Ian Watson is staying tight-lipped about the identity of Salford’s big-name target.
The Red Devils’ head coach teased fans earlier this month when he said the club was looking to secure a high-profile signing, potentially during the current campaign.
But when pushed on the type of player he was looking at, Watson decided to straight-bat the question, saying simply: “I’ll keep it quiet for now.
“It’s something we’re looking forward to in the future. If it materialised this year that would be great. It’s something Bleasy (CEO Ian Blease) is working on.
“We understand we have to bring quality in to compete at top of the table. We need more of the Dan Sarginson’s and Kevin Brown’s, but at Salford it has to be for the right price too. Something was made open to us and we pursued it as something we could do moving forward.”
The fact that Salford are in a position to fund a star recruit will undoubtedly encourage the Red Devils’ faithful, who have seen many of their star players sold in recent years.
“Losing Marwan was a massive shock and as a result we had to go on with a stringent budget,” says Watson.
“But it’s probably put us in a strong position. Paul King, Andy Rosler when he came in, and Bleasy are trying to give us financial stability.
“Obviously the run to the Grand Final last year put us in a better position. Because of the work of people like Paul, we are stronger.
“When we spoke about extending my contract and going forward, we said we don’t want to be in just to play, we want to be in Grand Finals and to compete. To do that you have to get up to full salary cap to sign high-quality players and they cost a bit. Paul is working really hard to generate that income.”
In the meantime, Watson admits that clubs need to review the timeline around speaking to out-of-contract players from other clubs.
As it stands, clubs can offer deals to players from other clubs out of contract at the end of the year from May 1st. However, Watson believes that may be changed because of the suspension of the season.
“We have quite a few of our players off and we’re in a situation where we are trying to sort players out, but how far should we look forward?
“With the season hopefully getting extended, will that deadline change? That may be right down the list of priorities that CEOs are trying to sort out now, but it needs looking at eventually.”
