NEV HITS BACK!

Salford owner responds as critics take a pop at summer spending spree

GARY NEVILLE has defended Salford City’s spending after the National League new boys came under fire for their big summer signings.

In an interview with the Ammies’ YouTube channel, the ex-England international – who co-owns the club with former Manchester United team-mates Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Phil Neville and Nicky Butt as well as businessman Peter Lim – responded to the criticism they’ve received following this week’s captures of Peterborough’s Danny Lloyd and Aberdeen striker Adam Rooney.

It led to Accrington Stanley owner Andy Holt accusing the club of trying to “steal” a place in the Football League.

Neville said: “In terms of other people’s opinions, I suggested on twitter to the Accrington Stanley owner that he was suggesting franchise football.

“The idea you’re stealing positions, which is what was suggested, of clubs in the Football League... the football Pyramid in this country is one of the great things. We have a

football Pyramid that means teams can go very much from the very bottom to the very top.

“When you think of Wimbledon going up all those years ago with the investment that went into the club it was seen as a fairy tale.

“When you think of Jack Walker and the great work he did at Blackburn investing in his local community, he was lauded for it, and rightly so. It was one of the great fairytale stories of the Premier League beating our Manchester United team on the last day of the season. It was one of my great disappointments.

“But that was Jack Walker, who smashed British transfer records at the time and people said, ‘Where’s this money coming from?’ It was coming from the pockets of a gentleman who wanted to invest into his local football club.

“We’ve done that over the last four seasons along with our co-owner – we’ve matchfunded. So I can’t see why people would have a problem with it. The idea is we could sit there after playing our football career, sit at home, sit on television, get paid for it and extract from the game.

“The money we’re putting back is actually into the game, into the players, into the club, into the fans.”

Neville pointed out the club now have a new stadium, an academy, a women’s team and also subsidise away fan travel.