Salford Red Devils star delivers takeover verdict and discusses future at club

Aaron Bower
Ryan Brierley

Ryan Brierley applauds the Salford Red Devils supporters following a game in 2022

Salford star Ryan Brierley has admitted the Red Devils squad are ‘aware’ of a possible takeover of the club looming on the horizon: and insists he never once wanted to leave the club in the off-season.

The Red Devils are closing on a deal which would secure their future, with the Super League side close to being taken over by an overseas consortium. They would then potentially be able to head into the new season with their full squad intact despite heavy speculation of player departures over the winter.

Brierley is one of several Salford stars who had been linked with an exit amidst orders of the club being told to cut their salary cap spend by around £800,000: a situation they now look set to navigate through without any departures.

And he told Love Rugby League while they have been kept out of takeover talks, they are conscious of developments behind the scenes.

He said: “We’ve been in the dark for a lot of it, to be honest. That’s more a question for every individual player but I trusted Paul Rowley in the honesty he was delivering. I’m just thrilled we can concentrate on a competitive game at the weekend and get back to playing rugby. It’s nice to have that focus rather than all that external noise because it’s hard to get away from.

“We’ve not really had any conversations. We’re aware things in the background are happening but we don’t know how close or otherwise that is. You guys in the media will know more than me, we’re taking each day as it comes.”

Brierley also insisted he never once requested to leave the club – or had any intention of doing so at any stage.

“I was always hopeful I could stay because we’ve got a great group here,” Brierley said. “There’s been a lot of agent talk involved but that’s all been controlled by the club. What I would say is that the players have had no say in any of this. Ultimately, nobody left. I think that goes back to how strong the group is.”

When asked if he had been approached by any clubs, Brierley responded: “I’m really happy at Salford. I’ve been really happy there for a number of years. We’ve always been kept in the dark in terms of approaches.”

Salford return to competitive action this weekend with a Challenge Cup tie against Midlands Hurricanes. And he insisted that the togetherness of the Red Devils squad has strengthened further throughout a turbulent off-season.

“The fact we’ve got such a good group really helps us,” he said.

“If were hadn’t have had that it could have been a bit messy. Because this group trusts one another, it’s massive. We’ve always been delivered transparency from Paul throughout and that’s all we want from the men at the top. I’m really proud of us getting here today and hopefully there’s many more months of good news ahead.”

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