If there is one thing worse than being disliked, it is being ignored.
For Salford City, the 2014 takeover by the Class of ’92 put a target on their back.
Four promotions in five years, on the back of serious spending by the gang of five former Manchester United players that was led by Gary Neville, made them look like a real threat to the EFL order.
The reaction of rival supporters veered between hostility and hatred.
They were not helped by the perception that Neville, whose business partner and ex-Valencia owner Peter Lim was footing most of the bill for the investment, and company seemed to think that this lower league stuff was all a bit too easy.
At the club’s first post-takeover press conference, Ryan Giggs set them a target of being in the Championship by 2029.
Paul Scholes said the natural target was the Premier League after they escaped the National League.
And then? They got marooned in League Two, toppled by their own hubris.
Successive bosses left or were fired, some of them grumbling about Neville’s tendency to micro-manage his managers.
Richie Wellens, who went on to win promotion to League One with Leyton Orient, bemoaned having to have conversations for conversations’ sake in an interview with The i Paper.
Investment that always felt unsustainable on Salford’s crowds was dialled back and behind the scenes a new ownership model was sought as the club’s financials became frightening.
A summer takeover by a new investment group, with Neville and David Beckham remaining alongside 21 other investors as part of the AIG consortium, was painted as “saving the club from oblivion”.
On the pitch they flirted perilously with relegation out of the EFL a couple of years ago.
The appointment of the outspoken Karl Robinson, who has led the club to their best ever EFL finish, was just in the nick of time to prevent them returning to the National League in 2024.
While this has been going on, Salford have dropped off the radar.
The familiar refrain of Salford hogging TV coverage as cameras panned for a shot of Beckham in the director’s box has been passed onto Wrexham, whose own starry assault on the lower leagues has made them the new EFL fans’ bete noire.
“The worst thing you can be is an irrelevance and maybe that has happened a little bit,” admits Danny Shepherd, author of One Up Front, a Salford City blog.
“I think we felt some of that hostility over the years in League Two because it was almost an unlimited budget for our level.
“But when that didn’t work I think the perception of us started to change a bit. It’s been a strange journey.”
Whisper it quietly but perhaps there is reason to fear them again.
With fresh funds secured off the back of the AIG takeover, momentum is returning to the project.
The clock has been reset on the goal to get to the Championship and funds have been poured into infrastructure and squad building.
While the Ammies missed out on automatic promotion with a controversial draw at Crawley Town on the final day of the League Two season, they are 90 minutes from a return to Wembley after winning at Grimsby Town on Sunday.
The Peninsula Stadium is sold out for Friday night’s second leg and mistakes made during those brash early years seem to have been turned into lessons learned.
“I will never knock Gary Neville for what he’s done for the club,” Shepherd says.
“Without him we’d still be in the eighth tier being watched by about 150 people. But it is interesting when you see him being challenged over decisions made in the past.
“I’m not sure he’s used to that and there is that prickly side to him. He’s incredibly eloquent but sometimes it comes across like he thinks he’s right about everything when he’s not and maybe that message has started to get through.”
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Robinson succeeded Neil Wood, a former United Under-23 academy coach, and Salford have benefited from his combative style and knowledge of the lower leagues.
He has largely been left alone and is not backward in pointing out that the club have progressed year-on-year under his stewardship.
The ambitious targets set by Neville and company might finally be a bit more realistic.
“If we had gone up last season, we maybe wouldn’t have been ready,” Robinson says.
“There’s growth behind the scenes, and that’s important. Before you can enjoy success you have to ensure the foundations are in place.
“When I walked in they were getting relegated out of the Football League. I firmly believe that was the case. It was spiralling. Two and a half years on we’re talking about getting into League One – that’s some turnaround.”
