Wakefield chief James Elston delighted to retain Kear

Kear is in his fourth season at Wakefield

Chief executive James Elston says Wakefield Trinity Wildcats can now move forward after they secured the continued services of coach John Kear.

The 55-year-old had been chased by Catalans Dragons but they have now ended their interest in Kear due to their reluctance to pay compensation.

Elston told BBC Radio Leeds: "We can now continue to work together on recruitment for next year.

"We feel we can improve for next season and push the club forward again."

The Dragons were keen to bring the former Sheffield and Hull FC coach to Perpignan as a replacement for Kevin Walters at the end of the season.

However, Kear had stated he would not make any decision regarding his personal future until Wakefield and Catalans had agreed his potential release.

The French side have stated they will now look elsewhere for their new boss because they were unwilling to pay any compensation to the Wildcats.

"John is 100 percent committed to Wakefield and Wakefield are 100 percent committed to John," explained Elston.

"Clubs approaching other clubs about their coaches is a process every team goes through from time to time.

"It's unfortunate the nature of sports entertainment that agents are involved and they would not be doing their jobs right if they didn't look at approaches from other clubs for their clients.

"That is as far as it got. There was an interest shown to John's agent, the the Catalans approached us and we dealt with it as we normally would.

We are keen for all the good things to continue and a big part of that is John Kear

James Elston

"John dealt with it as professionally as he could and spoke to us about it and we decided he was staying with us.

"That's it. There is no question about what we as a club are doing and no question about John's committed to Wakefield.

"There are 18 months remaining on his contract and we are confident he will fulfil that and hopefully beyond.

"John staying here is crucial to us moving forward and applying for our new Super League licence. He is held in such high esteem.

"We have some great youngsters coming through and have a lot of good things happening at Wakefield. We are keen for all the good things to continue and a big part of that is John Kear."