Salford City

[iambungle]

have signed Adam Rooney from SPL Aberdeen and are paying him £4k a week apparently. I'd say the game at that level has well and truly gone....

 

[MJB]

Gone where?

 

[Oldham]

Gone where?

Manchester ?

 

[yellowbow]

They must be getting close to the FFP limits? I don’t know what gates they get but turnover can’t be very high.

 

[Oldham]

 

[yellowbow]

View attachment 624

I reckon F.C. United and Salford should merge to form a super-club. They could call themselves something like Manchester Royals..

 

[Oldham]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ?

 

[saddletramp]

View attachment 624

FC United have more than 5,000 owners,obviously they don't bother to actually go and watch them anymore.

 

[Oldham]

That’ll be the ones from Kent and the Home Counties...

 

[iambungle]

It's certainly quite an achievement to get almost as many 'grass roots' football supporters to dislike a non-league team as dislike Man U though. Well done Gaz!!

 

[makv]

View attachment 624

I reckon F.C. United and Salford should merge to form a super-club. They could call themselves something like Manchester Royals..

Please let his happen

 

[pooshooter]

I'd play for Salford for £4k a week!

 

[Marked Ox]

FC United have more than 5,000 owners,obviously they don't bother to actually go and watch them anymore.

They're too busy watching Salford now.

 

[Marked Ox]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44894821

Lovely Twitter spat between Gary Neville and Accrington owner Andy Holt.

 

[MJB]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44894821

Lovely Twitter spat between Gary Neville and Accrington owner Andy Holt.

I rather think Neville has misunderstood the annoyance from the Accrington boss and others. No one is doubting that it’s his own money. More that it’s such an unnatural bank rolled approach. It’s not a franchise as he rightly says but it’s clearly going to annoy and threaten small hard wording clubs like Stanley.

 

[WuTang]

Taking advantage of the lack of FFP required in non-league. Using it to virtually buy their football league place. They'll have to reign it in slightly once in the football league, but this season is a total joke and totally unfair on the other clubs in that division. The players they are signing are Upper League 2/League 1 standard, and the wages they're paying could pave promotion in League 1 itself!

Would love to seem them fail, but I think 1st place is already done and dusted.

 

[mooro]

Don't forget 'our' Max Crocombe is there along for the ride - albeit I think they've picked up another keeper so he may be #2 thsi season

 

[holdsteady]

Despite winning the league they had smaller crowds than the two other Greater Manchester clubs in that league, once the ex Man U players get bored they will go the way of Rushden and Diamonds, but it’s a free country and they are not breaking any rules so I suppose it’s up to them. Can’t see why they didn’t invest in one of the smaller but already established clubs around there though?

 

[unification]

Despite winning the league they had smaller crowds than the two other Greater Manchester clubs in that league, once the ex Man U players get bored they will go the way of Rushden and Diamonds, but it’s a free country and they are not breaking any rules so I suppose it’s up to them. Can’t see why they didn’t invest in one of the smaller but already established clubs around there though?

That's close to my thought on it. League 1 is normally the top level for the bankrolled non-league side. Fleetwood, Crawley and Rushden all hit it as their level and I can see Salford and eventually Billericay doing it too.

I'm not sure how bored Neville et al will get with it though. They do seem to be in it for the long haul so it may run and run. Even with their compiled millions, funding a little side at Championship level a la Burton is a hiding to nothing. Greater Manchester is saturated with clubs so I can't see organic growth of crowds being too easy to come by.

What I do hope is that the BBC don't do another 'rags to riches' documentary about them. They paint Salford as some hard done by club who have finally got some luck with the ex-Man United guys helping them along. Get over it - they're a non-league outfit and always will be in character. Some teams are better off like that.

 

[MarkG]

Despite winning the league they had smaller crowds than the two other Greater Manchester clubs in that league, once the ex Man U players get bored they will go the way of Rushden and Diamonds, but it’s a free country and they are not breaking any rules so I suppose it’s up to them. Can’t see why they didn’t invest in one of the smaller but already established clubs around there though?

Yes, plenty of existing clubs nearby they could have invested in, Accrington, Altrincham, Bury etc. I've no idea why they thought Salford needed a new club. Village teams play in villages for a reason, but some owners convince themselves that they should be playing in the football league, but with a village fanbase. I'd say exceptions are where a town has grown vastly in recent years and so can attract decent levels of support. So Reading have gone from a small railway town to a large commuter town, with a reasonable fanbase. Similary Milton Keynes has the population to support a league side, if only they'd done it the right way.