It seemed like a Plan.
Five successful ex players of one of the biggest clubs in the world would put their money, experience and knowledge into a local football club to bring them success. In fact Gary Neville said that they wanted to bring stability to the club. In the September of 2014 the ownership team announced that they had agreed to sell a 50% stake in the club to a Singapore based billionaire Peter Lim who owned Valencia CF.
After a poor start to their season, the Gang of 5 decided to sack the manager and his assistant. This was the first of some puzzling decisions, as they had not given the outgoing manager any guidance or the benefit of their combined wisdom.
In fact their input had been quite limited. Gary Neville had looked to sort out the toilet area and also replace the 'dodgy' Sky Box with a more legitimate one. Paul Scholes had moaned and criticised about what was happening on the field, very much like he does in his current media role. Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt had met and shaken people's hands and Phil Neville had taken limited part in training sessions.
A new management team were appointed, although a filmed fight on the touchline was amongst their controversial C.V. Part-timers Bernard Morley's and Anthony Johnson's appointments were according to Ryan Giggs ' a huge gamble ' and Gary Neville said, while watching a replay of the touchline altercation, 'I don't like it but we wanted that fight and passion'?
Phil Neville decided to try his hand at scouting and brought a young skilful defender to the club. The new managers didn't play him so Phil got him a trial at Old Trafford where he was rewarded with an initial 18 month contract?
With the season at a critical stage regarding promotion, The owners decided that on the Thursday night before a 'must win' Saturday game they would hold a function for all the club volunteer staff and players with a 'free bar'. Needless to say they were not up for the game on the Saturday and were beaten?
When their most valuable player was dropped after taking time off for a fashion photo shoot the management felt the need to call him from the bench which was justified when he scored a last minute winner.
Salford City FC clinched promotion when their rivals Darlington failed to beat Warrington and so the Plan worked.
Obviously other clubs can now use this as a 'blueprint' for success or are there other ways?
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