AMMIES AIM FOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Class of 92 want Salford City to race through pyramid following promotion
SALFORD City’s ‘Class of 92’ owners are targeting a second successive promotion for the club this season as they continue in their long-term quest to break into the Football League.
United legends Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers took over at Salford last year.
Their first campaign at the helm saw their first objective achieved as the Ammies won promotion as champions in English football’s eighth tier.
And ahead of Salford’s new campaign – which starts on Saturday at home to Marine, Scholes said: “We do want to be a Football League team, and however long that takes, hopefully we’ll still be here.
“I think the goal at the start was to get promoted in the first year and I don’t think we really looked much beyond that. Now we have managed to do that, we want to do the same again this season.
“We know it won’t be easy to get up the leagues because there are a lot of other clubs who want to do that as well. But we’ll work as hard as we can.
“Salford is a massive place – I think one of the biggest cities without a Football League club. We want to change that.”
Scholes was speaking in Manchester, alongside Giggs and Butt, at the launch of ‘Class of 92: Out of their League’ – a threepart documentary that will be screened on the BBC in September and tells the story of their first season with club.
The road to promotion was not without difficulties, with manager Phil Power being sacked in January and replaced by Anthony Johnson.
And Giggs said: “If we felt we were underachieving, as owners we would do something about it. When you dip below what you’re capable of, questions need to be asked.”
There was also scepticism from fans about the direction the club might take after Singaporean businessman Peter Lim assumed a 50 per cent stake in the Ammies early in the season, with the Class of 92’s share becoming 10 per cent each.
Giggs stressed that development was key to his and his former United team-mates’ vision for Salford, and insisted Lim could be trusted.
‘It won’t be easy but we do want to be a Football League team’
Salford City celebrate winning the Evo-Stik League last season following the Class of ‘92s take over of the club
“Our aspirations are to be in the football league and have a 25,000-seater stadium,” Giggs, the current United assistant manager, said.
“We can’t do that (on our own) - we needed someone like Peter’s investment, his expertise business-wise.
“We know it is going to get more and more difficult, but that is the aspiration, and to do that we needed someone we knew, who we could trust and who could help us.”