Ok then
the Dr is obviously an intelligent and wealthy man
but he is showing a real naivety with his comments about the cap

surely he more than anyone must understand one of the reasons why it is in place. at the end of the day it was only 5 weeks ago the Salford nearly didnt exist because they had no money, owed (and still do) various debtors and could barely muster a playing squad to fulfil its fixtures

now 5 weeks later he is talking about raising a cap from 1.7 to 3.5m so we can compete with the aussies

I have posted elsewhere that it is good for Salford and good for the game if we can get wealthy owners in like Dr Koukash, but at the same time lets take things one step at a time, he needs to try and get his own house in order (which i believe he will), before trying to change everything else

The point is that the SC failed to stop Salford becoming insolvent. It is ineffective as a financial control measure.

I like some of his comments in that article. Blunt but honest views about the weaknesses and failings of the Cap won't do any harm.

Okay, talk is cheap, but he's not become a multi-millionaire just by talking.

If he can inject some of that belligerence into Salford and bring them up to high SL standard, it will help the British game immensely. It will also be good to have another adversarial chairman in charge of a powerful club who is prepared to bang on the table at Red Hall.

Though I favour some kind of cap, the current one is flawed. We need to change in order to survive in this new RL climate.

You can't help but think that the Doctor should consider becoming competitive with London Broncos a more pressing matter than worrying about Melbourne Storm?

Koukash is stating the obvious about the disparity between the salary caps of the SL and the NRL and while he is the first high profile figure in the game to state it so publicly (certainly recently) it surely isn't news to anyone at Red Hall or anywhere else.

It's no use raising the cap unless the money is there to spend. He clearly has the money and is clearly willing to spend it but the rest of the league simply doesn't have it.

In RU the deal with BT Vision to take the sport away from Sky is what is funding their ambition to pay players more money. They want to pay the level of soccers fist division clubs to attract the talent but the key point is they are getting the money into the sport in general and dividing it up. Not relying on sugar daddies to provide the cash.

If Koukash wants the cap raised he needs to suggest ways to increase revenue for the sport as a whole. A few more bums on seats because clubs sign a few high profile players simply will not fund the kind of money required.

So IMO his contribution to the debate is very limited because while I am all for paying players more (I think its essential for the sport to do so) it needs to be properly funded.

When you say the rest of the league doesn't have it, do you mean [isome[/i of the league doesn't have it?

You're not telling me that if the salary cap was raised, the likes of Moran, Lenegan, Pearson and a few others wouldn't spend more to entice top players to SL. And for those that can't afford it, tough , that's sport. They need to work harder to increase their own revenues.

As much as Moran and Lenegan would probably break the existing cap for a star Aussie or two neither are going to break the bank to do so.

I'd hazard a guess that not one club in SL is within £100k of the existing salary cap and that many spend around half. Wigan have the salary of the best second rower in SL going spare right now along with Lima/Finch/Leuluai/Carmont who were certainly big earners.

If Koukash spent £1.8 m on salaries he would be in the top four and, given time to shift some deadwood, would be competing at the very top.

They wouldn't even need to be the most astute signings, the current squad must be on peanuts and he's probably got the best part of a million quid right now to spend on 5 or 6 players.

All that raising the sal cap would do is force the hand of Wigan/Leeds/Warrington to lure the same players with their greater histories/training facilities/locations... Take our club as the example, last year we bought two star youngsters out of their contracts, probably spent a few hundred grand improving orrell and didn't post a massive loss. Looking purely at match tickets, at a conservative £18 each Wigan's SL home games would generate £3.5m revenue vs Salford's £1.2m. Does he really want to be in a position where the big clubs can use that advantage?

The more Koukash talks like this the more I think he's simply not going to build a competiive Super League side at Salford. Rather than bid £500k on Sam Tomkins why not bid a fitfth of that on Brent Webb?
YOU MAY ACTUALLY GET HIM!

If no clubs were within £100k of the cap it could be abolished tomorrow with zero impact. Wigan may not quite spend up to cap, due to various player movements in the off season but they won't be far off. Why would they (allegedly) have had to get special dispensation to increase Tomkins earnings last year if there was still money left within the club's salary cap?

Probably because last year we had the likes of Lima/Finch/Leuluai/Carmont/Hock earning big-bucks on the books

Comparing Aguero to Luke Chadwick is a bit ridiculous, like for like it would be Adam Johnson or Scott Sinclair. In fact the only comparable Man Utd player I can remember (winning something with the last kick of the season) was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the bloke with a 40ft banner at the Stretford end 10 years after retiring.

Secondly, do you not admit that we have better facilities now? I plan to build an oak lodge and move Cheryl Cole in but as of now I can only offer a 3 bed house in Wigan and attract women accordingly.

As above, you have an awful team with awful facilities in an awful Rugby league location. The first step to your world domination is not Billy Slater in rented accomodation. If you want to attract a world class player in the next five years the start has to be becoming something more than the laughing stock of the league. So sign some decent players.

Yeah exactly, we were spending up to the cap.

Yes I am saying exactly that. If you think Lenegan is interested in bankrolling higher players salaries out of his own pocket I think you are very much mistaken.

Think about it. If the cap were doubled to compete with the NRL that would involve Wigan finding an extra £1.6m in revenue and I for one do no believe IL will put that kind of money into the club year after year. I don't think Moran or Pearson would do the same for their clubs either.

The sports that pay the highest wages basically fund it from TV deals. That is how RU is doing it. RL needs to generate a lot more money off its own bat as a sport before the salary cap could be increased to the level of the NRL.

The sugar daddy route might allow a small increase in the cap but that won't make any real difference because we are talking of doubling it to compete with our immediate rivals for talent.

Maybe I didn't word that post very well. I didn't mean [idoubling[/i the cap and Wigan needing to find an extra £1.6m. That's cleary not going to happen.

If, however, it was raised at the end of the year - say by £200k - I don't think Lenegan would continue to blindly abide to the £1.6m level, it's a totally arbitrary figure - albeit, agreed by a majority of the member clubs.

So whilst he may not want to bankroll higher players' salaries out of his own pocket, he may want to consider modest cap increases - if he wants to protect his assets!

The fact is that will just allow clubs to spend massive amounts of money on juniors. So when/if they make it the club benefits massively.

Already Wigan and Wire and throwing money at youth players and that would just make it worse.