t know whether it will be done in time for the start of the season on September 1.

He says the uncertainty has affected his pre-season plans and wants the deal done.

He said: “We all expected it to be done by now and it hasn’t been. We’ve got to keep our fingers crossed and hopefully it will be done sooner rather than later.”

He says he doesn’t know what the stumbling block is regarding the long-drawn out handover of the the club from owner Steve Hayes to a consortium led by former Wasps player Ken Moss.

Young said: “In all business transactions there are a number of things which crop up which are obviously unexpected but I haven’t had that feedback on what the actual delay is.”

When asked if he was satisfied the deal would be done he said: “You can only go on what people tell you. They are confident it’s going to be done. There doesn’t seem to be any suggestion it’s not going to be done and they are just as frustrated that here we are in the middle of August and it’s still not done.

“I would have thought it has to be done by the start of the season but I don’t know to be quite honest.

“We all expected it to be done by the end of May. Everything seemed to be sorted by the end of May. We have had some feedback saying there was a couple of things that needed to be ironed out but that was six weeks ago.

“It’s a difficult situation.

“Obviously that’s going to cause constraints on what we can do off the field and so on because who is going to pay the bill?

“There’s a deal that’s pretty much as I see it 80 per cent done but it’s not 100 per cent done.

“We are focussing just on the rugby. I don’t think it affects the players, they’re concerned about it obviously the same as everyone else but the day to day stuff it doesn’t really affect the players.

“It affects me in some of things I do because there are constraints on certain things I would like to do with the squad and so on.

“There’s quite a few things which we would probably have done differently if the deal had been done.”

The deal was expected to be completed before the end of May.

Young said: “He didn’t say which May though did he.”

He has been concentrating his efforts on getting his side in shape for the new season and is confident his new-look side won’t be in another relegation dogfight with the signings he has made.

He said: “It’s far nearer to being my squad than last season was. Recruitment, last season, was never an easy task trying to coax players to sign on the dotted line when they were reading the club was going into administration.

“But I’m quite pleased with the squad we’ve put together under very difficult circumstances and I believe we’ve got a squad capable of making big strides forward.”

But he warned fans that ‘big strides’ doesn’t equate to competing at the top table with the heavyweights.

He said: “I’d like to sit here and say we are aiming for the top four but I don’t think that’s feasible this year.”

And he says players and fans have got to get rid of the notion that success will come to Wasps just because it used to.

He said: “You get what you deserve in all walks of life. People expect Wasps to be up there competing at the top because of the history and tradition of it not the reality of where they are at the time.”