David Beckham and Gary Neville complete Salford City takeover as Man Utd legend admits to being ‘inspired’ by Ryan Reynolds and Tom Brady’s success at Wrexham and Birmingham

The former Manchester United and England team-mates had been working with the League Two outfit as part of the fabled Class of ‘92 ownership group. Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes have now relinquished their respective stakes, with Beckham and Gary Neville having spent several months finding suitable investment partners.

They have joined forces with Declan Kelly, founder of US-based advisory firm Consello, and Lord Mervyn Davies, chairman of the Lawn Tennis Association. It is claimed that around $15-20 million (£15m) has been raised, with each member holding a five or 10 per cent stake - totalling 80 per cent of the club. The remaining 20 per cent has been earmarked for future partners.

Beckham and Neville will not be involved in the day-to-day running of Salford, but are fully committed. Inter Miami co-owner Becks, who works with Lionel Messi in Florida, told The Athletic: “I will be over every big decision that’s made and every little decision that’s made. That’s what my commitment is to Gary. It’s what my commitment is to the club.

“We’re definitely not doing it for a laugh and it’s also not for the romantic side of things. Yes, we care about the club — but we’re doing it to win. We want Salford to be successful and we have had success, but then we want it to go on to the next level.

“I always dream big so I’m always going to want us to get to the pinnacle of football and be in the Premier League. But there’s a lot of hard work and a lot of investment to be done up until that point. The Championship is a league that we want to get in but it’s step by step. We want success very quickly but these things take time.

“There’s a reason why we’re not going to be going up this year. So what is that reason? How do we solve it? And what do we need to put around the team, the manager and the club to ensure we have that success? But if we can do that, fast forward it and be up in the Championship, that’s what the dream would be.”

Beckham added on taking inspiration from close friend and NFL legend Brady, along with Wrexham’s Hollywood superstar co-owner Reynolds: “We’ve all been inspired by what Ryan Reynolds has been doing at Wrexham and I’m not saying this is why we’re doing it because it’s not. But I’ve spoken to Ryan about it so many times now and he said the feeling around the city, the feeling around the club, is so exceptional. That’s the kind of thing that we want to create.

“Tom Wagner and Tom Brady have done an incredible job with Birmingham. I went to a game a few months back and the atmosphere in the stadium was one of the best I’ve seen for a long time. That’s what we want to create. We want to create that community, add to the community and fan base we’ve already got — and then lift it.

“When you see what the Toms are doing, there is investment, there is a plan and it would be the dream to talk about the growth of Salford City. It’s not only growth on the field, which is what we care most about, but we want success. Because if we’re having success then we’re also having the opportunity to say: ‘Now we we’re going to invest, now we’re going to get a bigger stadium, now we’re going to get a bigger training facility and then it will go on. That is what we’re aiming for.

“We’re not going to turn around and say: ‘OK, there’s a bunch of money, we have no plan but we have the money and now we’ll go and get the players’. That’s not how we work in business. It has to be sustainable.

“It has to be a real plan around the club because we want to be taken seriously on the field, firstly, and then on the business side. We don’t want to look stupid or make the mistakes that others have in the past.”

Neville went on to say of already setting trends and intending to break down more barriers: “I think we were the first to have a fly-on-the-wall documentary series. That model has been saturated by many clubs. I think we’ll take this forward with a different type of content and production model.

“I feel very strongly that owners are just guardians of football clubs for fans and the idea is that fans should have access behind the scenes to what people are doing in the club. It’s almost like a public company and it should be treated as such because of its importance to the community.

“We’ve never been shy in coming forward in respect of content for the club and that will be the same moving forward. But there are different innovative ways that can be done that isn’t just a straight documentary.

“We have to be successful on the pitch, we have to invest in the local area and we also need to look at our infrastructure; the stadium and training ground. We’ve invested heavily over the last 10 years and we’ll invest heavily again in this next four or five years — but we need to get this club on a firm footing financially and get balance into this club.

“There are very good examples of clubs in League Two, League One and the Championship who are almost sustainable, with a little bit of owner funding. They have created a player trading model and financial and commercial revenue streams that mean that they can look at things slightly differently and be successful, whilst being more sustainable.”

Salford missed out on a place in the League Two play-offs at the end of the 2024-25 campaign by one point, with a final day draw at Carlisle costing them a top-seven finish. Beckham and Neville will hope to have them raring go again next season.