Gary Neville has spoken for the first time since he and David Beckham lead a new consortium in a takeover of Salford City
Gary Neville has discussed his plans for Salford City in thorough detail, including his intention to appoint a new CEO. Alongside fellow Manchester United legend David Beckham, the pair have spearheaded a new consortium in a takeover of the League Two club.
Both former players were already part-owners of the club alongside Man United ‘Class of 92’ stars Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes. One year on from majority shareholder Peter Lim departing, the quartet have been bought out by Neville, Beckham and several global investors.
It was reported that $15m-$20m (£11.2m-£15m) has been raised as a result to aid Salford’s ambition of sporting success and growth over the next five years.
“Just being an owner of a football club is very expensive. All of us have put significant funds into the club over the last 10-11 years, and it comes to a point whereby some of us will put money into the club and some of us won’t, but we’ll continue to have contributions into the club in roles in a similar way that they have done.
“It just means that they won’t be putting money into the club as shareholders,” Neville explained to Sky Sports of how and why Butt, Giggs, Scholes and his brother, Phil’s roles will all alter.
“I think you’re aware of the cost of football is quite large and we at Salford City have been investing heavily over the last 10 years. We’ll continue to do so moving forward.
“We’ve brought in a new group of shareholders who will invest in the club for the next four years and will secure that period, make sure we’re excited as we ever were.”
With the 2024/25 campaign coming to an end last weekend, Salford’s season ended in heartbreak. A 2-2 draw with Carlisle United meant they finished one point outside of play-off qualification as Chesterfield leapfrogged them with victory in their final match.
From promotion from the National League in 2019, they will enter their seventh year in the fourth tier this August.
“Obviously the ambition has never changed. We always talked about getting to the Championship and we always talked about, at that point, assessing it.
“You can never look beyond League Two, just like we were in the National League, you can’t look beyond that.
“We watched 200 games at Salford in that level and now 200 in League Two.
“I said yesterday we’d stabilised as a Football League club and had a little bit of a smirk on my face when I said that because we’ve invested a lot of money in the last five years and I think our results have been disappointing relating to the level of money we put into the club.
“We have to look at how we change that moving forward,” Neville clarified, with his ambitions for Salford still alive.
“I’ve loved watching every single game in League Two but there are a lot of good clubs, big clubs, in League Two that all want to get out of this league and get to League One. We’re aware of our position and aware of how challenging this is.
“Our ambition next season, as has been for the last five, has been to do the very best we can and hopefully get to the top of League Two.”
The former Man United and England defender then clarified his plans for the running of the club, knowing that as a pundit and owner of multiple businesses in his post-playing days, he cannot be relied upon to oversee matters at the Peninsula Stadium 24/7.
Neville explained: “For the first eight years I was the operating shareholder, for the last three years I haven’t been.
“I’ve been completely passive over the last three years. Obviously Nicky, Ryan and Paul have gone into the club and done a really good job.
“I think moving forward I will continue to be passive – I’ve got too much on – but what I will be is a conduit for a diverse group of shareholders from all around the world and won’t always be in Salford. I am on the ground here in Manchester so I will go to the meetings that I need to, to make sure everything is fine from a perspective of continuing the contact with people in the boardroom.
“We intend to appoint a CEO, who will have full authority to run this football club for us and on behalf of the new ownership. That will hopefully be in place in the next few months.
“From our point of view we’ve got to find a way for Salford City and I think that is growing our revenue streams off the pitch as well as doing very well on the pitch, being successful as a football team.
“We have to make sure we design a new strategy going forward and we’ve got the right shareholders to do that.”