Warrington Wolves coach makes major Salford transfer admission

Warrington Wolves coach Sam Burgess admits the club would be ‘daft’ not to weigh up the possibility of potentially looking at signing Salford Red Devils players to bolster their squad.

The Red Devils have been told they must dramatically cut costs after a review of the club’s finances by the Rugby Football League. They have been instructed to operate to a sustainability cap of £1.2million – which would broadly mean cutting player salaries by around £800,000.

Salford are further hamstrung by the fact that only three clubs – Huddersfield, Wakefield and Leigh – have quota space, meaning that for the rest of Super League, they can only source potential deals for domestic players. That is unless a second vote to allow exemptions to the overseas quota is approved.

But for now, Warrington are in the group of clubs who could only potentially sign non-quota players.

And head coach Burgess admitted they would be foolish not to be monitoring the situation at the Red Devils with a view to potentially doing a deal.

He said to the Mirror: “It’s daft to think you’re not going to have a look.

“We’re not not in the market. It’s business. It’s the business of winning. Everyone else is doing it (looking at Salford’s situation) so…I don’t know as I don’t work there. But it’s obviously not great for everyone involved.”

Who the Wire could potentially target remains to be seen. They had concluded their transfer business for 2025 before the situation at Salford escalated.

Red Devils captain Kallum Watkins is a player several clubs are eyeing a deal for – and with Warrington losing the likes of John Bateman and Matty Nicholson, it remains to be seen whether an extra back-rower would be of interest to Burgess.

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