On Radio Manchester today, the good Doc spoke of his desire to join his good friend Derek Beaumont at Leigh Centurions, he stated he has been approched by a number of both SL and Championship clubs but his heart is telling him to join up with his friend at Leigh, probably not a lof of people know but as families the Beaumont's and Koukash's take holidays together and their wives are very close friends, in summary the anchor men at the Radio Manchester Rugby League programme said expect an announcement very soon tk the effect that Dr Koukash has joined Leigh Centurions,.

That should shake things up a bit especially has a lot of people are calling for an increase in the Salery cap.

Another rich owner along the M62? what's not to like?

And before anyone starts on the "parochial" rubbish, the game survives on rich M62 owners, simple as.....

We do rely on rich owner and sugar daddies. It’s a shame one never found his way to Bradford

If it happens, it's been on the cards for a while.

Interesting few weeks ahead?

Controversial at time I've kind of missed his enthusiasm in the game he just needs to learn not to interfere with the player selections throwing his money around like he did

But he's a "massive Salford fan" apparently.

2 massive egos (ie gob$hites) should be interesting if nothing else.

In a nutshell, you've accidently outlined exactly why the game remains a local hobby and not a national sport.

As for Marwan. He's an enthusiastic amateur, like Hughes at London. He threw his toys out when fans didn't flock to watch HIS side and rather than put in the hard yards and employ professionals, he offered cut price tickets which added no bums on seats whilst reducing the gate revenue......and then he sloped off because he didn't get his own way.

'If' Marwan Koukash becomes a Co Owner at Leigh with Derek Beaumont, you would then be looking at one of the top 4 or 5 wealthiest Club's in British rugby league !

Maybe this frightens a few owners of other Super League Club's , who knows ?

Anyway, a Leigh with the buying power of Leeds, Wire & Saints or Wigan would put the cat among the pigeons. The attraction for the very best players will still be those 4 Club's due to the silverware won but certainly Leigh could compete for the signings of top Super League & Marquee player's.

All hypothetical at the moment, we shall see.

It's not a national sport because when the highly successful Rugby in the north positioned itself to develop across the country the midland and southern clubs refused to follow, the welsh did follow but withdrew.

The game planned and pitched to become a modern professional national game years ago and it was the Union people in the south and midlands that refused. It was brave of the Northern clubs to carry on and carry on we have for over 100 years during which time Union followed.

By all means criticise and drag the game down, but it has led where union has just followed............e.g rule changes....

Well they take one look at the stadium, ask for the repair and re-development costs and then that's that......

If ever the council sold it and built a decent replacement I would guess you may have a line of decent offers from rich owners, and possibly run successfully without massive inputs of money.

Such a crying shame mate.......

I'd guess he's learnt a lot and Beaumont will be a steadying influence as brash as the man is. Looking forward to SL becoming that bit richer for it......

Badly needed at a time Pearson seems to be looking at the exit.

Certainly interesting, he was happy to splash the cash at Salford but, a little impatient.
Could be a very good week for Leigh

Great post.

It is something I have been looking forward to for a long time in that the Good Doc joins Leigh, can you imagine how exciting it is to be a Leigh fan with this news?

As stated previously there has been a lot of calls mainly from the Fan's of the "richer" clubs to increase the Salary Cap, if this increase does come about it will surely ruffle a few feathers with Leigh's new spending power, will it make some SL clubs consider how they will want any new structure to be formulated?

What if it is deemed we go back to a Licencing Structure, if in any list of criteria that is drawn up for entry to SL to include having an Academy as was in the last Framing the Future document the RFL have in essence barred any team but for the 10 who were granted an Academy Licence for the next 7 years from applying. Leigh had everything in place to run an academy for next season and even £400K to set aside to finance it, it was obvious to me that the licences were granted on a geographical basis until the about turn from pressure got the decision for Cas and HKR reversed, Leigh were not granted an academy licence in my opinion because of the locallity to Wigan, Saints and Wire but then again the RFL were not strong enough to to only allow two of those three to continue running an academy in a crowded area.

Even if we do go to a 2 x10's structure that could still be done as a Licence for SL1 and SL2, so if we do go back to Licencing I would suggest that having an academy is not part of the criteria for entry into SL but a mandatory requirement for every team in SL 1 when chosen to have to run one.

I would also make it a stipulation of any criteria to include a commitment to spend money both on and off the field, to promote the fan base and supplement the community game in their locality, and to commit to a certain level of spend on the Salary Cap, and this would have to be rubber stamped by means of a 'Bond' being placed, repayable annually over 3 to 5years, any club defaulting on the financial commitments losses the 'Bond'.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09r8tjp LINK, Yesterdays inteview with Dr Koukash begins at 34:40 mins, previous to that Derek Beaumont has some views on the game begins at approx 5:20 mins

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09r8tjp LINK, Yesterdays inteview with Dr Koukash begins at 34:40 mins, previous to that Derek Beaumont has some views on the game begins at approx 5:20 mins