Quote ="The optimist"For me we have always been a big club but trapped or tombed in a small club , there has in the past been barriers which have prevented us reaching goals ie quality of player, lack of money, bad management and sometimes even lack of composure when undertaking new marketing strategies.
One by one the barriers have been jumped over and the club suddenly are starting to act and look like the real deal
New stadium starting to come out of the ground
Reaching out to new potential fans
Purchasing a better quality of player
current players begining to appear @ international level
Salford city reds starting to emerge from rugby league forgoten place to back amungst the top boys like the real glory days of the 70s
We arnt there yet there will be battles to be had and won before we get there but what a position to be in, to look forward and not back we're all doing it, previously people get dragged down with broken promises by the club but in many ways these broken promises may have been dress rehersals for this very moment when the spotlight falls on us again but this time it reaily matters .
The two factors which will make or break this journey (because success is a journey and not a destination ) are :
How will our old fans react to the new stadium appearing and all the positive news? The fans that have had their hearts ripped out with previous faliure and given it up as a bad job will they be willing to dip their toe in one more time?
Half a wiff of success and they'll be back dont you worry i just hope the club have the structures in place to deal with the potential stampeed and dont get bum rushed.
players, our players, the players who have been given the opportunity to represent salford city reds in this historic season how will they react to the added pressure of being involved in the emotional powder keg of the last season @ the willows.
It would be good if by november when they start preseason the likes of smithy and ste nash who arnt shy about having "ins"gets the message over that us fans look down our list of players and arnt embarrased about what we see, print out any emotional uplifting posts on here and stick them on the changing room wall help them become inspired and let them know we're with them from the "get go" and not just from february onward.
i just hope the whole salford city reds community (the club, the players, us, new fans, sponsors) just grab this opportunity and run with it and see where it takes us.'"
I see us as a small club in a big city area. We have the potential to grow there is no question about. We have talked about this for years and the move to the new stadium will be the biggest period in our lifetime of supporting the club.
To be a really big club we need so much more than having a shiny new stadium and potential supporters who may or may not show up if we start climbing the super league ladder.
Long term what the game in the area needs is a conveyor belt of locally produced players. The club depends on players from the amatuer clubs of Leigh, Widnes, Wigan, Oldham etc with Salford born and bred players few and far between. Maybe the new stadium and hopefully improved results will attract more local youngsters into playing the game at out local amatuer clubs. I really hope so as its no coincidence that the top clubs such as Wigan, Leeds, Saints and Hull have a good percentage of their squad drawn from their locality.
Until we have successful Salford junior and open age amatuer teams who can compete with the best from Wigan, Leigh and further afield consistantly I will always see the game in our city in the shadows of the 'bigger' clubs.
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