Quote wiganermike="wiganermike"I have only seen a very small snippet on the local BBC news this morning but am assuming that this is similar to the interview people are referring to. The people that make the news are journalists and will edit heavily and use words to introduce a piece that will portray whatever slant they want to the story.
The words the BBC news presenter used (every time) to introduce the clip were "says he doesn't understand why the offer was rejected". The connotation in that statement is that Dr Koukash thinks that any club should take the money and thinks that no club will want to keep their marquee players rather than cash in. This is followed by a clip of Dr Koukash saying that he made a serious offer and wishes for his club to be considered as a credible rival bidder against the NRL and RU. For such a clip a more apt introduction would be "Dr Marwan Koukash says that Salford are looking to bring in the best players and hopes that players will see the club as one that they wish to join"
The guy is probably frustrated as before trying to get Sam he has been turned down for Morley, Chase, Hock, Jacob Emmitt and I think a couple of others whose names escape me. He is likely to be wondering how he is supposed to do any squad building if all offers are rejected out of hand. He probably does not understand that the difficulty any club that did let a player go would have in getting a replacement will stop most from accepting an offer mid-season (no matter how big). He is new to the sport after all.
We also have a coach who, regardless of what you think about his record on the pitch, suffers from verbal 'brain-farts' when dealing with the media. Think back to last season when he did Wire's motivational talk for them and this pre season with his talk of preparing for life after Sam - resulting in even more media talk of him leaving us this year. Whether he did laugh when told of the offer or not, to say that he did to the press was a mistake and very disrespectful to the Salford club and all connected to it. The media as a result are always now asking Dr Koukash if he was serious about the bid. You can hardly blame anyone connected with Salford for being annoyed and speaking out about their club not being taken seriously.'"
While I agree with almost everything you say here, I feel that Salford are being extremely naive in the way they are going about this. It reminds me of Leeds under Dougie Laughton, who spent more money than Wigan in their attempts to build a top side, and yet never came close.
It can never just be about signing big names, especially not in the era of the Salary Cap.
Graham Lowe's comment about there being "a lot of things at this club that are broken" was very pertinent. Salford currently are a shadow of the great Salford of the 60s and 70s in so many ways. In Manchester, they occupy what's now almost an RL-free zone in terms of professional rivals, and yet they can't seem to attract any fans. So they need to get their marketing sorted out. In Phil Veivers they have a head coach who, for me, is a non-entity. That's something else they need to look at. In terms of playing personnel, they need to rebuild from the bottom up - that's what Wigan did in the early 80s, and only move for marquee players later on when they've re-established a reputation as credible contenders. Now that they've got bags more money, they've no excuse for not recruiting local starlets, and more importantly, for not hanging onto them.
The more unrealistic targets they move for at this stage, the more they'll be knocked back and the less seriously they'll be taken.
