Realistically I reckon Robbie Farah

Would that be using the same impeccable method that saw Crusaders, London, Wakefield, Salford and Bradford all awarded SL licences?

Thats a fair shout.

This story broke during the world cup while he (Dr Koukash) was at the Melbourne cup. Nice one being fast out the tracks JC.

You can buy improvement, and you can buy short term success, but you can't buy prolonged time at the top, it's takes long hard work to grind out the things needed to stay at the very top, and money is no replacement for that.

The most obvious example is the Manchester football clubs. Man City have spent ridiculous amounts of money chasing success, and arguably not very successfully, but have won a premiership which they couldn't dream of before. But are they as successful as united? Not even close, city are at the start of the very long path to build a club capable of sustaining the level of success that was achieved by United, with the things like the training facility's and the youth development etc but they have a long way to go. Whether they achieve that or not no one can say.

Personally, I don't like koukash, I admire his ambition and think he's great for Salford, but, he's only chasing the stars, the names that will get him in the papers, I get the feels half the signings they made this season wouldn't of happens if noble hadn't had to remind him you need to build a team, and I think that obsession with star names will be the undoing.

Given the squad you had, with 2 highly rated young halfbacks, in Fages and Sneyd, it provided the perfect opportunity to build a successful team around them, recognising success doesn't come over night and letting the 2 halfbacks grow and succeed with the club, as Richie Myler has done with Warrington (and Salford should be looking at the Warrington example of sustaining growth in my opinion) - instead koukash throws his cash around and signs two "names" because he can with no long term thought

Whether he gets the two people above or not, or any other lot of "names" until a cohesive long term plan is in place, I can't see Salford having any long period of success.

Regardless of future marquee signing rules, if SBW goes and plays Union with an eye on the All Blacks, once he's finished Koukash could offer whatever he likes seeing as there is dispensation for players coming from Union under current cap rules.

As for Slater, I could see him being tempted in a year or two especially as his second love is horse racing.

Chelsea are the argument to the above analogy as they have spent big and are now a decade into their existence as a big club with no sign of it abating. Maybe, just maybe (fingers crossed, painfully with arthritis) he (Koukash) may stick around for the foreseeable future and help the club grow to a stature they have never had before.

Sigh, no he can't, the rules for special dispensation state

Since sbw has played rl before he doesn't qualify and hence will be subject to the salary cap, just as for example, if saints signed Kyle eastmond

Magic Superbeetle, my irony-ometer has just gone off the scale with your example of Myler and Warrington as they way to build a side. Next you'll be quoting us Ratchford as another type of player we should be interesed in building a team around...

Back on to the good doctor: the man has got fans on both sides of the world discussing Salford, the club who finished rock bottom of Super League last year. He's been on radio in New Zealand and in the Aussie press talking our little club and the game up. Regardless of your personal take, you've got to hand it to him, he's a one-man publicity machine...

Koukash needs to talk to Nathan Tinkler.
Tinkler actually knows about Rugby League and knew what to do with big dollars to set up a club.
First thing he did was buy the best coach in the game.
Second thing he did was buy the best trainer and support staff in the game.
Third thing he did was strike a deal for the use of top class training facilities.
After you have that in place the players all want to come to you and will sign for less than they would at a club where they are not getting the best possible coaching and training.
A couple of marquee players is good publicity and all, but the way to build a team is to start with the basics and do them better than anyone else.

I disagree, money can buy you both. How can you use Manchester City as an example of not buying prolonged time at the time after such a short period into their new ownership? They have had to spend a ridiculous amount of money to even close the huge gulf that existing between them and the top teams in the league. Of course they're not more successful as United, but until you've given their current owners around 25 years in charge it's pointless even comparing the two.



How many times have you met the man to form such a brash opinion of him? Also what are you talking about Koukash chasing the stars? You are aware Brian Noble is our head coach and is therefore in charge of recruitment, not Marwan Koukash. His job is to simply get his cheque book and sign the names given to him. The fact we've signed players like Tommy Lee, Greg Johnson, Jason Walton (i.e not stars) shows we are building a team and not chasing names that will get us in the papers.



Theo Fages is 18 years old. He should never have played as many games as he did last year, but we had no choice. The kid needs developing not drowning, working with Rangi Chase and Tim Smith for a couple of years will do his development the world of good. You'll still see plenty of him next year too, dont worry. Marc Sneyd played more games at full-back than half-back for us last season to, with his best position still not understood. Whilst he has potential he isnt "top 6 quality" yet and a season on loan at Castleford will do him the world of good.

I like how you use Warrington's Richie Myler and sustaning growth as examples, despite them signing both our highly rated top youngsters (Myler and Ratchford) in big money deals.

Your knowledge on Marwan Koukash and Salford Red Devils is obviously limited, otherwise you'd be aware of the plans in place to develop and build the best training facilities for youngsters within the game. Koukash has stated several times he doesnt only want to attract and sign the best players, he also wants to develop them too.

A) the example works equally well with Chelsea. Now Chelsea have gone away, struggled for success over the last couple of years, after initially bursting onto the scene with oil money, and are now starting to develop (albeit still bought in) their own talent like de bruyne and van ginkel. Maybe it was unfair to use city, I was merely doing so for the sake of contrast.

B) never. Doesn't mean I can't form an opinion on him. I never met hitler but I'm sure I don't like him.

C) your making my argument for me? By saying noble is head of recruitment making all these "none star signings" is my point. Noble is Doug a good job at building a relatively strong team for next year, but how much is going to be wiped out if koukash decides he wants Shaun Johnson? (For example) the buck would stop with koukash, he would get his headline, and noble would have to get on with it, and my point is I don't think koukash has any regards for a squad. If he signed some of the players he has mentioned in the last few months you would in a squad of 25 have : smith, chase, Fages Sneyd, Johnson, Eastmond - all as halfbacks - that's not squad building that's just signing people because he can.
Notice: I didn't say noble would make these signings.

D) halfbacks support is generally the forwards protecting them, but even if that's the case, I could empathise and understand the signing of another, older more experienced halfback to guide the two of them around for a couple of years. Signing both limits opportunity, and buries them as opposed to drowning them. And there are lots of examples of 18-20 year olds proving they're ready to step up.

E) Myler may of been a bad example, given the Salford connection, but my point was, in 2010, when Myler signed, Warrington could of gone after virtually anyone with the money they were offering, they chose a young player, who could be supported by the team around him, and helped by the likes of briers to improve his game, and they should see the dividends of that in the coming years.

F) I know koukash has also spent a lot of time talking about improving facilities etc he's not a complete imbecile and knows sport requires such things, but even that needs to be turned into a self promotion event. You have players who have potential to develop already in the team yet are choosing to ignore them because they're not koukash products. Developing players requires game time as well as facilities.

I know my opinion of koukash is not a popular one, but it's my opinion. Doing things like announcing "were gonna sign a player whose name begins with h and plays for a team that starts with w" makes him sound no better then "insiders" on here desperately clawing for attention.