Your top paragraph sums up perfectly why we should not trust Sale Sharks and Rugby Union. Times haven't changed as much as you think, they think they're better than us and will try to block things just like the union captain you allude to did, but a much bigger scale. And with the weakness of our management and lack of backbone, then they will walk all over us. I honestly hand heart cannot see how Sale coming will have any benefit to us and I've listened to countless arguments on here, still nothing has changed my mind. We need to be wary of these leeches and I for one will not be welcoming them with open arms.

Yet again you offer nothing to the debate. If you don't think that Rugby Union, its fans and players think they're better than us then fine offer me a counter argument. If you think the people running our club won't be bullied by Sale's big cheeses then fine. Explain to me what we will do/are doing to stop this happening? Sale have had one open day so far with another one today and they've already made more of the stadium than we have in nearly half a season.

One or two


I can not think of a positive thing that will come of this.
They will try to nick or players.
They will try to nick fans in the area.
We are bound to see Sharks (put whatever you want in front of that) soon to be put on the stadium frontage.
They will eventually want to take over a ground they have had fook all to do with in the first place.

They are parasites who have hit lucky and will make the most of the free opportunity given to them.
Do not associate with or help them, we are working class oiks according to the majority of Sale and Rah Rah fans

When the original poster stated in a earlier e-mail he had no idea there was a football club in Salford summed up their mentality.
Just waiting for the comments on the Brookhouse Estate and Eccles town centre from the to$$ers

I think its good to have a platform for any unsportsman like conduct by eather club to be highlighted....rather than just bitching about it on here you know

To be fair sale is fair game for marketing, been here nearly 2 years, not one poster or presence in the town their advertiser is worse than ours for it comes to coverages

Simply not true. I'd wager that a majority of Sale fans will be League fans as well, or at least have a passing interest in the sport, and I've never seen/heard any speaking in the way you suggest about League fans.

To discuss the latter part of your post. Your complaining about sale doing things the right way! Probably made to look so much better by the complete disaster or board made of the only and only chance they had to move to a new home in style and encourage potential new supporters. That's not sales fault its ours.
Also if our board do get bullied by another organization on a similar contract will tell us everything we need to know about the quality of their management.

It seems to me a large part of this hatred of sale is more due to the realisation of many that our club probably are the potential makers of their own destruction.

If salford can't become a success its not sales fault

Prestwich Red: [iWhen the original poster stated in a earlier e-mail he had no idea there was a football club in Salford summed up their mentality.[/i

Just why should I know that there's a football club in Salford? It's not a sport that I follow and to be frank I'd be hard pressed to name more than a few teams in the football league. That doesn't mean I feel antagonistic to those sporting clubs.

Perhaps you can tell me the names of all the football and other sporting clubs in, say, Bishops Stortford? Or Chester?

No? So why should I know clubs, in a sport which doesn't interest me, in Salford? I don't live there.

I'm interested in theatre, perhaps you could tell me the names of all the theatres, both professional and amateur in Salford?

No?

It may not be an interest of yours and, if it isn't, I wouldn't expect you to know them.

So why should I know of Salford's various sporting clubs, whatever sport they might play?

You were debating something?


I could point to hundreds of examples on these message boards of folk bad-mouthing and dismissing rugby union as sh*te. Why are they not free to do the same?


Well, unlike your deeply considered rant comparing us to one person's university club - I don't profess to know exactly what's around the corner. I would like to add though, that during my University studies the League/Union lads got on fine. We enjoyed some healthy banter socially and borrowed players when squads were slim.


Irrelevant. Our problems will continue with or without Sale's presence.

Chill gentlemen.
As some of you may be aware I am also a Sale supporter and regular poster on the equivalent of this board.

iBozz has just offered to meet up for a drink pre-or post match. He is not intent on any form of subversion.

Anyone who has an inkling of the origins of League has a large degree of sympathy with those on here who still have significant abhorrance of all things union.
We ourselves often refer to those days as shamateurism.

But in all honesty most of us weren't alive then, is it not time to move on ( whilst of course treading carefully and watchfully?)
It's a different millenium, most of us watch Superleague and many attend the odd game. Both games can thrive in the North West.
We mutually have far more to gain by conversing and helping improve public transport provision, ordinary supporter facilities and shuttle services to Salford City Stadium.

Yes occasionally we might tread on toes by being indelicate but insult is not intended. For example adopting 'Dirty Old Town ' was suggested years ago on our board during the PSA and Seabass years - originally because Sale translates as 'dirty' in French -it's a northern anthem, not exclusively a Salford one!).

There is an opportunity here to work together in areas which will benefit all supporters.
Steotypes are just that; forget them .
Share a pint pre or post match and I think you will find we have far more in common than we can express on here.
Besides....... iBozz is clearly buying!

Some of the comments on here are laughable. I had to check the date then to realise it wasn't the early 1900s and it was in fact 2012.

Somebody used the term Dinosaur. That sums up some of the views perfectly.

If you think the divide between League and Union and indeed the working and middle classes is still exactly how it used to be you are absolutely warped.

Here's the harsh reality - I don't mean this in a snobby way as I like both codes, but a lot of Union fans don't actually give League the time of day. Now before you quote me on that one line let me make it clear what I mean. They don't think about League, it doesn't pass their minds, they get on supporting their own team, their own sport. It's not just me who feels this way, this comment I'm about to use is used on this, the Wigan forum and the Union thread too - but a lot of League fans have a chip on their shoulder when it comes to Union. It's a shame, as no Union fan I've ever met has had a bad word to say about the other code. As a United fan (Manchester United, but of course being from Salford you all support them and know who they are anyway) I know exactly what it's like. Stockport County fans absolutely hate us and City. Yet you ask a single United fan to name a Stockport player and they couldn't. Not through ignorance, not through dislike, but because Stockport simply don't effect their lives, it's not a club that doesn't pass through their minds. A lot of League fans seem to take a negative stand from the start. All because of a period that even their Grandfathers would be too young to remember. I think a very small minority of League fans care more about being working class than they care about their team. So what? You're working class? Good for you. So am I, it's not something I care about though or feel the need to go on about. Football is historically a working class sport, isn't it? You don't hear the fans going on about it all the time. Maybe that's to do with the fact times change. You're not telling me working class Joe pays £110 for a ticket at Arsenal every week are you? Has a corporate box at Old Trafford? My mates are all working class, yet some have done well for themselves, got 2 houses, 2 cars. Surely on paper they're middle class? Again, times change, things expand and develop. It's not as black and white as it once was. So no, the divide isn't the same as it once was.

If you're using historic references and judging Union as a sport for the middle classes down south, then fine. But in all my years supporting Sale I've never come across one toff, one person with plumbs in their mouth, one person who hates Rugby League. Over on our forum we've got Catalans, Wigan, Salford, Warrington and St Helens fans. Bitterness is a terrible thing. Whether you've been brought up to hate Union or whatever, fine. That's your life. But don't be coming on here telling us you know more about Sale fans than the Sale fans themselves without checking your facts first. I understand some people have had personal interactions with the League and Union divide, I'm not coming on here to tell you you're wrong. If that's happened to you, then it has, and it's a shame. I'm not thick enough to believe that elitism doesn't still exist in some areas. Personally though I couldn't give a . Granted there aren't many Sale or Rugby Union fans where I live compared to Football. But for me it's about the class on the field, not off it.

As I've said on here before - it's lucky a few of you are obviously keyboard warriors. As the majority are very pleasant and have been welcoming to Sale fans in the flesh and online. iBozz is a good guy and a gent, so to take what he said, knowing full well it was a nice, welcoming message and turning it into your own paranoia about Union still killing League is just not on.

No, where am I having a pop at Sale for doing things the right way? I agree the fact that we don't go about things the right way is our fault not Sales, but the fact that we have two clubs playing a different code from the same stadium with one club that's run professionally (Sale) and one that's run so poorly (Salford) means that we will be shown up royally by the rah rahs and we will end up playing second fiddle to them in a stadium that should by all rights be ours. 15 years of graft, then for Sale to come in and take over (which they will) is the bit I can't stand.

Sale have reputation that goes with them, that reputation didn't just appear overnight. Couple that again with Rugby Union trying to kill league for many many years, its a recipe for disaster.

Ave it -come for that drink - Salesharks won't be taking over and I can explain why.

A few points from your response

1/Exactly and thats what pi$$es me off as well.

2/You really are matching all the sterotypes aren't you



3/Ever heard of The Lowry ?
The other is the Salford Arts Theatre.
There were a lot more at one stage but unfortuntely they have closed down, probably due to the fact that Common Salford folk dont understand that sort of thing


As for Amateur there are plenty, I wont list them but just google it and you will find them.

4/Its not a huge interest although I do go to the theatre ocassionally and yes as you can see I do know them

If you had taken a minute to even look into what we have in Salford and not just look at the fact we have a Stadium then I might have taken you a bit more seriously.
You never know you might even like what you see.

Look no further than the BBC for proof of that!!!!!

Dirty old town,written by Ewan Maccoll, Salford lad,one line written,Smelled the smoke on the Salford wind, the song was written in reference to SALFORD and the angry young men,anything else you leeches want to take or try to take away from us,like our game or maybe even the ground we play in.Drink with you lot,yeah right.

Shark J writes a constructive post.
I've been a Salford supporter for 50 years,born and bred in Salford, but I went a few times to watch Sale at Heywood Road.
Supporters were same as us really,just reflecting a different catchment area.
It's a done deal so we should approach it positively.
The glass is half full

Do you scream yourself to sleep every night?

Yeah, singing dirty old town and if that does`nt work matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs,and if that does`nt work i read your posts,that always does the trick.

Prestwich

Just why is liking theatre reinforcing stereotypes? I work in one.

Are you suggesting the league supporters are incapable of liking theatre?

And I'm not really sure why it's an offence in not knowing that salford has a football club. I'm sure that there are a large number of things which i don't know about Salford - and everywhere else for that matter, whether I live there or not.

You suggest that I should have found out whether Salford has a football team? Why?

Should I also find out if they have a pool club, a synchronised swimming club, a bar billiards club, a hockey club, a crown green bowls club - none of which I am ever likely to use?

And where have I ever said or implied that I dislike what I see in Salford? I've worked there, and I go there a fair bit even though now retired. I don't dislike any of it.

Hang about wasn't it only in the 1980's when Rugby Union were still banning players from their sport for life if they had played rugby league?

Taken from the Official Twickers site

[uAmateurism in rugby football (after the great split of 1895)[/u
Rugby union would officially remain an amateur sport for the next 100 years.

The union authorities placed severe sanctions on associations with rugby league. Even playing an amateur rugby league game was sufficient to receive a ban from rugby union.

Union players who went to play professional league were banned for life, even from attending rugby union matches as supporters.

Payment for expenses was often permitted, however. The ‘amateur’ 1908 Australian rugby union tourists to the British Isles received payment of 21 shillings a week.

This was more than twice the amount that players on the following season's ‘professional’ Great Britain rugby league tour of Australia received as weekly wages!

Ave It,i had a young lad playing for me when i was coaching a local amateur league team who was threatened by his headmaster that if he carried on playing league in his free time,he would be banned from taking part in any sport at his school,footbball? ok,basketball? ok just not Rugby league as they played union at their school.That was in the late 90s.The stories go on and on about their goings on,but now its all forgotten,well it ai`nt in my eyes.

To you Sale guys..............I'll tell you why I'm a 'dinosaur', and why I still care about what happened in my Great Grandfather's time.

Because Rugby Union and the Establishment in general shafted 'working class' people then and continue to shaft them to this day.
That is, if there were enough jobs to constitute a working class! A government run by fooking Old Etonians and Oxbridge Graduates.

We're all in it together? Fookin' Bollox, neither in government or rugby.

Rugby Union in the north of england has, and always will represent 'the establishment'. It runs far deeper than mere sport. Anyone who is aware of cultural history will be aware of it.

Hence the examples on this board about the BBC and Univerisities' attitude towards our sport and our demography. One of superiority and condesention.

...............and when, if ever, did a smokey wind blow through the leafy suburbs of Cheshire?

Have you ever wondered why the Catalan Dragons are so welcome in our League?.....................During the war the game of Rugby League was banned by the Vichy government as being representative of subversives. After the war, 'Our' game was not allowed to use the word 'Rugby', hence RL was known as Jeux a treize (Game for thirteen).

History runs deep and for good reason. We would be fools to forget it. Unfortunately, Salford RL is run by fools and the major reason we find ourselves in the current unenviable position.

I too would want us to own & be the sole tenant of the Salford City red stadium. Our club has been dying a slow death, we needed a partner not the perfect partner but one that watches & understands the type of game we play.
I am a Salford fan of 30 odd years but welcome Sale & hope we can attract new supporters for our club, if we don't it is because people don't think our game is good enough.
Too many go on about how good our game is, well if it that good we have nothing to worry about.

I know the history of Salford, likewise Swinton, Oldham Rochdale to name a few, all have proud histories but were unable to achieve, just take a look at the clubs now. Some on the forum criticizing every word spoken when discussing or debating with Sale, tell me the alternative master plan? How the working man stereotypes himself, no wonder down south they think we all have flat caps & clogs. If any of our fans watch football you just might be stood next a person from Sale, you know the one with two heads & he says tally ho. The same people criticizing the club for moving please tell me how you would have kept the club at the top playing from the willows & where you think we would have been in 5 years even less?

No I am not happy with what as happened to our great club, but I am prepared not to live in the past & move forward in a difficult times, where companies sports clubs bigger than the mighty Salford, are going under at the rate of knots. We have a chance to embrace the opportunity, Maybe we will attract Sale fans to watch our great game, after all we believe Rugby league to be a far superior game than union.
Standby for trying to remain positive!!