Quote: "I think at some point we need to start acquainting ourselves with the possibility that there isn't a rich new owner waiting in the wings with a plan to turn water into wine. '"
Sadly, this is obviously the case. The reality is that even as a lifelong Salford fan, even I wouldn't invest in the club (if I had the money!) in it's current state, just to pay off the existing creditors, so for us to expect any local businessman with only a passing interest to do so, is beyond ludicrous.
I feel our best option is to reform as a newco, albeit in one of the lower divisions. I will always admire John Wilky for what he has done, and the money he has put in to keep us going all these years, but unfortunately as much as he will always be a Salford legend, he is completely out of his depth as our current predicament demonstrates.
My understanding of the situation (being in NZ its hard to be privy to everything that goes on!) is that if we were to reform as a newco we wouldn't be able to play at SCC, but I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing, SL is not the be all and end all. As hard as it would be to take, I feel a step back would enable us to take a step forward in the long term.
The club under its current guise is simply 'unpopular' with most Salfordians, as we are seen as a club who is generally amongst the cellar dwellers and has a losing culture. However, some of the best times I've ever had as a Salford fan were in the lower divisions, and I bet that if most of you really thought about it, for the majority of fans in a similar age bracket to myself (im not old enough to remember the halcyon days of Fielding, Watkins et al!) it would be the same, as this is when the club had a 'feel good factor' about it, as we won the majority of our games!
Over the past 18 months or so, (even way before all the financial problems became public knowledge) there has been so much negativity, bickering, and general ill feeling on these boards that the only conclusion I can draw from afar (I may well be wrong), is that this is the general 'feeling' amongst the majority of Salford fans, and it's hard to see how the club can go any further with how the club is perceived- by it's own fans, in RL circles, and the general public, unless something drastic happens.
Maybe being so far away in NZ means im slightly detached from the emotion of it all, but for me, the only sensible and realistic option, is for the club in it's current form to be wound up, and a new 'debt free' club start up from scratch, probably playing out of somewhere like Moor Lane initially. I'm sure the legalities of it all are more complex than that, but there are obviously a number of precedents in RL and other sports in recent years.
To me this seems the only way we can recreate the 'feel good factor' again amongst our fans, which in the long term, could enable us to then gain a sound financial footing, the support of the general public of Salford, and challenge for a place in SL again a few years from now.
Just my two cents, Merry Xmas and here’s hoping for some good news in the new year. ☺
