'It's very different from Wrexham and Birmingham' - Gary Neville reveals his and David Beckham's plans for Salford City following takeover of League Two side

Beckham and Neville led a consortium that gained control of the League Two side in early May, buying out Class of '92 icons Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, and Phil Neville. Now, the Sky Sports pundit has explained what they want to do over the next five years, while outlining how they differ from Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's Wrexham and Birmingham City - who have NFL icon Tom Brady as a minority investor.

He said on The Overlap Fan Debate: “Shares in a football club for most owners, other than the passion and the feelings you get from it, you’re a reliability from an investment perspective more than an asset. We’ve put money into Salford and in January we just thought we needed to get a group of people involved, who we could trust. We knew we’d never have most of the club. What Peter [Lim] did for us is, he gave us most of the club, but put most of the money in. He only owned 40%, he gave us 10% each of the club. Me and Becks [David Beckham] agreed that we would put money in for the next four or five years, which is a commitment we’ve all made.”

Neville added: “Salford City won’t be changing the budget – to reverse out of the model we already have, you need two or three years. You can’t go from investing to becoming sustainable that quick – you need to look at players contracts for three years and you’ve generally got a model that you’ve built which you can’t come away from.  We just need to change the model of the club slightly, in fact quite a bit. It’s very different than Wrexham and Birmingham [City] - you’re talking about millions going into those clubs. That’s not what we’re looking to do with Salford. We want Salford to be a good football project.” 

Beckham has previously outlined how they want to reach the Championship in the next five years, and this month they showed their ruthless side by axing 17 players. But getting to the English second-tier will be a very tough challenge, not to mention it will require a lot of investment from Neville, Beckham, and the consortium.

Preparations for the new season will already be underway, including players arriving and leaving, as Salford aim to get promoted to League One in 2026.