The messages etched on the corridor walls at Salford City’s modest little stadium convey the hope that old-fashioned values and sheer love of a place might bring football success.
‘Hard work, determination and never giving in. We learned our football principles in Salford,’ reads Gary Neville’s declaration. ‘Salford had the ingredients that made me a player,’ states that of Paul Scholes. Such was the ethos of the ‘Class of 92’ – a group of footballers whose collective name encapsulates the notion that an exceptional, young cohort can take on the world, if they’re ambitious enough.
An image of that group, standing on the grassy mound from which they would watch Salford play sides like Prescot Cables, Farsley Celtic and Grantham Town after buying the club ten years ago, reflects the uncomplicated joy they have all discovered here.