But as Zinoviev Letter says, they haven't been left in the lurch by the wildcard system. They benefited from it far more than most first year teams with comparable rosters - One Pro Cycling are a much better example of an Anglo team that wound up being essentially an expensive Conti team. Aqua Blue got to do monuments and even a GT in their first year of existence - not their first ProConti year, like the likes of Vacansoleil or MTN-Qhubeka who had been smaller teams who put up the money to bring in riders that fans and race organizers wanted to see, but their first year of existence. Vacansoleil got a slice of luck with the Vuelta having a Dutch start and the battle over invites based on the original ProTour invitees vs. the new ProTour teams as the UCI started shifting who it granted licences to was taking place so a couple of newer WT teams were not compulsory invites (Katyusha missed out from that Vuelta, for example). MTN-Qhubeka got an invite to Milan-San Remo (Classics are always easier to get invites to because there are typically up to 25 teams rather than 22, leaving almost twice as many wildcards available) and got a very fortunate win, but after that they were set.
Aqua Blue got a lot more out of their first season than most of the wildcard teams that have established themselves managed at that level. It took NetApp (now Bora-Hansgrohe) three years to get a GT invite. Did that create unreasonable expectations on behalf of the sponsors or the team brass? Probably, given the hissy fit Delaney threw when the Vuelta didn't give them a wildcard. But the question is, what was the X factor that Aqua Blue had to offer? I'm on record as saying Delko would probably have been better for last year's Vuelta than Aqua Blue, but in the end with Denifl's stage win Aqua Blue merited their spot - but unfortunately for them, the big signing coups they made for this year were not established pros but in fact young prospects which didn't add too much to their existing proposition now other than in those riders' home markets.
The other question is, what races were they looking to do? Because, looking at the roster that they have, especially with Nordhaug having retired, they would surely, surely find Classics more fertile ground than aiming for GTs? Denifl had a good win in the Vuelta last year, sure, but apart from that they don't even really have too many high level stagehunters, so it's not a very wild wildcard to pick if there's already a couple of local teams to populate the breakaway. In the highest profile mountainous race they got to do, the Tour de Suisse, their best GC finisher was 41st. Yes, you can argue they offer a better proposition to the Vuelta than Burgos-BH, but given the race goes through País Vasco and the seasons that Ion Aberasturi and Edu Prades are having, no way do they offer a better proposition to the Vuelta than Euskadi-Murias. And regardless of the vagaries of the wildcard system, actively attacking the race organisers is not the smartest way to curry favour with them when you rely on them to get you the invitations that your calendar is contingent upon - it's not like they were in the position, with the smaller roster and the current reduced ProConti numbers, to go the Vacansoleil route of proving the organisers wrong by obliterating .HC and .1 races instead, either.
Even then, that doesn't excuse the rather childish, selfish way Delaney has gone about this. Lots of teams have been forced to the wall, sure, but the likes of Vacansoleil did right by the riders, giving them every opportunity to complete the calendar and put themselves in the shop window. It seems Delaney has thrown a big tantrum, because first it was "the team is looking at signing Richie Porte", then it was "the team is merging" - neither of which suggest a team that is dropping mid-season due to financial problems like happened to Vorarlberg-Corratec or Scott-Marcondes César - then it was "the team will fold", which at least had some kind of reasonable sense behind it. Then it was "the Tour of Britain will be their last race", and then in the course of 24 hours it's become "the team is dead as of right this second". The merger announcement was a bit embarrassing, I've seen suggestions the premature announcement was to try to strong-arm Verandas Willems into agreeing a deal seeing as it was in the public domain now, but I'm not sure how much credence I give that idea - more likely either a genuine error in jumping the gun or just a typically aggressive attempt at self-marketing from Delaney and the team. But how it's all fallen apart in 48 hours, it's just given the impression that Delaney's just decided if he can't get his way, he's taking his ball and going home, without a care in the world for the people who get hurt, who worked for him for nearly two years (or more given the time needed to set up the team). While firing pot shots and conspiracy theories at everybody who didn't let him get his way in his press releases, and keeping his own staff and riders in the dark about what was going on.
Instead of bowing out gracefully and then firing his shots once the riders and staff have been looked after, in the space of a couple of days, Delaney has joined the likes of Juan Pablo Pino and Chris White. If they do try to get the team off the ground again (which I now very much doubt in the wake of the last 24 hours), what self-respecting rider is going to buy a deal Delaney brokers?