MARC SNEYD is a hero at the Salford Red Devils, but it almost never was the case.
Ahead of the 2022 Super League season, Sneyd returned to his boyhood club Salford after seven years at Hull FC.
The halfback had come through the ranks at the Lancashire side, debuting in 2010 and going to make 50 appearances before bursting onto the scene with Castleford Tigers during a one-year loan spell in 2014.
That year, Sneyd helped the Tigers make the Challenge Cup Final and almost steered Daryl Powell’s side to top spot in Super League.
Despite the halfback’s form, Salford still couldn’t guarantee a first-team spot if he did return at the end of 2014.
“It probably was just after the halfway point in the season where Salford started checking in with me,” Sneyd told the Trot The Egg In podcast.
“I didn’t hear anything from Salford up until I was playing well basically. The Marwan Koukash situation was pretty much in full flow and I think they had Michael Dobson, Rangi Chase and Tim Smith so I was basically told I wouldn’t be a starter even if I went back anyway.
“I didn’t want to go playing week in, week out at Cas to then sitting on the bench at Salford. I felt I had crossed that point and then I spoke with Marwan.
“He wanted me to sign a contract extension even though I wasn’t going to be a starter. To tell you the truth, I didn’t look at the contract, I had made the decision that I didn’t want to be there.”
Sneyd then opened up about his next move of putting in a transfer request after speaking to his agents.
“The whole rigmarole came around that the put a big fee on my head that no one was going to pay and I still had one year left on my contract.
“So, Ian Blease used to be my agent along with Gary Lloyd, I was sat speaking with him and Gary and I put a transfer request in. Gary is a football agent and is well known with Sky Sports.
“I have gone in and handed a transfer request in and my agent has phoned Sky Sports to tell them and I’m on the bottom of the screen that I handed one in. Luckily enough Hull were more than happy to sign me up.
“Someone typed up the request and I’ve signed it. It’s an official request to leave and I handed it over to Martin Vickers at the time and didn’t say much.”
As a result, the Red Devils then slapped a £100,000 fee on Sneyd to lure him away from the club – only Hull FC were willing to do so.
“I don’t think Marwan was very impressed but I didn’t want to waste two years sat on the bench. I wanted to carry on playing.
“There weren’t really any other clubs that were willing to pay the figure they put on me. It was just over £100,000.
“I thought I’d be going from a Challenge Cup Final with Cas to playing in the reserves with Salford with that figure.”
So how did then Hull FC coach, Lee Radford, sell the club to Sneyd?
“I spoke to Radders, he sold the direction of the club to me. I think they had signed Leon Pryce at the same time as me. Things were changing at the club.
“They were going through a transition period which every team needs to do when they get new halfbacks. The direction Rads wanted the club to go in, I was sold on it.
“After being told Hull were interested, I don’t think it took that long for me to go over there and sign.”
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