Annus Horribilis

Remember when the Queen said that? Annus Horribilis. 1992 was her horrible year. All the shenanigans around Charles and Di, randy Andy and Fergie, and Windsor Castle going up in smoke. One thing after another. Well, we’ve had a dodgy annus as well.

Few will argue that last year was Salford’s worst for a long time, if not of all time. You can argue from statistical perspective that it wasn’t, and other clubs have had worse years. Halifax ended 2002 with fewer league points, for example.
What made last year the worst was the domination of off-field shenanigans; a rollercoaster of false hope and bullshittery. The experience of a club dissected and slowly disemboweled until becoming a husk.

It started in November 2024, when a vital financial pipeline from Salford City Council was shut off, forcing Paul King to proffer his begging bowl to the rest of Super League for an advance on broadcast monies. Six weeks of uncertainty ensued until a consortium headed up by a Swiss, Dario Berta ( remember him? ), ‘saved’ the club and ‘secured’ its immediate future.

What followed for the rest of 2025 could fill a book. Well, certainly if ChatGPT wrote it. Who did what, who didn’t do that, and who backstabbed who? We don’t need to rake over those still fresh wounds right now. What made 2025 the worst was that, a few matches aside, there was little in the way of satisfaction to be had for fans.

What do I mean by that? Well, we all support the team in different ways. Whether that’s by the literal understanding of support, always being there whatever, to the more twisted logic of paying your money, thereby giving you the right to tear into the team for 80 minutes for ruining your life. And all the flavours in between. The one thing the vast majority of fans will agree on though, is that they are invested in the club, in its fortunes, in the pride of following it, because of what happens on the pitch, not off it.

That politics and sport do not mix is naive, but oft quoted and believed. I think we’ve experienced such naivety most recently where a few supporters complained on Facebook about the vagaries of season ticket purchases and lack of new squad announcements, seemingly oblivious that the new administration is trying to get a juggernaut up to speed with little tug.

You cannot be het up and truly invested in a team that has no chance of victory all the time, and for most of 2025, our team had no chance. It would be a different story if that team was largely a first choice squad of rotters and under performers. (See 1999, and countless others.) You can be invested then, usually by venting. But when you have a group of lambs to the slaughter, when keeping a score below 50 points is a moral victory, there’s nothing to be taken from it, other than the social aspect of going to games.

We’re now supporting a club that is starting from the bottom. They may have no chance against some teams in 2026, but they should have a chance against others. Here’s to enjoying being invested in what truly matters – the action on the pitch.