Other Championship Clubs

You can put a fairly decent 13 out of London-produced players that are in SL, have been in SL recently for other clubs, or top champ players:

Alex Walker (London)
Kieran Dixon (Widnes)
James Meadows (Bradford)
Bill Leyland (Hull KR)
James Woodburn-Hall (Halifax)
Joe Keyes (Bradford)
Oli Leyland (Warrington)
Lewis Bienek (London)
Sam Davis (Salford)
Rob Butler (London)
Mike McMeeken (Treble winners)
Sadiq Adebeyi (London)
Matt Davis (Leigh)

Then a small litter of other lads who have spent their careers in Champ and League 1. I’m not trying to say that’s a remarkable production line, but it’s a lot more than Leigh, Salford, Huddersfield, and - without looking into every club - many other SL clubs. So I think, on balance, it’s a fair thing for them to brag about.

I agree that London shouldn’t have been given special treatment under this system or any other, but I also understand why they tried - can you imagine what we’ll see if Huddersfield or Leigh are under threat?!

What London need, and have always needed, is a permanent home (difficult in a city that’s parcelled up into incredibly expensive plots with no appetite for community amenities and dominated by fickle football clubs), a community outreach team, and a boat load of money to spend on marketing (also exorbitant in London).

The player pathway is there, the potential fanbase is there (either diaspora league fans in west London or an untapped working class community in south east London). But if what’s happening to Wakey right now has taught me anything, it’s that RL clubs need money. And in London, you’d need twice as much. I don’t think Hughes is that rich.

As I’ve said before, there are two possibilities from here: either an extremely well off owner comes forward (unlikely given they’ve got about 3,000 fans in total), or they form a supporters trust and bounce between League 1 and Champ for a few years.