Super League

Salford Red Devils’ Paul Rowley lifts lid on ‘horrific’ period, Paul King chats, the takeover and selection restrictions

by
Will Jackson
February 6, 2025

The last few months have been ‘horrific’ for Salford Red Devils head coach Paul Rowley, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel now.

Salford’s financial uncertainty has been well-documented since the club were granted an advance in central funding to cover financial shortcomings at the back end of the year. With the club struggling to make ends meet, the RFL placed them under special measures and took a deep dive examination of their finances.

That led to Salford being instructed to shed £800,000 from their overheads with player departures key to that. As such, most Super League clubs were keeping an keen eye on the situation and were ready to pounce before word came through of the club’s takeover optimism.

Such talk put any suggestion of a fire sale on hold in January and as the season draws ever nearer, the prospect of securing fresh investment to effectively rescue the club is progressing.

A deal isn’t over the line yet, of course, but Rowley was speaking with optimism at Wednesday’s Super League launch, with the head coach reflecting on a troubling off-season and hailing his resolute squad.

“It’s been horrific but every day we go to training the mind gets cleared of all of that because we’ve got such a good group,” Rowley told Serious About RL. “It’s been a credit to the group, the players, the leadership within the group, the captain, I think they’ve carried themselves remarkably well and stuck together and never cracked under pressure.

“I knew that [about the team] but that’s reinforced it to be honest and everyone can say what they want, until they actually live it, you never really know, do you.

“We’re not over the finish line in regards to the takeover but until that goes through we’ll approach with caution. Regardless of whether we get over the finish line or not I’m very proud of the group because of the way they’ve carried themselves.

“It will be like coming through a big game. I won’t be doing backflips, the feeling won’t be euphoria, it will be relief. It will be relief mixed with ‘what’s next?’. I get asked the question every time when we win a big game, ‘how will you celebrate?’, it will be a cup of tea, a biscuit and chill.”

During the uncertain months, Rowley understandably focused his energy on the Salford training field, with the Red Devils having to prepare for the start of the new Super League season in the best way possible. However, the head coach was in regular contact with club CEO Paul King and others in order to provide the necessary information to the playing and coaching staff.

“Kingy’s been great,” he added. “I’ve kept information for myself and my own sanity at arm’s length. I’ve tried to gather as much as I needed to know so I could inform players and protect them and inform them and to make sure they make informed decisions for themselves.

“I would never take them down a path where it left them at risk financially or career wise. I’ve needed to know a bit and I’ve not needed to know a bit as well.

“I’ve just been honest. If it’s fiction then I don’t need that chat, I just work with facts and facts and truth can sometimes be uncomfortable or not pleasant. But, it’s important that we get true facts and not fiction and that’s how the group works in particular with them to me, me to them and each other.”

Although a takeover is in the offing, at present Salford Red Devils are still operating under restrictions imposed by the RFL. As such, it seems Rowley won’t be able to call on his entire squad this weekend when the club take on Midlands Hurricanes in the third round of the Challenge Cup.

“It will probably be a cost-driven team and injury-driven team,” the head coach said when asked what sort of team fans can expect to see against the League One outfit. “So we’ve got injuries and cost, we can have £1.2m as it stands.

“Whether we get took over or not I think it’s the process of however long that takes before it gets lifted. We deal with facts and not fiction and as it stands we’re at £1.2m so it will be a team within that restraint with injuries as well. It might be six props and four wingers, who knows? I’ll have a look.

“I’m hoping things are accelerated by [round one]. I only work in short blasts at the minute because if I think too far ahead by head will explode but I’m hoping and praying that gets tidied up.”

On the Hurricanes, he added: “They’re on a crest of a wave. Eorl [Crabtree] has gone there and brought some attention, Mark Dunning has done a fantastic job and he’s recruited really smart Championship players, they’re tough to beat and they’re very confident. Anyone that puts 50 points on Whitehaven at Whitehaven at any level is a good team. We’ll have the utmost respect for them.”