Class of ’92 have not stopped mediocrity setting in at Salford

Nathan Spafford
Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs

Salford City are merely existing and the ambitious project has stalled under the guidance of Gary Neville and his Class of ’92 cohorts.

 

To suggest that a club playing in the eighth tier of English football could be seen as a disappointment just six years later when plying their trade in the EFL seems an extraordinary statement, but Salford City are no ordinary club.

Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to table-toppers Forest Green Rovers left the Ammies very much mired in the bottom half of League Two, a position they look at home in. Such a remarkable rise should not be sniffed at, but to be playing at this level was always the minimum requirement when Gary Neville and the Class of ’92 took the boardroom reins in 2014.

Salford have spent two seasons at this level with nary an impact on the promotion places which they had become so accustomed to in the divisions below, and a third is already looking likely with a quarter of the season played.

Four promotions in five seasons made for excitement and plenty of skipping forward without ever needing much in the way of a consistent plan beyond outspending all in their way. But clubs promoted from the National League have a penchant for succeeding in League Two. The two-up-two-down approach to and from the fourth tier has made for more than a handful of troubled clubs congregating at the bottom of the division while a plethora of well-run ones fight their way into the EFL.

It is part of the reason why the five teams to have won promotion to League Two with and since Salford made this level for the first time in their history – Harrogate Town, Hartlepool United, Leyton Orient, Sutton United and Barrow – all sit above Gary Bowyer’s side.

Four of that quintet are in the top half and two sit in the play-off places. Salford’s position in the lower midtable speaks volumes as to how disappointing the Ammies have been. They are not a crisis club in the mould of Oldham, Scunthorpe and Rochdale, but they appear to have less chance of making a fifth promotion under Gary Neville and co. than at any other point since their rise.

All in all, Salford have become, for wont of a better word, boring. An existence which served to make their shared owners’ egos grow and enchant the club as fodder for documentary crews has become very middle of the road. A club that once was living is now just killing time, going from occasional win to occasional loss with the odd draw thrown in between.

Jordan Turnbull confronts teammate Jason Lowe

While Forest Green – themselves a relatively new name to the EFL – have begun to work out the best way to the top of the League Two pile, Salford are heading in the opposite direction. Relegation is not a concern, but for this project, merely existing is about as useful to Neville and his classmates.

Manager Bowyer is the perfect epitome of where the club is at. Much money has been thrown at bigger names who have excelled at this level and above in systems that suited their style of play, but have largely been thrown together in this set-up. Bowyer has managed in the Championship with Blackburn during troubled times for the former Premier League champions, and found himself well suited with Blackpool when winning the League Two play-offs with the Tangerines, having seen the club at rock bottom off the pitch.

His most recent spell with Bradford failed to ignite the same spirit, Bowyer seemingly more befitting of a spirited underdog. At no club is there greater expectation in League Two, both from inside and exterior influences, than at Salford City.

A club with a similar recent history is sat directly above the Greater Manchester side. Crawley Town are one place and one point ahead of Salford City, having enjoyed their own great rise through the divisions. The Red Devils enjoyed a remarkable leap from the sixth tier through four consecutive seasons in the bottom half of the Conference Premier before the money came rolling in and they marched all the way through to League One under the stewardship of the controversial Steve Evans.

Like Salford, they had detractors from the outside, but they were successful on the pitch. Salford may have had a lower starting point from when the money arrived, but League Two was never the ceiling. Crawley enjoyed three seasons in the third tier, most likely the peak of their current stewardship.

It is difficult to tell what the ultimate goal is and what it could and should be for Salford, but matching the achievements of Crawley should be the very least of what Salford can hope for. Multiple clubs have come through the non-league system to establish themselves higher than League Two. Burton Albion are a top-half League One outfit while AFC Wimbledon are comfortably established in the third tier.

With those five clubs to have joined the EFL from the National League since 2019 all looking more likely of getting promoted from League Two this season than Salford, there is no doubting that the Ammies are underperforming.

An eighth-placed finish in their first season in League Two, followed by 11th in 2020/21 meant the club could go in one of two directions. In a tight fourth-tier campaign, marginal gains could have a massive impact. If Salford don’t take advantage this season, they could find themselves mired in a seemingly never-ending circle of mediocrity.

When a club has feasted on constant wins, points, promotions and silverware, as has been the mantra and objective all along, adjusting to relative famine is a bitter pill to swallow. Salford’s entire existence over the past seven years has been fabricated by its rich ownership, completely changing the course of the club’s forward vision. Salford are back where they were all those years ago, albeit at a higher level. Mediocrity was what Neville and the Class of ’92 wanted to avoid. Seven years later, that is exactly what they have succumbed to.