Salford

I wonder if we can convince them to take Lauaki and Tuson off our hands

Yep .... If Waney laughed when the original offer came in he must have sed himself when he saw that interview

I have only seen a very small snippet on the local BBC news this morning but am assuming that this is similar to the interview people are referring to. The people that make the news are journalists and will edit heavily and use words to introduce a piece that will portray whatever slant they want to the story.

The words the BBC news presenter used (every time) to introduce the clip were "says he doesn't understand why the offer was rejected". The connotation in that statement is that Dr Koukash thinks that any club should take the money and thinks that no club will want to keep their marquee players rather than cash in. This is followed by a clip of Dr Koukash saying that he made a serious offer and wishes for his club to be considered as a credible rival bidder against the NRL and RU. For such a clip a more apt introduction would be "Dr Marwan Koukash says that Salford are looking to bring in the best players and hopes that players will see the club as one that they wish to join"

The guy is probably frustrated as before trying to get Sam he has been turned down for Morley, Chase, Hock, Jacob Emmitt and I think a couple of others whose names escape me. He is likely to be wondering how he is supposed to do any squad building if all offers are rejected out of hand. He probably does not understand that the difficulty any club that did let a player go would have in getting a replacement will stop most from accepting an offer mid-season (no matter how big). He is new to the sport after all.

We also have a coach who, regardless of what you think about his record on the pitch, suffers from verbal 'brain-farts' when dealing with the media. Think back to last season when he did Wire's motivational talk for them and this pre season with his talk of preparing for life after Sam - resulting in even more media talk of him leaving us this year. Whether he did laugh when told of the offer or not, to say that he did to the press was a mistake and very disrespectful to the Salford club and all connected to it. The media as a result are always now asking Dr Koukash if he was serious about the bid. You can hardly blame anyone connected with Salford for being annoyed and speaking out about their club not being taken seriously.

While I agree with almost everything you say here, I feel that Salford are being extremely naive in the way they are going about this. It reminds me of Leeds under Dougie Laughton, who spent more money than Wigan in their attempts to build a top side, and yet never came close.

It can never just be about signing big names, especially not in the era of the Salary Cap.

Graham Lowe's comment about there being "a lot of things at this club that are broken" was very pertinent. Salford currently are a shadow of the great Salford of the 60s and 70s in so many ways. In Manchester, they occupy what's now almost an RL-free zone in terms of professional rivals, and yet they can't seem to attract any fans. So they need to get their marketing sorted out. In Phil Veivers they have a head coach who, for me, is a non-entity. That's something else they need to look at. In terms of playing personnel, they need to rebuild from the bottom up - that's what Wigan did in the early 80s, and only move for marquee players later on when they've re-established a reputation as credible contenders. Now that they've got bags more money, they've no excuse for not recruiting local starlets, and more importantly, for not hanging onto them.

The more unrealistic targets they move for at this stage, the more they'll be knocked back and the less seriously they'll be taken.

After all this publicity the real recruitng is going on.
They signed Gleeson and McGoldrick neither of whom had a club. They have also loaned Griffin who'd no future at Leeds. The two recruits from down under play this weekend.
First things first, they have to get their team into the top eight. Agar did it with Wakefield who's squad was made up generally of players whom no other club were interested in. Noble did it at Crusaders. Both made the top eight by this method. Salford are doing the same regardless of the publicity.
What obviously didn't occur to the good Dr is that at present, players under contract won't even think about going to Salford.
It's going to be a long hard slog for all of them at the SCS and I for one wish them the very best of luck.

I was about to post almost exactly the same.

I find it deeply sad that many on here are knocking the guy. He is prepared to bail out Salford, put money behind them and attract quality players into his side.

We should be applauding him rather than ridiculing him.

I disagree. With the right financial backing and the right signings you could take an Amateur RL club and turn it into a top 8 club within a year, such is the level of RL in this country outside the top 4.

I heard this on the news this morning. I'm afraid my first reaction was just laughter. I do wish him all the best in getting Salford up and running, but that interview was just painful.

Although in the car on the way to work this morning the newsreader said he'd attempted to sign Sam Watkins so maybe he got our Sam mixed up with someone else.

There's a bit of money in the game now, with a lot of clubs having rich backers. Decent stadia too. Let's bin (or revise seriously upwards) the salary cap and have some fun with the game.

and let some clubs go to the wall while the rich continue to dominate? spoke like to true idiot!!

So the Salary Cap has stopped clubs going bust and increased the number of teams likely to win trophies?

are you suggesting get rid of it so we can go back to the Halcyon days of one team dominating with all the money? surely not!lol

way round it would be let clubs spend over salary cap as long as less than 50 percent of turnover on players wages BUT.....every penny spent over the cap they put an equivalent amount into a central fund that all teams that spend under the cap get an equal share off.....That way the weaker teams are not holding the successful back and dumbing down the whole league as a result.

I am suggesting that we actually get some personalities brought into the game for publicity, bums on seats and column inches. This will also boost sponsorship, tv ratings and deals. If the good doctor wants to pay Greg Inglis or Chris Ashton (I don't know many Union players but you get the gist) top dollar to bump start his Salford revolution, why shouldn't he?

I agree but fundamentally there has to be some form of salery cap. Like the idea of a central pot. But to do away with it would be suicide! Gotta think more long term than short term with it

It's a good job you didn't sign him....You would only have lost him to warrington 12 months later anyway.

Unfortunately, the good Dr is coming over like an RL version of Venkys.
And look what happened to B'Burn Rovers.
Just saying like....

Sam has just phoned Dr flash the cash Koukas to say I have just seen how well you are doing against the Broncos so where do i sign?

A ? If the Dr deemed his bid for Sam genuine but failed to say anything about Chase or Morley. Were they not serious bids? joke bids?

Presumably just not seen as quite as insane as trying for Tomkins as another SL team. Though as far as I am aware the same can be said for Chase, thought he was stuck in Cas if he wants to play in the UK? Morley is a good shout though, and I'd be wary of them going for Hansen.

Doesn't matter, for 2 reasons:

1. We don't need any amount of money (i.e. We have no financial troubles).

2. Even if the club accepted a bid, the player himself would have to WANT to move. They can't just sell a player because they feel like it.
(And if the player wants to go then sod 'em. Don't want anyone here who isn't committed),

Coaching is not about how physically fit you are, it's about how you get across your ideas/plans, and as long as you can comunicate then i'd say you can still coach..so i would think Lowe can still cut it.

He's coming in, selling their best players and pocketing the cash?

he might do if they had any good players to sell...

Venky's did much more than that. For the good Dr to get any where near to them he needs to appoint a novice, get rid of all the players and let an agency run the club, allowing them to sign their players and get rid of all those who were not willing to let the new agency negotiate a new contract for them! And much, much, MUCH more. (i wont go into all that because we would be here for weeks!)