I must disagree about the journalist reporting the information at a time when there is very little rugby league news about the future.

It gives information to the supporters of two Super League clubs.

It also gives information to Salford supporters with plenty of time for the club to reassure their followers about what has gone and inform them that the end of the world is not nigh.They are still in existence and just another hurdle for the club to get over.

It may encourage their followers to put more finance into the club at a crucial time.

It is much better than being kept in the dark - and perhaps not able to help until it is too late.

I like the idea of supporters being kept in the loop.

With Castleford conducting themselves in the professional manner that they should the Salford fans may have been kept in the dark until September time.

Hey don’t take it out on me that the only half decent player you had has deserted your sinking ship lmao!

Karma!

It is a problem though for R.L in general , a poor quality comp was lit up last year by Salford and i for one wish they had kept their side together . It is the way of the world though and my team have taken advantage of Salford as well at times .

I dont think that you could be any more wrong.
Regardless of lack of news, this story has been put out at the wrong time by the wrong people (ie, not by the clubs involved), yes, Salford have now said Evalds is leaving but, only after the story was leaked out.
Evalds leaving, far from encouraging investment, is more likely to make others follow him to the exit and reduce outside investment, as potential investors may believe that the writing is on the wall.
Yes, it's great for supporters to be kept "in the loop" but, there is a time and a place for all announcements, which either limit damage or, maximise exposure - this is more likely to cause damage.
Castleford dont appear to have done too much wrong here but, there is some "karma", with the goings on in the past

It was never supposed to be that way. Everyone is supposed to have the same "value" team apart from the change that allowed those who may wish to bring in a world superstar that would benefit the competition to spend more. Not that that has worked out



I assume Salford's problem is that they cannot spend the full cap since Koukash went. Watson's magic made up for that but when any of their players start to shine they end up in the shop window. SL does need to be English clubs that can spend to the full cap....... Who gets poached next? Watson?... Then what?

Salford have lost a number of important players over a number of years.

It was public knowledge,long before he left last year,that Hastings was going to Wigan.

He played against his new club,for Salford,in the Grand Final.

Other clubs go into end of season play-offs and have players up against the clubs they have signed for.

Frustrating from a spectators viewpoint.

I see no reason for a journalist to retain the information,and then just duplicate the news after a club makes an announcement.

Most decent players gravitate to the silverware winning clubs,the big spenders,or other competitions.

I don't see why a journalist should refrain from doing his/her job,just because they cover the 'professional' sport of rugby league where all dealings and utterances may not be above board.That's life...

Salford lost a half back to Leeds,more or less midway through a season,and Ben Murdoch-Masila to Warrington at the end of a campaign a couple of years ago.

Nothing new under the sun...

Even if every club could spend up to the cap, the wealthier clubs can still benefit massively by offering better deals to youngsters etc and possibly being able to afford transfer fees.
Salford, since Koucash went, have been lucky to keep unearthing very good players and have been well coached.
However one or 2 seasons, where they dont manage to find comparable players to those leaving and they will be in serious trouble.
Decent coaching will only take you so far, as will decent players without decent coaching, ultimately, success comes when you have both and for a sustained length of time.

You're right about Watson - at some point he will get his chance at a bigger club.

Agreed, but 'the grass isn't always greener on the other side' is it, just ask Josh Jones !

Hang on a minute - it was a Salford director who revealed he was leaving - on Twitter - before anything was even published.
There might have been a bit of rumour and speculation beforehand, but that’s par for the course (sometimes right, often wrong) when a player is going to be at the end of his contract.

That's BS and you know it Perry Mason. Some tin-pot journo called Mathew Shaw leaked it on Twitter, which led Paul King (Salford Director) to make the statement. Having done some research it appears Mr Shaw is from Halifax (Evalds' home town), so doesn't take Einstein to work out where the leak came from.

It appears to start with the big clubs offering the best kids places in their academies no matter where the kids come from. Wasn't Watkins from the Salford/Manchester area when he went to Leeds and became a top player (notwithstanding his fall from grace). Yes I suppose if your club has the best local young players enticed away you can always have a good coach make up for that, then he get's enticed away....

IIRC Koukash abandoned the Salford academy as a waste of money as the best young players went to Wigan, Saints and Wire anyway. Going forward Salford committed to running reserves when requested to do so by SL but not an academy. Salford may likely fall on the lack of a rich owner more that anything else. However I have just read they spend the least on players of all the SL clubs, but that they have profited by Watson's ability to get the very best out of players which has given Salford a hefty "transfer fee income". He would seem set to be potentially Salford's biggest loss. More devastating than this one?

Correct, we're way under the cap and spend the least in SL.

Thank you for confirming this, I have just corrected my post using a LoveRL article that sets out the number of big transfer fees Watson had brought in from other clubs. What can I say, I'm sorry about your clubs predicament. I am old enough to remember the Brian Snape days.... The last straw is when someone comes in for Watson, but good luck anyway.

That's all great but, having now become a "selling" club, you have become reliant on replacing the decent players that keep heading for the revolving door, which is ok while you can keep on finding quality replacements.
Watson had done a tremendous job but, one poor round of recruitment and things could get scary.
To a certain extent I know this is the case for all clubs but, there aren't many that can afford to keep losing their best players and keep bouncing back.

Tell us something we don't know!

TBH bar a couple of Koukash years & Brian Snape's tenure (which was before my time I might add!) we've always been a selling club. Books have to be balanced so if decent offers come in for players then we have to seriously consider them. Unfortunately, virtually no-one pays transfer fees these days so we don't even have the security of tying players down to long contracts and being suitably compensated if a "bigger" club comes in for them. They just run their contracts down and move on.

The fact is, even with a Grand Final appearance under our belt we don't have the RL fanbase that most SL clubs can rely on. It's all well & good being mocked by the rest of SL clubs for poor crowds but we're the only city/town in SL that has 2 footballing giants on the doorstep who are infinitely more successful than the local RL team. Local school kids don't grow up wanting to be Jonny Lomax / Liam Farrell / Jamie Jones-Buchanan.... they want to be Marcus Rashford or Sergio Aguero! Even Championship clubs have the potential for bigger crowds in most cases as they're located in historical RL strongholds.

Watson is a genius, he really is. Working with cast-off's from other teams and the way he brought Evalds on in leaps & bounds is testament to his coaching ability. If Watto goes then we're in deep trouble. It's just a shame that we can't get an extra 1500-2000 through the gates but I still struggle to see where those faces are gonna come from.

Tin-pot journalists are always leaking “news” on Twitter.
King didn’t make a statement, he took to social media and confirmed Evalds was leaving by relying to a tweet. That’s not the way for the director of a professional club should be communicating the departure of a star player, and turned what was speculation from a tin-pot journalist into something more newsworthy and therefore more widely reported.
Salford then had to put together a more professional statement to try and repair the damage.

The Mockers are surely in the minority. I take your point on having two world class Soccer clubs so close, but everyone doesn't just like Soccer. However my point here is if they like Rugby instead Salford and Sale are on each others doorsteps. Didn't Sale attract some good crowds to the A.J.Bell? I'd guess they depress your pulling power as well??

Totally different demographic. The posh lot from South Manchester watch Sale. Sure there are a few people (and we're probably talking double figures) that are interested in both but round here you'll get very few "crossover" fans. Not to mention the nearest top flight RU club to Sale is Leicester, so that gives you an idea of how large the catchment area is for attracting fans.

Btw, having lived in and around Salford for 41 1/2 of my 42 years then believe me football is very much king and only sustained success on the pitch for Salford will ever give us hope of building a fanbase big enough to allow us to compete financially with everyone else in SL.

And no, the mockers aren't in the minority. If we're being honest Salford are the team most other fans love to have a pop at (not just forum clowns like Stephanie LeBron

). It's pretty tiresome having to put up with the constant "what do Salford bring to the table with their sh*t crowds?" etc year after year. Fact is, if Widnes or Bradford got their act together 90% of RL fans would rather have them in SL than us. But it is what it is and we'll just keep plodding along pi$$ing everyone off with our sh*t crowds for as long as we can.

Did season ticket sales go up with you reaching the Grand Final ?

Thanks for that. It appears the move to the poorly accessible wasteland under the motorway shaved 2,000 off the fanbase. As for potential when they shut the Wiillows/Weaste? the last game played there hit 10,000 didn't it? Maybe many of them had United and City season tickets to pay for and only chose the very big games.

I can assure you the mockers are in the minority, if you're just counting the comments on the web sites......

11,000+ at the last game I think. It was rammed. But that was every Tom, Dick, Harry etc coming out of the woodwork for the game to say "I was there".

At the time I was living literally half a mile up the road. "The Willows" was easily accessible for locals & away fans (trams/buses/taxis from city centre).

There were local pubs and the club vault available on site for pre/post match beers.

Unfortunately the AJ Bell is accessible only by car (unless you want to do planes/trains/automobiles) so you lose a lot of the "match day experience"icon_wink.gif.

I loved The Willows, I really did. I went to high school 400 yards up the road and it got me into rugby league. It was "old school". My first girlfriend lived in a house that backed onto the ground, I spent many a Sunday afternoon drinking there as an (potentially) underage drinker.,



As for Utd/City fans choosing games I can't comment. I'm a Red from birth and I have very few RL supporting mates. You're either born into it or you're pushed into it IMO. I was, shall we say, "persuaded" by a free season ticket. Best (or worst) thing I ever did tbh or I wouldn't be debating 30 years of utter heartbreak with you lot if I'm honest!

Years ago I had to go on a course at Salford University and stay 4 days. One night it was Salford.v.Wigan when Wigan were usually unbeatable so I was made up being able to go to that. Salford won it and Tex Evans scored the winner IIRC. Great game great ground yes. Years before that saw a game there when Salford had Watkins and Fielding. Just WOW.

ALSO saw Blackpool Borough in their only major final there........