I feel the same.

Initially I was upset like everyone else, but in the cold light of day its a decision to help the club become sustainable and will be a short-term negative in hopes that a settled few seasons of 'success' will bring in the required money to restart it properly. It will effect the long term development of local talent though, and so is still a gamble. With more success on the field we will hopefully bring more revenue into the Club both from punters and business.

At the end of the day, we need more people through the turnstiles, and the lack of income has crippled the club. MK can't keep pouring his own money into our sinkhole.

I feel sorry for the current crop of lads caught in the middle, Carvell seems to be doing his best to ensure most of them carry on with other Clubs, and we're still running an academy in the university leagues.

Reality is a bitch sometimes.

The entire sport has been poorly financed and managed for years. You mention that Hunte neglected talent playing with local Salford clubs but surely had this been 'genuine talent' other clubs would have signed and developed them. I'm not defending the club but it seems the blame for lack of local junior talent always seems to be apportioned to Salford Red Devils rather than accepting it's extremely rare to find them, let alone develop them. I'm not saying the local junior lads are poor it's just they haven't had the elite qualities a Superleague club is looking for.

The question is can we afford the academy we want: The Dr has had too look at expenditure over the next year of more and like any business person, realised the outgoings had to be cut.
Or walk away.

MK as most defiantly divided opinions, however I would suggest the biggest drop in supporters attending as more to do with MK management style & less to do with our club being perennial under achievers.

Disagree, we were well down in attendances long before marwan turned up

It makes you wonder what happened to the vast majority of the 7200 that turned up on that cold February afternoon in 2014.

6 points last season taken from the club & the fan base admittedly from just over 4000 went to under 2000 that in my book is one hell of a drop. I do not blame all this on MK, however to say he as not had an affect on the clubs long term supporters I don't buy.

At Bradford the local community clubs had been neglected/ignored for years. The actual number of Bradford lads making it with the Bulls has been minimal over the years usually just the odd one every few years. This year we’ve promoted double figures. The first time that’s ever happened. It is possible at Salford but it requires patience. It doesn’t require a fortune. If we’re managing it on our meagre income outside SL then I can’t understand why MK can’t afford it.

Sounds like he's lost interest to me.

Its a different Kettle promoting to a Championship squad than a SL one. My take on this is that Marwan needs the club to run as a business, currently that business's income is too low so either the fans/sponsors come back in sufficient numbers to allow better choices going forward or the clothe must be cut accordingly. A couple of extra players is tangible in keeping a club in SL, without SL the Academies will die anyway. I fully support RFL run regional academies outside the top clubs to stop this happening again

I don't think he's lost interest, it's more likely he's getting sick of bankrolling the club and not seeing the progress he wants on and off the field. It's pleasing to read how Bradford are developing academy players but I think you have traditionally had a much better catchment area than us.

Youth setups don't generally produce immediately. They need years before they bear fruit. You have to bring through talent and it takes time. A 16 year old that signs may take 3-4 years before debut and then a few more before they "make it". You might only get one or two a year so it takes time to build up a side.

Think the Doctor lacked patience in this regard.

Ourselves and London do alright. Same at Newcastle.

I understand that but we've had an academy since year dot. The only academy players we have produced of any note are Jordan Turner, Stephan Ratchford, Theo Fages , Mark Sneyd and Niall Evalds. The problem is the few quality kids we develop over several years and give first team experience get snapped up by bigger clubs. To be honest I think we've had more success in the past picking up Wigan's youth players that couldn't break into their first team like Blakeley, Naylor, Reid, Gillfillan and Baines etc.

Think if your club had been run a bit better you may have hung onto the likes of Fages, Sneyd and Evalds. We're in the same boat. Where are Whitehead, the Burgesses, Bateman, Ferres, Kopczak, Atkins, Wardle, Cook, Patrick, Bridge etc now?

Despite that it's not a reason to give up. The conveyor belt has benefited us.

You do realise that the club being rated as a C academy (most of the rating refer to before Marwan arrived) means we CAN NOT RUN A U 16 TEAM for a period of four years. The ruling also means a reduction in relation to funding for the academy setup

Koukash has been here almost 4 years now hasn't he? How often do these ratings get reviewed and what is the criteria?

Four year cycle so our next grading is due in 2019.
The last one covered the period 2010 through 2014

Criteria includes education, welfare, facilites etc

So basically clubs that didn't have the resources to fund it, get a funding reduction for 4 years. Surely any change of ownership with the criteria fulfilled would prompt an immediate review?

Not so much financial more to do with quality but that usually comes down to finance.
Never grasped why if academies are about producing more players, why the rfl punish clubs by taking funding away which only impacts on young players

You would expect so but it doesn't
Equally Catalans got a top grading before they'd played a game and it won't change for 4 year's.

Is this different to the annual accreditation?

Perhaps is going to run a reserve/A team

Who knows?

We'll have to wait and see.