don't get me wrong i'm not saying we weren't at times a decent side since i have been a fan (started going in 85) because there were some great days and even whole seasons that stick out (bearing in mind i was only 2 in 85 so some of the early days are a bit hazy!)

but its not that long since salford and us were in exactly the same boat and im thinking about 2002

they got relegated but my memory of that year is we were abysmal and i was terrified we would go down because for most of the year i thought we deserved it

since then we have had unbroken access to SL money

we got the new stadium but almost didn't... they got theirs eventually but it was put in a daft location

we got our sugar daddy 9 years ago, they have only just got theirs

what i'm saying is there is a very fine between a club getting on the upward spiral and going in the opposite direction and there are some important individual incidents that could have gone either way for us which may have made the story very different

so i think wire fans should have better grace when talking about salford because their recent history isn't so different from ours and it could quite easily have been roles reversed

Completely different scenarios, we got our sugar daddy after we got up off our s and sourced a solution for a new stadium where other clubs buried their heads in teh sand and ignored it.

We got our stadium, and cos of the revenue streams available from that that weren't at wilderspool, the club got itself in a very good financial position, after that occurred THEN mr moran became our sugar daddy.

Salford have got a stadium that they part own and get apparently get less income from, therefore it didn't strengthen them and as you saw last year, things got much worse.

As has been said above, its no disrespect to say through the years we're a bigger club than they are, its a fact,

It was said when loukash joined, it was a weird acquisition, as they're not a traditionally huge club, they haven't got a historic fanbase to try and call back on, it literally would be starting from scratch, which is an even more massive task than say moran had, or lenagan had when they joined wire or wigan.

As far as I am aware Salford City Reds/Red Devils do not own ANY part of the stadium. They are joint tenants with Sale RU. The City Council and Peel are both developers and owners within a Stadium Mangement Company. This might just be the clue as to why the 'good' Doctor is involved..Property Development?

There is nothing wrong with maximising your opportunities in business, who knows a successful development programme, or TV channel, or commercial moonflights might supplement the rugby league aspect of his bid for world domination. On the other hand, the rugby league club might just be a secondary key to unlock all the other stuff and if so that would be a shame as it could leave our neighbours vulnerable when Barton Airport becomes the new Cape Canaveral

i did think that about the stadium ownership, wasn't 100% though so didn't want to say it if i was wrong. (so i said the other thing, which was also wrong)

Hey no worries Mr C, we will probably have Stanley on any minute telling us that we are both wrong. Come to think of it if the commercial moonflights ever take off Stanley would get my vote for Salford's first astronaut

i think he's busy this morning on their forum, having to deal with whitehead turning down their transfer offer.

Clearly having a sugar daddy isn't the be all and end all.

Since Salford have come into money allegedly. Most have the Salford fans I know have turned into right whoppers. I'll believe the revolution at Salford when I see it with my own eyes. At the moment it's all pie sky

out of curiosity can I have some examples.

Only j/king, don't bite. Mate Salford fans are just happy to have a club and be linked to players again. No harm done just enjoying the ride

I agree we've never been in the same boat as Salford have been recently / currently are. Our darkest days were probably 2002 when yes, we were dreadful and actually I thought we were the worst team in SL for most of the season. However - our average attendance that year was 6,270! And we had a pretty handy team the year before and year after. We have never spent year after year at the bottom end of the table, with pitiful crowds and facing winding up orders. We've had tricky times, but never in that bracket. And as others have pointed out, pre-Moran we were already much stronger than Salford are likely to be in the near future.

Has Eliot Whitehead backed out of his Salford deal and gone to Cats?