Salford City’s Director of Football, Chris Casper, has officially left the Peninsula Stadium after more than seven years with the club.
Casper has been with Salford ever since they became a professional outfit back in 2017, being brought in as Sporting Director by the Class of ’92 before progressing into an adjacent Director of Football role in recent years.
Having been tasked with establishing the Salford’s Academy system, now classed as a Category 3 academy with teams ranging from Under-9s all the way up to the B-Team, he’s been key in creating pathways for young players in Greater Manchester and beyond to progress into first-team football.
Now, the Lancashire-born former player is set to join his boyhood club, Burnley, in the ideal role as Manager of the Clarets Academy, set to build on the success seen here in Salford.
After nearly 8 years at the club, Chris Casper has left to take up a role at Burnley 🤝
Chris has been a major part of the pathway for our young players who have made men's first team appearances, and we wish him all the best in his new opportunity!
Writing in a statement on the club website, Salford said: “In just seven years we have seen 46 players from our development system make men’s first-team appearances, and most recently Marshall Heys made Emirates FA Cup history as the youngest player to play for a professional club in the competition when he came on as a substitute in our 2-1 win against Shrewsbury Town.”
As for Casper himself, he said: “I would like to thank the staff and players that I have worked with for their help and support over nearly eight years in what has been such an exciting time at the club, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working at Salford with some wonderful people.
He went on to add: “I would also like to thank the supporters who have been brilliant in my time at the Club. In particular, I would like to thank the owners for their support and their trust throughout my time here, and I am grateful to them to have allowed me this opportunity.”
Like his previous co-owners, the 49-year-old started out his career as a player at Manchester United, going on to enjoy spells as a defender at the likes of Bournemouth, Swindon and Reading before getting a taste of management at Bath and Bury.
As the son of Burnley legend, Frank Casper – who played and managed the club – as well as the father of current goalkeeper, Charlie, it goes without saying that it was a warm welcome home.
Speaking on his first day, Chris went on to say: “It’s maybe fate to follow in the footsteps of my dad and my son as well. It feels surreal to be here but it’s genuinely a dream come true.”
As for what would have been his equivalent while at Salford, Director of Football Development, Paul Jenkins, added: “It’s a good day for us at the football club. Chris was an outstanding candidate with many years of experience at this level.
“He spent well over 10 years at the Premier League as a club [academy] support manager and one of the main qualities in that role is that you get to experience good practice at other football clubs, independently, which is important.”
“He also had success at Salford. He was pivotal in developing young players and their football strategy. So, coupled with his roots at this football club, he is the ideal fit.”
Featured Images — Salford City/Burnley FC (via YouTube screenshots)
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Pep Guardiola hints at when Manchester City fans can expect to see their latest arrival
Danny Jones
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given supporters a rough timeline as to when they can expect to see their new signing, or at least their latest arrival, make his first appearance.
The Blues wrapped up the January transfer window with four major signings: their new attacking number seven, Omar Marmoush (who has already bagged a hattrick on his home debut) promising defensive duo, Abdukodir Khusanov and Brazilian Vitor Reis, as well as their ‘mini-Rodri’, Nico Gonzalez.
However, the club has had another late arrival who was technically signed back at the start of last year but who has spent for the last 12 months or so loaned back to his previous parent club, River Plate in Argentina, waiting to make the move over to the Etihad Stadium – and now he’s here in Manchester.
Speaking on his touchdown in 0161, Pep said Claudio Echeverri won’t be thrown into first-team action straight away but did give a rough estimate as to when City fans could expect him to get involved. You can see him discussing the integration plan in his post-match press conference following the Spurs win.
The mention was only brief but there’s still plenty of reason for Man City fans to be excited by the late January signing.
“Yeah, he [Claudio Echeverri] is going to start to train and mainly will be for the end of the season, maybe the [Club] World Cup and as soon as possible [that] he arrives he can adapt quick for the future.”
As mentioned, the 19-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder from Resistencia officially put pen to paper with CFG back in January 2024 and was quickly dubbed ‘the next Messi’.
Now, although the football world is often quick to jump the gun with these things and he isn’t the first and certainly won’t be last to be slapped with this premature title, he’s done more to back up these claims since then than he has rubbish them.
Starring at the 2025 Under-20 South American Championships, netting six goals in nine games to finish the tournament as the second highest scorer thanks to notable braces against Brazil and Uruguay as the young Argentine’s finished as runners up.
He also notched 48 senior appearances for River Plate thus far, netting four goals and grabbing eight assists in that time, not to mention having already captained his national team at the 2023 Under 17s World Cup, where he scored another five.
Safe to say there’s plenty of talent to be tapped in this lad.
Once again, Echeverri won’t go straight into the senior set-up for a little while yet, barring a major injury crisis, but he’ll be a more than exciting addition to the City Football Academy and for future first-team lineups for years to come.
Who knows, maybe he’ll be included in an FA Cup matchday squad? Nevertheless, you can expect him to not just come of the bench but hopefully show what he can do at the Club World Cup this summer.
City‘s first fixture as reigning champions of the competition will be against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June 2025.
You can watch Echeverri’s first full interview as a Man City player down below:
The new Man City signing is excited to be finally be part of the club 13 months on from agreeing his contract.
‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
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Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Danny Jones -
12th November 2024 
