Class of '92-owned Salford City were the original Wrexham - now Man Utd legends are back chasing promotion and eyeing epic Man City FA Cup upset

While McElheneny and Reynolds were working with a well-established historic club - the third oldest in the world - which had previously competed in Europe and averaged attendances of 5,000 the year before the takeover, Neville and co. were starting from a far lower base. The season before the takeover by the Class of '92, little more than 100 people would attend Salford games at Moor Lane and it was common for fans to bring their dogs along, with one border collie repeatedly getting in trouble for running on to the pitch.

The club competed in the eighth tier of English football, was run by volunteers and its stadium was falling apart, with toilets barely fit for use. In the first season of 'Out of Their League', the new owners are dismayed by the attitude of the two head coaches, who take holidays during the pre-season campaign, and of many of their players, who turn up late for training. Phil Neville turns up at one session only to learn there are no balls.

But Salford had money like no other club in non-league and were able to attract top-quality players such as striker Gareth Seddon, who left Chester City and dropped down four divisions to join them, and Danny Webber, a former Manchester United youth trainee who had played in the Premier League for Portsmouth and Sheffield United.

Salford won promotion in their first season under the new ownership as they stormed to the league title and in their next campaign were promoted to the National League North, via the play-offs. They became a professional club at the start of the 2016-17 campaign but missed out on promotion in the play-offs. They were crowned champions the following year and needed just one crack at the National League, earning promotion to the EFL with a rampant 3-0 win over AFC Flyde in the play-off final at Wembley.

But their rise was not seen as a fairy-tale, both within and outside the club. Accrington Stanley owner Andy Holt accused Neville of "stealing a place in the EFL" after buying Aberdeen striker Adam Rooney in 2018 and offering him £4,000 ($4,870) per week. That summer Salford signed four players from League One and had recruited manager Graham Alexander from the same division.

Some of Salford's long-running fans were also angry by the change in identity under the new owners, who revamped the club's badge and controversially changed their shirt colours from tangerine orange to red in an obvious nod to United. Neville and co. were likened to the unpopular Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan, who at a similar time changed the Welsh side's colours from blue to red (they reverted to blue in 2015).

"They might be legends for Manchester United and great players and all the rest of it. But these days these players are hard-nosed businessmen," fan and local reporter Stephen Kingston said in the 'Out of their League' series. "You expect it at a Premier League club when you get some bloody Russian Oligarch in or someone like that. You don't expect it at little Salford City. As far as I'm concerned it's arrogance, it's Premiership arrogance. They are used to getting what they want."

The owners haven't quite got what they wanted since reaching League Two, however. In 2015 Neville targetted reaching the Championship by 2029 while Giggs spoke of playing in the Premier League one day in front of 25,000 fans. Salford's profile made them easily the biggest team in the lower leagues and their early attendances - often exceeding 2,000 - were also among the largest for their level. But that has changed since reaching League Two.

Their average attendance of 2,800 is the third-lowest in the division and they haven't been able to generate much revenue, which is a problem when they have to comply with the league's Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP), which prevents clubs spending more than 60 percent of their revenue. Salford's latest accounts show a loss of £4 million ($4.8m).

The club have also struggled to progress off the pitch. Although they have radically transformed their ground, which was reopened in 2017 as the Peninsular Stadium, raising capacity from 1,600 to 5,000, their growth has been well below what the owners wanted. There is an obvious reason for that: United are on their doorstep and although they are technically located in Trafford, they are to many the true club of Salford.

Football fans in the north west of England are spoilt for choice if they want to watch live football beyond the bright lights of United and City. Despite the prestige of their legendary United players, Salford cannot compete with the history of many of their neighbours. Stockport, Oldham Athletic and Rochdale all attract more fans per week. And unlike McElhenney and Reynolds, they have not been able to attract new fans to the sport.

"Wrexham have got the Hollywood owners, that's great. It works for them, but it doesn't really work for us in the demographic we're in," Nicky Butt, the club's CEO, told ESPN in 2023. "We want to be different. We want to be doing it our way, really.

"We knew what we had to do to get the spotlight on Salford. We're not daft. We knew what we had to do: we had to get a documentary, we had to get the hype up, get the fans up and try and move forward with that. We did that and we want to become our own identity. We want to be Salford. We want to be a hard-working, working-class team for the people. We want to be different."

The club's plans to move to the 12,000 AJ Bell Stadium - home of the Sale Sharks rugby team - never got off the ground, nor did plans to move to a new training ground. They currently rent a training facility from United and due to the freezing conditions they have been preparing for the match with City by training indoors at The Cliff, where the Class of '92 trained with United in their 1990s heyday. Peter Lim sold a portion of his stake to David Beckham in 2019 and sold his remaining shares to Gary Neville last May. The club sought fresh funding last February but no suitors have stepped in.

"I don't think you can knock Salford too much as their owners have done a brilliant job. They were all ex-Man United players and it's been an unbelievable project, even if it has slowed down a bit over the last couple of years," said former Wrexham striker Lee Trundle. "I can't see Wrexham's project slowing down. Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds generate so much coverage and they've brought in a wider audience.

"The Salford owners brought in outside interest, too, but from the demographic who were already football fans. I'm from Liverpool, and I even wanted Salford to do well as it's a great story. I think the Salford story was a good one, but Wrexham bring in a much bigger audience. I think Salford were in a similar situation a few years ago with the popular documentary and famous owners. There was a buzz around the club, but I think it's fizzled out over the past couple of seasons and it's evident in the style of play and their instability with managers."

But hope has come in the form of that old fashioned way of generating money: winning matches. Under Karl Robinson, who took Milton Keynes Dons into the Championship and has experience in League One with Charlton Athletic and Oxford United, Salford have won their last six League Two games, without conceding a goal. Robinson helped keep Salford up last season after replacing Neil Wood, a former United academy coach who took the club to the League Two play-offs but was sacked the following campaign as they flirted with relegation.

Robinson believes their resurgent form will make the hunt for new investment easier, and he is convinced that the Class of '92 are in it for the long haul. He told a press conference: "My responsibility is to make sure this team keeps playing well, to make sure that the people above me and whoever that is with the money side of it find a suitable investor to support the beliefs and the dreams of the owners. People always think because the club is being put out there that the people are walking away. It’s funny the conversation that we had in the summer: they were so transparent that the Class of '92 are never going to walk away from this. They see it as a long-term drive to get Salford to where they want to get to."

Saturday's game at the Etihad Stadium, for which Salford have sold out their entire allocation of 5,000 away tickets, will give the club a tidy earner as gate receipts in the FA Cup are split 50/50. But most importantly for Robinson it will be a reminder that the club that set the trend for investment in non-league football have not gone away.

Robinson said: "When you’re in the shadows of two of the biggest football clubs in world football, which is Manchester City and Manchester United, we’re always going to be in their shadows. What this game has done, it’s certainly woken a few people up and gone: ‘Oh, hang on, they’re doing OK, they’ve had 10 years, they’ve had multiple promotions.’ We haven’t stalled."