I am a supporter of 51 years,and apart from the late 60s, 70s these times are as good as it gets for Salford fans. I will also state, what we all know that without Mr Wilkinson we would not have a team to support, and for that I will always be thankful. What concerns me is that when people were needed to write letters to public bodies, to write to M.P.s,to attend planning meetings, we the fans were contacted and encouraged to attend and kept informed of how the process was moving,however now the silence is deafening.I appreciate that there may well be nothing to say, but surely the fans deserve at least somebody at the club making a statement,even if no information is available. I don't usually listen to rumours but the one I heard at the final, is that the club are no longer talking to the local Advertiser,because of the recent article regarding the new stadium, is this the case? if so what was in there that wasn't true? PLEASE can we have some information

Completely agree.
We would not be here without JW.
That does not mean that he can do no wrong.
If he really has sent the Advertiser to Coventry because they have given a factual update that should have come from him then he is just plain out of order.
Great deal of respect for JW,and he owes us very little, but he does owe us an update that will not be shown to be erroneous when all the facts come to light as they surely will,particularly with regards to Red City Developments.
Come on,John,don't shy away when the explanations become difficult!!

It's blatantly obvious to me that the club are waiting for Peel Holdings to reach an agreement with the administrator before they can make any official statement on the future progress of the stadium.

As for the local advertiser lets not go making assumptions that JW is out of order based on a chinese whisper on the terraces!

No doubt there will be a reason's the club are keeping tight lipped at this stage and I'm sure they will tell us more when they are in a position to do so!

Oh thats OK then,I feel better now!

Suggest the Chairman could say that if its that obvious

Do you not read the newspapers?

Thought he'd stopped talking to them!

I don't know why I bothered responding to you question in the first place as you're obviously the kind of person that just likes moaning and whinging about anything and everything just for the sake of it!

What more is there know at this stage? We have been told that Red City were put in administration because one of the shareholders had financial difficulties and due to this the development company needed to be restructured. We also know that Peel Holdings will be building the stadium to a high standard but before they do they will have to negotiate a deal with the administrator?

Please tell me what more can be said at this stage?...am I missing something? I'm as frustrated as any other fan with the delay but lets not start unfairly criticising the very people that have worked so hard to make this dream become a reality!

very well said.

Nothing could be further from the truth.
I deplore whingers and moaners,particularly those in the Shed who slag off the players for lack of effort and commitment,many of whom have never played the game.
My point relates to the blind faith, and the fact that any questioning of JW is regarded as 'criticism' or whinging.
He has done a fantastic job over the years.
I hope your middle paragraph is correct ,I really do, but I repeat that it would be good to hear something from JW,rather than his subordinates.

Surely,if it is correct that he is upset with the Advertisor and retaliating towards them for simply reporting the facts, then that is wrong.

Dismissing contributors to the Turkey who do not accept that your confidence that all is OK , is not that clever either!

I'm with teddington red on this one. I'm sure lots of fans would sleep easier if we were to get just a one paragraph statement from JW about the current situation.

Redshed, just because a fellow poster does not have the same positive view as you, should not lead to a name calling. Take someone's alternate view on the chin.

Let's have a heated debate?!?!?

Mostly done on here, it generally doesn't happen in the real world!

I think the club are more than a little embarrassed about what has happened since the Franchise announcement. How long ago was it that JW was pictured with a hard hat on as the work began - looks like a smoke screen to me.

Days after Fanchise announcement, Red City goes into admin - no problem though, just one director wanting out, standard practice we are all told.

JW even said on the radio after NL1 grand final that stadium would be there by 2010. I just can't see it myself.

Peel will build it, it will be to a high standard because it will have the Peel name on it, plus it is the bargaining chip for the Race course, they will deliver by 2010, whats happening now is most likely to be with commercial confidence and awarding of contracts and tenders.

Have we ever known Peel to fail?

No

The more I think about it the more I think we're going to end up coming out of this in a very bad position. If we end up with a lego stadium without any peripheral businesses that rented to us by Peel then we can kiss goodbye to any prospects of winning anything for at least the next 20 years. We'll never attract new fans by having a HJ style stadium as people will just presume that Salford City have moved up in the world or that United have built a stadium for the reserves to play in. We all know that I've got more chance of growing wings than Salford have of attracting attendances in the xx,000s so without extra revenue streams we won't even be able to spend up the salary cap.

Peel are only interested in us for the short term because they know we can help them with Port Salford and the Racecourse. After that we're worth nothing to them and that is a very dangerous position for us to put ourselves in.

I'd rather wait three or four years for the Banking crisis to finish and for finance to become cheaper and to then have another look at building the original stadium. Getting thrown out in 2012 would be worth it for the longer term benefit.

The only mention of our stadium I can find on Peels website is a press statement from 2004 when they were looking at building a casino.

Personally I think this is a company with serious delusions of grandeur, and they are the one party in all this I really don't trust. There are numerous grandiose infrastructure projects on their website but my personal favourite is described thus, "The visionary scheme will see Liverpool become one side of the ocean gateway to the North West, an international waterside destination to rival cities such as Dubai, Vancouver, New York and Shanghai.", from their press release dated 6th March 2007.

Sorry but the club have been hopeless with the updates. JW is not infalliable therefore he, like any human can make mistakes and even keep stumm.

Well said.
Come on ,John,just tell us how you see it

According to the geordie fan, he was spounting on the train back from Warrington that it starts october 14th

I’m a bit wary about the timeline for when Salford have to leave The Willows. The ground will be sold; it just depends on whether there’s a deadline. If there is, that might scupper waiting for the Banking sector to improve. Also, there‘s no guarantee that the price of raw materials will flatten out. So it’s a pretty big catch-22 situation.



I doubt many of us believe they have the trusts of the club at heart. What we do know is that they don’t muck about. The speed in which they are throwing up Media City is testament to that. I just hope they don’t find a way to get what they ultimately want without the hinderance of building our stadium.





In the words of Manuel: ‘¿Que?’

i seen 2 guys with hard hats and high vis jackets on walking across the site on my way home at about half 2 ish today! first bit of movement i've seen on there for months!

That's akin to listening to Comical Ali about the fall of Baghdad!

Agreed the club need to come out and clarify what the current situation is, I think people will be able to accept the scaling down of the project and whatever other developments there are, it's the lack of communication that gets people annoyed.

Hope to have John Wilky at a Forever Reds meeting in the not too distant future & hopefully he will be able to clarify some of your questions. He has got a pretty full diary over the next couple of weeks including some evening/night meetings, but as soon as he has got a free Monday evening he will get in touch to arrange to come along .
Will inform on here when he has been in touch.

Im more sure of him & me winning slimmer couple of the year than him knowing that info

Lmao Shirl