Quote: John Gilbert Reds "
Our academy has been poorly financed and managed for years. Alan Hunte did a great job in attracting the "best of the rest" from neighbouring towns (Wigan, Saints, Oldham, Warrington etc) that the big teams didn't want. Unfortunately in the process he neglected the talent we had playing within Salford amateur teams and at the end of his spell in charge links with these local clubs were non-existent. '"
The entire sport has been poorly financed and managed for years. You mention that Hunte neglected talent playing with local Salford clubs but surely had this been 'genuine talent' other clubs would have signed and developed them. I'm not defending the club but it seems the blame for lack of local junior talent always seems to be apportioned to Salford Red Devils rather than accepting it's extremely rare to find them, let alone develop them. I'm not saying the local junior lads are poor it's just they haven't had the elite qualities a Superleague club is looking for.