Salford owners David Beckham & Gary Neville admit club in 'serious trouble' before takeover after seven years of losses totalling £22.5m

Neville and Beckham joined forces with Declan Kelly, founder of US-based advisory firm Consello, and Lord Mervyn Davies, chairman of the Lawn Tennis Association, to take Salford's ownership in a new direction in May. But the £22.5m ($30m) losses over seven years meant it was a "scary" time for Beckham and Neville. 

The Inter Miami co-owner said that between $30-40m (£22m-30m) was raised to save Salford, something they thought could happen in two years but ended up occurring in four to five months.

He told The Athletic: "The group we brought together wanted to invest even more than we expected. They sat with Gary, heard about the project, and knew exactly where we wanted to take the club. That’s when we went from needing - I think the number at the start was $12-14m - and we ended up raising between $30-40m. When we reached that, Gary got really emotional. That’s what it means to him and it’s the passion you want. If we hadn’t have done it, the club would have been in serious trouble."

While this extra investment has come in, including from 23 investors and partners like AIG and Coca-Cola, the fabled Class of '92 ownership group of Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville, and Paul Scholes relinquished their respective stakes in Salford with the takeover. In addition to those off-field financial boosts, Salford sit third in League Two at the time of writing and are in with a shout of promotion.

On Saturday, Beckham and Neville's Salford have a chance to go top of League Two if they beat early pacesetters Swindon Town. Karl Robinson's team then travel to play-off hopefuls Bristol Rovers next weekend.