472 replies to this topic

[Pottsy]

I'd be happy seeing the Red Devil brought babk

[Segovia Carpet]

I'd be happy seeing the Red Devil brought babk

Me too

[Segovia Carpet]

Also Sale Sharks are doing their best to lose the `Sale` from their monika. Should Salford do the same and be called `City Reds`? Not for me but the title would please Man C & Man U fans I suppose.

[Pottsy]

Sale's attempts to drop their prefix is causing uproar which is surprising given how few of their fans have any tangible link with Sale.

[MikeTommo]

I too would support the moniker of 'Red Devils' returning but in conjunction with Salford, not instead of,

[keighley]

Pedant mode: Arsenal is a shortened version of their original name, Woolwich arsenal, due to its location next to the old Gun making facility, known as the Arsenal. They moved to North London from Woolwich sometime in the 1800's i think. Pedant mode off. apologies..

I say keep them as Salford and adopt the old moniker of 'Red Devils'.

You are correct but they dropped Woolwich from their title and moved away from there and so the word arsenal had no connection with an area or anything to link it to London and none of those facts have prevented the club being a huge success.

[PhillH]

Sorry to be picky, but Eccles has been in Salford since before I was born. Moreover, the ground is actually in Barton (which is also in Salford).

Only if you allow the post 1974 Boundary Commission to define community with its lines. It just so happens Eccles and Salford fall within the administrative boundary of the same local authority, which in my opinion does not make them part of the same place. The Boundary Commission does these things on the basis of a numbers game, nothing more. The two places are geographically and culturally entirely seperate communities.

In the same way Leigh is not in Wigan. Featherstone and Castleford are not in Wakefield. Radcliffe is not in Bury. Bootle is not in Southport. Horwich is not in Bolton.

Salford City Stadium being just one strand of a determined campaign by John Merry to socially engineer the meaning of what makes up Salford. I for one will never agree with him and frankly believe the whole "IN Salford" thing was a totally unnecessary vanity project on his behalf that has done a lot of damage to civic pride in the areas he's tried to annex.

[keighley]

Only if you allow the post 1974 Boundary Commission to define community with its lines. It just so happens Eccles and Salford fall within the administrative boundary of the same local authority, which in my opinion does not make them part of the same place. The Boundary Commission does these things on the basis of a numbers game, nothing more. The two places are geographically and culturally entirely seperate communities.

In the same way Leigh is not in Wigan. Featherstone and Castleford are not in Wakefield. Radcliffe is not in Bury. Bootle is not in Southport. Horwich is not in Bolton.

Salford City Stadium being just one strand of a determined campaign by John Merry to socially engineer the meaning of what makes up Salford. I for one will never agree with him and frankly believe the whole "IN Salford" thing was a totally unnecessary vanity project on his behalf that has done a lot of damage to civic pride in the areas he's tried to annex.

And Swinton was it's own enitity also and I think I read that Salford moved in and annexed a rather nice town hall

[The Parksider]

1. Eventually, I knew you'd manage to get something right, Parky

2. If the game can afford to wave bye bye to a core support of 5,500 (and a latent support of similar size) then good luck to them.
But do you really think there are a similar number of supporters in Manchester ready and waiting to fill the void?

1. I only came up with that after reading an inspirational article on half of page 27 of this weeks league Express.

he's good that Andrews bloke

2. In 1977 Salford were the second best supported club in the league. They stopped wining things and sank slowly to become a yo-yo also ran team. In Superleague they've really done nothing except let some big scores in embarrassing their fans and had to sit back whilst big clubs take their best players.

Fans just don't want that, and no amount of "marketing" is going to alter it because fans aren't dumb and know what they want. When the Willows closed they wanted to go see the old ground for the last time and you got a taste of the latent support. I don't think there's another 5,000 fans just waiting to come back - maybe a thousand or two.

But its half about the old fans and half about the new. Certainly there's big numbers of fans who are new to the top SL clubs and who enjoy top class RL, but top class RL stops around half way down the Superleague.

Salford can easily draw the 8,000 fans they need to break even all this new guy has to do is buy some top players.......

Oh dear. They are all taken and this new guy can't outbid those clubs who have them all because of the cap.

Edited by The Parksider, 09 January 2013 - 07:35 PM.

[Exiled Wiganer]

Good players often become available over the course of a season, though. There are some great players in the championships who can be bought, plus, sadly, you can bet on at least on other club being short of cash during the season and potentially open to offers. Maybe not year one, but it is eminently possible to put together a good side within 12 months, spending up to the cap and willing to pay transfer fees when, sadly, a fair few clubs can't afford to pay that much.

[Steve May]

Arsenal are a huge maga soccer club but the name "Arsenal" does not denote that they are a london club ior even that they are a North London vlub and it is not the name of any geographical location in London. I don't think rebranding them "London Arsenal" or "Highbury Arsenal" would add anything to their allure or marketing and supporter recruitment potential.

In fact, and I've live 5 minutes of the Highbury ground for several years in total, the area has in some ways come to be known as "Arsenal". Maybe it's because of the tube station (which was named after the club) but I reckon more people in London would be able to place "Arsenal" as a place than "Highbury".


It's a lovely part of the World BTW. I hugely enjoyed my time there. If I ever went back to live in London, it would be somewhere round there. It's the part of London I feel at home.

[TheMancunianCandidate]

Having watched Salford home and away from the early 70's, and having lived in the City all my life, I reckon more than 50% of the supporters would find something else to do rather than watch their team change their name to Manchester. Manchester, being a football City, would not replace those fans. It really gets on my nerves when people who know nothing about living in Salford keep bringing up this suggestion. Manchester and Salford are seperated by the river Irwell, but it might as well be the Atlantic ocean! Sure, some Salford fans will come on and say they would still follow the team as Manchester, but they would lose more than they gain. Mancunians ARLFC seeem to be doing a great job of promoting RL in the City of Manchester. Give them more support and let them carry on the good work they are doning and leave Salford alone.

That's very nice of you to say that. Thank you.
We'd welcome more support of course!

[PhillH]

Having watched Salford home and away from the early 70's, and having lived in the City all my life, I reckon more than 50% of the supporters would find something else to do rather than watch their team change their name to Manchester. Manchester, being a football City, would not replace those fans. It really gets on my nerves when people who know nothing about living in Salford keep bringing up this suggestion. Manchester and Salford are seperated by the river Irwell, but it might as well be the Atlantic ocean! Sure, some Salford fans will come on and say they would still follow the team as Manchester, but they would lose more than they gain. Mancunians ARLFC seeem to be doing a great job of promoting RL in the City of Manchester. Give them more support and let them carry on the good work they are doning and leave Salford alone.

By your logic nobody from the Salford side of the "Atlantic Ocean", as you call it, would ever take a trip across "the pond" to watch Manchester United or Manchester City on a regular basis then.



Get real!!!!

[The Daddy_merged]

I would be for rebranding the club to Manchester.....the sport needs a strong Manchester club and Salford have the potential to fill that void.

[Johnoco]

It's ludicrous to pretend the club are Manchester, they aren't. A waste of time to even think about it. There's nothing wrong with Salford that a few quid and a bit of success won't solve. Oh, and a new stadium; that new one in the middle of nowhere is terrible.

[Red Willow]

What is this based on? I think you'll find more Salfordians out in Manchester on a Friday and Saturday night than knocking around Salford Precinct. It's about 20 minutes walk to Manchester town centre from there. I've always viewed Salford as more of an extension of Manchester than an independent city. That's no criticism of the place or its facilities but with Manchester joined to your hip you'd have to be pretty pigheaded and stubborn to not take advantage of the shops, pubs, clubs etc. just a stone's throw away. I know a lot of proud Salfordians but not one that harbours any bitterness towards Manchester, most have even moved to Manchester, usually due to work.

If you had read my post you will see that a number of sports have tried to cash in on the Manchester name Basketball and Ice Hockey being the first 2 that spring to mind. (Giants and Storm) After the initial set up when huge sums of money were thrown at the resepctive sports both clubs failed and now Manchester Phoenix attract a small band of fans to the ice hockey.

There are 2 RU clubs in the Greater Manchester area. One called Manchester and one called Sale. Which gets the greater number of fans? the one that has money thrown at it and achieves the success, and that isn't the club called Manchester.


As for work in the community, Salford are doing some great work in Trafford with the schools and have also gone into a number of high schools in Manchester, this for me is the area that money will make a difference.

There is a Cas fan that teaches in Manchester and he speaks highly of the support he received from the Reds. They have also gone into the Children's hospital at Christmas.

We should make more of the Original Red Devils tag.

The Reds is a long term investment which can reap great rewards for both RL and Salford as a club but it needs new blood and a modern approach.

[PhillH]

There are 2 RU clubs in the Greater Manchester area. One called Manchester and one called Sale. Which gets the greater number of fans? the one that has money thrown at it and achieves the success, and that isn't the club called Manchester.

There are many, many more than 2!

Broughton Park, Sedgley Park, Eccles, Tyldesley, Leigh, Orrell.......

[Exiled Wiganer]

Way off topic, but somebody mentioned that Horwich was not in Bolton. That brought back very poignant memories of the Jack Robinson proposal to build a new stadium at Horwich, after CP was knocked down. I recall standing on my feet at the shareholders' meeting shouting "Horwich is in Bolton". Who knows - had I done my research then, the course of Wigan's history could have been changed.
Incidentally, if I were a betting man, I would put my money on there being a deal done and this working out very well indeed for Salford.
Be great to see the Red Devils with money behind them. Sign Fielding's son tomorrow!

[Bulliac]

I'd be happy seeing the Red Devil brought babk

Wasn't the 'Red Devil' trade mark, famously sold to United a few years back, with Salford then becoming the 'Reds'? Or is this one of those urban myths?

[The Parksider]

Good players often become available over the course of a season, though. There are some great players in the championships who can be bought, it is eminently possible to put together a good side within 12 months, spending up to the cap and willing to pay transfer fees when, sadly, a fair few clubs can't afford to pay that much.

Holdsworth and Moon became available and went up to two of the top six clubs, Hull and Leeds

I'm hard pressed to think of many great players who suddenly become available, and yes they can be levered with a transfer fee, but again that's the sort of thing Warrington and Wigan can and do do.

I'm hard pressed to think of any good side that's been put together in 12 months? At very short notice Nobby built a Crusaders and Agar built a Trinity both of whom made the play offs. Were these good sides? Or were they poor sides who simply did better than their equivalents scrubbing around outside the top half of the table.