Albion wrote:
I am saying that the views of chairman, like Lenagan and Hetherington, are potentially damaging as their insular view on the salary cap could mean that SL will retreat to a position of no return.
I think you have the wrong idea about both these two, based on a limited newspaper interview.
To give you an idea of how "insular" these two guys are, both have been very generous lending London loan players over the last four or five years when London's been under threat of going under. They do this because both Hetherington and Leneghan are aware of the importance of not retreating to an M62 ghetto, and because they didn't want to see London go under.
Some other clubs, including our own, were unwilling to do the equivalent of urinating on London even if they were on fire.
I know that attitudes to London are hardly the only decider or whether one has an insular attitude to the whole game, but it's a useful pointer. In my experience, Hetherington has consistently, for two decades, been supportive of trying new ideas both on and off the pitch, to try and expand our game and win new followers and new sponsors. Leneghan has also got a decent track record of putting his money where his mouth is, and is generally supportive of the game as a whole. Not all SL chairmen can say that.
You need to look at this article in a different light, I think. Koukash at Salford has turned heads, but it's a one-off. The rest of our clubs are struggling financially except for Wigan, Leeds and Warrington. If we lifted the cap, without any question the three clubs who would rapidly depart from any meaningful competition with the rest of the league would be Wigan, Leeds and Warrington, and I doubt Koukash will spend consistently as much as would be needed from his own pocket at Salford to remain in competition for very long.
So you could interpret Leneghan's opposition to raising the salary cap as a very enlightened view which is actually to the detriment of his own club, but for the benefit of the majority of other clubs in the league.
I can't believe you're making me defend a pie.
