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Gary Neville has opened up on the plans he and David Beckham have for Salford City after completing their takeover of the club.
Beckham and Neville led a new consortium that gained control of the League Two outfit earlier this month, buying out their former Class of 92 team-mates Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Phil Neville after major backer Peter Lim stepped away from his ownership position last year.
The Class of 92s arrival in 2014 had previously taken Salford from the Northern Premier League Division One North to the EFL in five years, but they have remained in League Two ever since – and finished eighth this season.
Beckham and Neville will be joined in their ownership by Declan Kelly, founder of US-based advisory firm Consello, and Lord Mervyn Davies, chairman of the Lawn Tennis Association. The new group are targeting Championship football within five years.
They have already made a splash, with Salford, who are managed by Karl Robinson, releasing 17 players in a brutal reshuffle after missing out on the play-offs.
And, speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet, Neville gave further insight on the plans he and Beckham have for the club.
Gary Neville has opened up on the plans he and David Beckham have for Salford City
Beckham and Neville led a new group that gained control of the League Two club this month
Beckham and Neville had previously been involved in Salford but bought out old team-mates Ryan Giggs (third right), Phil Neville (second left), Paul Scholes (left) and Nicky Butt (third left)
‘Shares in a football club for most owners, other than the passion and the feelings you get from it, you’re a reliability from an investment perspective more than an asset,’ Neville said.
‘We’ve put money into Salford and in January we just thought we needed to get a group of people involved, who we could trust.
‘Me and Becks [David Beckham] agreed that we would put money in for the next four or five years, which is a commitment we’ve all made.
‘Salford City won’t be changing the budget – to reverse out of the model we already have, you need two or three years.
‘You can’t go from investing to becoming sustainable that quick – you need to look at players contracts for three years and you’ve generally got a model that you’ve built which you can’t come away from.’
A high profile ownership group is not new, with other examples like Wrexham and Birmingham prominent in the EFL over recent times.
Wrexham have earned three successive promotions from the National League to the Championship under celebrity backers Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, while the Blues – where NFL icon Tom Brady is a minority owner – romped to the League One title this season and have ambitious plans for the future.
However, Neville claimed his group would be different and also insisted that supporting the local community would be a key part of their aims.
Neville claimed their ownership model would be different to that of Wrexham’s recent rise
Salford came eighth in League Two last season and have been in the division for six years
Neville also defended his record and expressed a desire to make Salford an affordable club
The Manchester United legend added: ‘We just need to change the model of the club slightly, in fact quite a bit. It’s very different than Wrexham and Birmingham [City] – you’re talking about millions going into those clubs.
‘That’s not what we’re looking to do with Salford. We want Salford to be a good football project.
‘Salford City has the cheapest ticket prices in the EFL. On day one, I committed to the fans that we would be the most affordable and accessible football club. I’d rather go down than do that [be unsustainable].’
Meanwhile, Neville has occasionally faced criticism for the lack of progress at Salford in recent times, with The Ammies having been stuck in League Two for the past six years.
During that time, Salford have only qualified for the play-offs on one occasion, and they have never finished higher than seventh, yet Neville defended his record.
‘The money we have spent on our football club [Salford City] we could have easily bought a League One club,’ Neville explained. ‘The reason we didn’t is, we wanted to build a football club from scratch. They had 100 fans at the time.
‘Every fan that comes to Salford we respect enormously but they are there because of the things that we’ve done in the last ten years, which is a great position for us as owners to be in.
‘We can’t be accused of lacking spirit, fight, or putting money where our mouths is.
‘We can never be accused of that at Salford because we haven’t got 10,000 fans that have been there for a long time that have an opinion that’s based on history.’
Gary Neville was speaking on the The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet.
