Castleford Tigers set to complete signing from Super League rivals

Castleford Tigers have had a very up and down off season but the overall trajectory of the club is certainly upwards.

The Tigers ended the season in 11th and had to contend with the blow that coach Danny Ward was not interested in staying at the club beyond the end of the season resulting in a search for a new coach resulting in the promotion of Craig Lingard from assistant to Head Coach and the arrival of Leeds Rhinos legend Danny McGuire.

The Tigers were very busy making some astute signings such as Luke Hooley, Sam Wood and Josh Simm but they also had to contend with a disappointing IMG grade, a failed appeal, up and down update on their redevelopment plan but all of that has been overshadowed by the excellent news of a new investor.

He may not be the last new face in at the club either. The Tigers could also be set to sign Luis Johnson who has been training with the club in recent weeks.

He was on loan at the club in 2023. Serious About Rugby League understands that the Tigers are likely to add one last player to their squad for 2024 as hinted at by their Head of Recruitment. This player is likely to be Johnson.

It is likely that the new investment helps this recruitment with the Tigers previously unable to spend the full cap.

On the investment from Martin Jepson, Mark Grattan, Managing Director said “It’s been a pleasure working with Martin to get the deal done over the past 6 months. It’s been no secret that we have been looking for investors and to bring new people into the club. Martin is exactly the kind of person we need to join us and the significant sum he has invested will help us to push the club forward over the coming years.”

Mark Grattan also went on to explain why there was a delay in announcing Martin after he was appointed on Companies House:

“Our financial year end was last Thursday 30th November, this will be the set of accounts that go towards our grading scores to determine Super League status in 2025, we had been working tirelessly behind the scenes to get the deal done before our financial year end on Thursday 30th November 2023. We managed to do this and the first part of Martin’s investment landed with us on that day to ensure that the funds counted towards owner investment points for the 2025 season. To ensure it counted, he needed to be a Shareholder and Director before the 30th November. We then had to wait for a few final pieces of due diligence to be completed before we could officially make the announcement which was the reason between the timings gap of Martin becoming a Director and us being able to make todays announcement.”