CASTLEFORD TIGERS intend to increase their playing budget year-on-year for the next your seasons, according to managing director Mark Grattan.
The Super League club are not spending at full cap in 2024, following a major squad overhaul which has seen eleven players signed and 18 depart since the end of last season.
“We’ve got a squad plan in place for the next four years if we do what we feel will happen and each year it will increase the squad spend,” Grattan told The COYFCast podcast.
“We have to make sure first and foremost that we have a team here that will be young and enthusiastic and put a smile on peoples’ faces.
“What the money (from new director Martin Jepson) does is stabilise us after a terrible TV deal and allows us to increase our squad spend.
“We had Luis Johnson on trial and without that investment we would have been thinking twice if we committed that money to Luis.
“If someone else comes up that fits in the model of what we are trying to do then we would have a look at that. Extending the young lads like Fletcher Rooney is a priority as well.”
Grattan, meanwhile, is not making any big predictions, emphasising that the 2024 squad is completely different to the one from 2023.
“It’s a tough one because you can trip yourself up at this point. It’s a real different atmosphere this year to what it was last year. We were giving the kit out and you’re thinking you are looking at some big athletes. They are all lean, fast and fit.
“I have been thinking it’s a different team to what we have ever seen before. I think for me, they will go out there with a point to prove and give everything for the club and the town.
“Secondly if we get to that stage where we are in with a shout of a play-off spot, I think that will be a tremendous season and a real turnaround from last season.
“The key to is that if we do that, they have another year and 20/25 Super League games under their belt which will make them stronger for the year after.”
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