London Irish will keep on spending to bounce back to Premiership
London Irish chief executive Brian Facer has pledged that the club will continue to act as a Premiership outfit in terms of recruitment even though they have been relegated for the second time in three years.
Facer insists that there will be no swingeing cuts as London Irish drop into the Championship although Mick Crossan, the chairman, has been looking to attract new investment to the Exiles.
The aim is to bounce straight back into the Premiership, as Bristol have done with a budget devised to do just that. “We want to be a Premiership club so we are going to look to stay as a Premiership club and keep pushing ourselves forward on that basis,” Facer said.
“It is not about de-scaling ourselves. It is about upscaling ourselves. Every club is looking for more investment.
“Of course you are going to be a bit leaner in certain areas because the commercial revenues are going to be hit but, yes, we are not looking to economise on how we operate.
“We should be looking at what happens when we get back into the Premiership and make sure that we can secure ourselves there.
“You have got to guarantee to get yourself back up, which means that you have got to keep spending money. You have to make sure that you have enough firepower to get yourself through it. And then you have to make sure you do the job on the pitch and you can’t do that by taking shortcuts. We are not going to do that. We are going in with our eyes wide open and in the understanding this is going to be the hardest Championship I can remember in my 12 years in the sport.”
Facer is well aware that other clubs will come looking for their prize assets, such as wing Joe Cokanasiga, who has been included in England training camps.
“Joe is a massive asset to us and we have not yet had that conversation with him,” said Facer, mindful that London Irish nurtured the likes of Jonathan Joseph and Anthony Watson only for them to move to Bath.
“For us, it is about making an environment that players want to be a part of. We have five England Under-20 players and we are opening a new academy centre next year.”
There is uncertainty as to where London Irish might be playing. They have eight years left on their contract with the Madejski Stadium but have been exploring options, with a proposed new stadium with Brentford FC in west London.
“We are not shy about expressing an interest in moving back to London where there is an Irish population and connection,” said Facer. “A move back would probably give us the audience which has been lying dormant for some time.
“Brentford is due to open in 2020 but we wouldn’t do anything that was a breach of contract [with Reading]. We want to make sure we are not a boom-bust kind of organisation. We want to look back on our 125th anniversary in 2023 with a different view from the one we have now.”