“You are playing a game of football this afternoon but more than that you are playing for England, and more even than that, you are playing for right versus wrong. You will win because you have to win. Don’t forget that message from home. England expects every one of you to do his duty.”
Clearly Nene's statement a week or two ago was in an attempt to try protect himself from being sacked without a payout. If Nene has been offered as part of the deal for Croft then it works for both us and Salford. The last thing we wanted was Nene remaining on the books, not playing whilst being paid and taking a crucial quota spot away from us.
Wrongly I thought that the club would say he is on contract to us. Any club wanting him, pay a transfer fee to us.
I assumed the complete opposite. Second he didn't come back I assumed we'd just let him off his contract and he'd be free to go and sign for whoever he wanted. Lo and behold…