Quote: LoyalFan "Unfortunately, Alan Hunte wasn't a big believer of looking around the City of Salford. He preferred to look at the main catchment areas of Wigan, Warrington, St Helens. The problem with that is that a young player in say Wigan... will want to play for Wigan as his first choice... If he doesn't get picked up by Wigan then Salford may get the opportunity. So we are left with the ones that the big clubs don't want and will never truly be able to compete. As harsh as that sounds. Therefore the Salford club have to look for somebody with a fresh approach.'"
If MK is serious about his recent comment regarding youth development he has to find a way of attracting the best potential to develop. The club occasionally finds the odd player that slips through the net but it's not enough to compete with the cherry pickers every year.
A good example is Theo Fages who joined Salford's academy because a relative of his once played under Steve Simms when he was head coach at Featherstone Rovers in the 1997-98 season. If Theo was English we wouldn't of had a sniff of signing him, he'd of signed for a Wigan, Saints, Leeds or Warrington etc.