‘Deeply regrettable’ – What Jon Wilkin said about the Salford Red Devils saga

Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has described the entire Salford Red Devils saga as “deeply regrettable” in the wake of the club’s takeover being confirmed.

The Red Devils have been in financial woe since November which is when the club asked for an advance on their central funding, something that the RFL granted.

Salford had a £1.2 million salary cap restriction imposed upon them and that remained in place for their Super League opener against St Helens. Consequently, Paul Rowley named a squad comprising almost entirely of reserve players in an act that Wilkin compared to “throwing the teddies out”.

Fast forward a week and the Red Devils have confirmed that their takeover has been approved with Rowley able to name his stars to face Leeds Rhinos this weekend, whilst Wilkin has had his say on the whole Salford saga.

“It’s a deeply regrettable situation from all sides isn’t it,” Wilkin argued on Sky Sports‘ coverage of Wakefield Trinity versus Hull KR.

“We don’t want to see any club struggle, I think Salford clearly have been in a cash flow issue for months now and the game bailed them out.”

Jon Wilkin praises RFL for Salford Red Devils actions

Fingers were pointed in different directions regarding last week’s fiasco that saw Salford name a squad almost entirely made up of youngsters with that team being beaten 82-0, a Super League record margin of defeat.

On that, Wilkin argued: “I honestly believe Paul Rowley will regret his decision to field that team in Round One. I think he’s a man of decency, he’s a man of impeccable character.

“Salford are a fantastic club that we want to see do well, but quite simply, as my Dad would say ‘You can’t take pants off a bare bum’. They’ve been struggling for cash for some time.”

Castleford Tigers head coach Danny McGuire was also on punditry duties and he hailed Rowley for his work with the club over the years whilst underlining the most important aspect of this takeover – the fact the players can start to play again.

McGuire said: “I’m a massive fan of Paul Rowley, I think he’s an outstanding coach, great person. I’m just really happy for the players, I’m just really happy that they get to get back to business, they get back to doing what they love, and they get an opportunity to do that this weekend against Leeds.”

It was posited by host Brian Carney that Rowley would utilise the situation to try and create an ‘Us versus them’ mentality to fuel his players, something that Jon Wilkin quickly shot down.

“I think if anything what the game’s done is rallied around Salford,” the ex-St Helens captain argued.

“The sustainability cap was an affordability measure to make sure the long term survival of one of our great clubs. The RFL get stick for a lot of things but for protecting the integrity of our competition and Salford as a club, they should be applauded.

“In fact, the game rallied around Salford in this situation. It’s not everyone against Salford but Paul Rowley will pitch it differently as we know.”

Rowley’s side will take on Leeds Rhinos at home on Saturday afternoon with a full-strength squad named.