He's publically stated that the academy is next of his list of things to sort out, but before we can do that we need a competitive first team that youngsters want to play in. The Academy side of things is a long term project that will take years to build up. Our academy report was pretty embarrassing when it was published the other week, but: Evalds, Jordan Walne, Adam Walne , Theo Farges and Jason Walton (was in our academy before he went to Batley) have all played a big part this season, plus we have Gaz Owen a promising young hooker on loan at Sheffield along with Will Hope and Marc Sneyd has been going great guns at Cas.

All in all that’s not too bad considering we had to almost scrap the academy and drop down a league at the start of last season due to financial difficulties, despite finishing 2nd (I think) in the 2012 super league.

Add to that we have brought in young players from the Championship and lower super clubs: Greg Johnson (from Batley), Josh Griffin (From Batley), Mason Caton-Brown (from London) during the season proves that he is building for the future.

Plus we have also produced Stefan Ratchford and Jordan Turner as well as countless players knocking around the Championship (not too bad considering we don't produce any players)

All sounds promising - and you didn't mention Alker. I used to love watching him play.

I like Koukash, RL needs investors like him to be a success in the UK. The Leeds model isn't going to be sustainable everywhere (or anywhere outside of Leeds, in the UK). He may have some unfashionable views but it is ultimately up to the current establishment to make a continued case for structures like the salary cap rather than suppressing people who disagree. So long as the debate is healthy it doesn't harm the game, hopefully we will see some tweaks to a system that (while benign) does not work perfectly.

I find it a little embarrassing for RL that he is referred to as the 'good doctor', as if having a PhD is somehow unusual for people outside of academia. It's almost as if the RL media and fans are stunned that anyone with an educated background would associate themselves with the sport. Cosmopolitan, wealthy & educated types will surely help improve the game's image by being involved with clubs like Salford.

Yup.

I find it embarrassing when people call him Kockrash and Kashcow too. I like to think petty name calling should be left to the children and not supposedly grown adults.

Rich benefactors bankrolling a club seems to be the model for success these days......

As always with these debates i wonder how different people's opinions on here would be if the boot was on the other foot.

Kockcow

Nope. Nor is it by chance.

I posted something a few weeks ago after I spoke to one of Salford's newest acquisitions. In Manchester Salford struggle for any kind of media attention and part of the Doctors remit is to ensure they are spoken and written about regularly. He's certainly doing a good job of that.

Good comeback

I find it amazing that people are happy with him attempting to get the RFL to pass schemes to fast track his success. And it's personal success he wants. He doesn't give a monkeys about Rugby League. It's just another Rich Boy Project. He won't do anything for this Sport.

He's certainly done a lot more for this sport than you will ever do.

Sorry, I didn't realise it was a dick-swinging contest.

If you want a decent comeback you should try and write something that Isn't the standard vomit on the subject. Personal opinion and dislike dressed-up as some kind of all-reaching reasoning we should all accept. Particularly if you are engaging Salford fans on the subject. It's fine to have a little hate club among your own group of peers where you can all slap each other on the back for like-minded opinion. For that is what it is. Salford fans are used to seeing personal dislike dressed-up as some kind of RL fact with regards to MK. But like it or not, we're best positioned to offer reasoned comment on the subject. If you want to continue to have Marwan the pantomime villain that's fine, I'm not going to change your mind, but I can quite comfortably say that most of what you say on the subject is dog turd.

Someone get Middleton Loiner a napkin, because HE JUST GOT SERVED!

But the 'good Dr' probably likes it. Sometimes in sport winning enemies can be just as vital as winning allies.

Don't like him.
Don't like his attitude.
My opinion, everyone has one.
I won't lose any sleep over it either.

Moving on.

i wonder how many salford fans would of been in favour of a salary cap rise in 2012? youre only upset now because your chairman is unable to spend all his money. 2 years ago you were moaning that the big teams were poaching all your players, but now you have the cash to do so yourself youre very happy... strange that

Actually, I think you'll find that most Salford fans would have shrugged their shoulders at any salary cap rise due to the fact that we already couldn't afford to spend up to the cap anyway, the one time we did (in 2012), the players we recruited all let us down badly and it nearly put us out of business, any increase in the Salary Cap that year probably wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference to what happened (just as any increase this year probably wouldn't have made any difference to London or the Bulls situation). The reality was that our youngsters were continually poached anyway and the quality of player we could attract was sub standard for achieving anything in SL. Any increase in the Salary Cap at that time couldn't have made that situation worse. Contrary to your supposition as well, we aren't upset because our chairman is unable to spend all his money (indeed the salary cap would have to go up at least 200 times over before Marwan was in any danger of spending all his money).

However, you're correct that now (thanks to Marwan) we still have a team to support, have the means to compete and stop the likes of Leeds picking up 'homesick' players and Warrington picking off youngsters we wanted to keep and might have stayed if we had enough money and ambition, we are much happier, nothing strange about that at all.

Utter tripe.

As another Salford poster has alluded to, most of us wouldn't have given a toss as it would have made no difference to what was happening at our Club at that time. As for poaching, that's just your uneducated opinion and is backed-up by no facts whatsoever...Strange that.

As reflected in this thread, I always thought this forum had the more reasonable, erudite and knowledgable fans on RLFANS. Middleton being the obvious exception, of course.

Koukash hugging and congratulating the leeds players on the way in after the game,nice touch.

just over 5k?
Maybe Marwan should put more effort into attracting a decent crowd rather than gobbing off every 5 minutes?
If those crowds don't improve he won't be here in 3/4 years.

Whilst slipping a brown envelope into their shorts

You cynic you

so salford fans have never moaned about the "big" clubs poaching their players? you sure about that? and the salary cap is directly linked to this comment. had the cap been larger, you would of had a lot more players become "homesick" and would of moved on, as "bigger" clubs can afford to sign up more players.

i very much doubt you wouldnt have moaned. but you have Marwan now, so its pointless and you can claim that you have always been in favour of a raised cap since day dot. doesnt make your comment, or that of the other fellow, smell any rosier!

I agree. He went up in my estimation as a result.

I think he does the latter to try and address the former mate.