After Years of Waiting, Are These Former Manchester United Legends About to See Their Dream Become Reality?

After Years of Waiting, Are These Former Manchester United Legends About to See Their Dream Become Reality?

Salford City - a club that underwent a huge takeover over 10 years ago by the illustrious Class of 92, flew through the non-League divisions and even created a documentary surrounding the club. However, they have recently hit a huge roadblock at the first step of the English Football League.

Why so? The club has seen plenty of investment and many other clubs such as Wrexham and Stockport shoot through League Two, but just haven’t yet grasped the same momentum.

The club have now entered their seventh consecutive season in the English fourth tier. The band of Manchester United heroes don’t all necessarily have the same responsibilities at the club that they once did, but the Ammies are looking promising.

Nine games into the campaign, the Greater Manchester outfit occupy second place in the league that has hindered their journey and with the squad they’ve got, this year could pan out to be the one.

What Journey Have the Class of 92 Been on With Salford?

In 2014, five former Old Trafford performers purchased the small non-League club Salford City. These five were Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.

11 years since the Class of 92 completed their takeover of the club ✍️

What a journey so far 🙌 pic.twitter.com/F7jnSIkVwb

— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) March 27, 2025

At that time, the club operated in the eighth tier of English football, playing regional football in the Northern Premier League Division One North (Step 4). Just two months into the group’s first season as owners, they sold a 50% share of the club to Singapore-based billionaire Peter Lim, who is the owner of Valencia and Hotel Football next to Old Trafford.

Automatically, Salford cruised through Step 4, winning the league with 95 points to reach the Premier Division. Then just one year later it was almost like deja vu, as the Ammies achieved a second consecutive promotion from Step 3, after finishing third and winning the playoffs.

During that 2015/16 campaign, Salford also made it all the way to Round 2 of the FA Cup, after scrambling through the preliminary rounds and beating Notts County in Round 1.

The following campaign introduced Salford’s first time in the National League North, which didn’t need much getting used to. The club straight away finished fourth in the league, which was a stellar achievement. However, they unfortunately bowed out of the playoff semi-finals.

Despite the disheartening ending, that season was the year the club transformed their players into full-time professionals, for the first time in their history.

With this advantage, Salford then bounced back in the 2017/18 season, as they won the league with 91 points.

Entering the new campaign and one in the National League - England’s fifth tier - the Ammies had a new manager with the experienced Graham Alexander and they also spent a ton of money in the summer, which carried a lot of criticism.

However, the investment got them to where they wanted to be, as just one season into the National League, Salford found themselves promoted. They managed to win the playoffs after finishing 3rd in the regular season with 85 points, which promoted them alongside Leyton Orient.

On this day in 2⃣0⃣1⃣9⃣

We won promotion to the @EFL at @wembleystadium 🎉 pic.twitter.com/c22BEwRqzq

— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) May 11, 2024

That then placed the Greater Manchester side in League Two, where they have continued to play their football since, six years in.

League Two Roadblock

Of course, the English footballing pyramid becomes exponentially more difficult the higher up you go, but not even Salford themselves would have predicted such a tricky six years in League Two.

The Ammies spent their first campaign in the fourth tier in the 2019/20 season, where they finished 11th with 50 points and won the EFL Trophy in their debut year. It was a respectable start, but everyone expected more from them in the seasons to come.

Since that year, they have completed five more seasons in the same division, having only made the playoffs once and exercised five separate managers.

With their wealthy owners, they have continuously been big spenders too, bringing in an array of top players over the years. But despite all of their investment, it almost seemed as if Salford were making more distance back to where they came from.

In the 2023/24 campaign, Salford finished 20th in League Two.This was probably the most disappointing year for the club since their takeover. They picked up just 51 points and only ended up nine points clear of relegation back to non-League. That all happened within one year of competing in the playoffs too.

Despite not much changing for the club on the pitch, a lot has altered off of it. As of May this year, Salford City are now owned by a new consortium run by David Beckham and Gary Neville, alongside US businessman Declan Kelly and former British banker Lord Mervyn Davies.

🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: David Beckham and Gary Neville have completed a takeover of Salford City with new consortium.

The other Class of '92 members are no longer shareholders but will still have roles at Salford.

(Source: @David_Ornstein) pic.twitter.com/FRSGV84wwW

— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) May 8, 2025

This means that Peter Lim and the Class of 92 are no longer shareholders in the club. However, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes are all now helping the club in alternative departments, such as commercial, technical and recruitment aspects.

Could This be the Year?

Now in their seventh League Two campaign, Salford City are in some of the best form they have ever been in.

With Karl Robinson at the helm, the Ammies have kickstarted their opening nine games with six wins and one draw. This puts them second in the table with 19 points, just two points adrift of frontrunners Gillingham.

At this point in time, Salford just don’t look like dropping points. They have won each of their last four games, including one which came in the EFL Trophy. Robinson’s men are also the second top scorers in the league, after netting 16 goals so far. Although they need to tighten up at the back to avoid conceding as much as they do.

There is no surprise at all that Salford are in the position they are. They have built towards promotion for so long now that their team is more than capable of securing League One football.

The additions over the summer of Daniel Udoh, Jorge Grant, Adebola Oluwo, Kadeem Harris, Matt Butcher and Kallum Caesar have been truly phenomenal so far, which works a charm under the strict management of Karl Robinson.

League Two Goal of the Month winner 🥇

Ade Oluwo's stunner against Newport County has been awarded the @skybetleaguetwo Goal of the Month for August 👏

Congrats, Ade 🏆

— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) September 19, 2025

With four potential routes for promotion, this could finally be Salford’s year judging off their current form. Honestly it’s a complete shock they haven’t already sought League One football, considering the three automatic promotion spots up for grabs in the fourth tier.