The results do speak for themselves and there is
clearly something wrong inside the camp. But was sacking a good coach who has
stuck by the club through some extremely difficult times recently, really the
right answer?
When Marwan Koukash took over at the club recently,
a lot of positives were raised about such a rich man coming into rugby league
and the benefits this could be bring but after the above decision was made, has
the shine been taken off this particular take over and it’s worth to rugby
league?
The rumour is that Salford wants Australian coach
Tim Sheens to replace Veivers. This raises the first issue about trying to keep
English players and coaches in the game. Shouldn’t he be looking at bringing in
an English coach? Will Sheens want to bring with him or sign up a lot of
overseas players? Rugby league desperately needs to develop home grown players
to compete internationally so is this move causing the English game to take a
step back?
On the other hand, Sheens is a good coach and that
is what Salford needs. If fortunes can change on the field then they will also
improve off the field. With worries about crowd figures amongst other things,
this is vitally important and would be a boost to Super League.
However, you could argue that instead of replacing
the coach, if they spent the money on possibly buying better players and improving
training facilities for example, could that same effect still not have been
achieved under Phil Veivers?
There was also the revelation recently that Koukash
wanted to sign Sam Tomkins, a seemingly insane request, not least because of
the salary cap. However, my guess is that this was just a publicity stunt, a
way of grabbing people’s attention and that is exactly the effect it had. Is
that not what we need in this sport, a character that is making headlines and
drawing people to our game?
All in all, what is important here is that Koukash
invests long-term in Salford. The last thing we want is for their troubles to
be repeated and more bad press for rugby league. Yes, the sacking of Veivers
was harsh but they know what they are doing and if they can make the changes
and see results, then that is not just good for Salford but for rugby league as
a whole.
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