Madejski's comments to BBC Radio Berkshire

[howser]

Loyal i dont think he has taken as far as he can, but as far as he wants or is prepared to.

[bn2001uk]

I am sure we are all grateful for what Mr Mad has done for the club in general and it is admirable that we have achieved so much on such little budget but I refuse to believe there is no money available since we dropped out of the Premiership. We have parachute payments and what about the money we banked after staying up in our first season?
I understand he doesn't want to mortgage the club as he knows he will have to bail it out if it goes wrong but really football these days is expensive and to be up there you have to spend to get decent players in. Chances of finding another Doyle and Long deal are miniscule.
How ambitious is JM really to get us up to Premiership again? He wants to get up there to get the riches that come with it but doesn't want to spend the money to get us there.

Of course wages are obscene but that is the market value for football salaries...not point moaning about it.

Who wants to buy us as a Championship team? Not many.

Mr Mad, stop trying to kid us there isn't any money available. Do deals which are based on appearances and cut the commercials differently to spread the risk for expensive players......we want out of this league and we need ambitious investment in players to get us there.

[Arch]

Keep racking up the points and all this will be neither here nor there. Nothing like football to take your mind off the serious business of impulse shopping.

[Royal Rother]

we want out of this league and we need ambitious investment in players to get us there.

Not if that puts at risk the financial stability and self sufficiency he has worked so hard to establish within the club for the last 16 years, we don't.

Well, I don't anyway.

There will be loads of clubs who have risked everything on chasing a dream, going into Administration in the next 2 to 3 years - with JM at the helm, we won't be one of them, of that you can be certain.

[FiNeRaIn]

There will be loads of clubs who have risked everything on chasing a dream, going into Administration in the next 2 to 3 years - with JM at the helm, we won't be one of them, of that you can be certain.

Just say he wants to step down in two years, who takes over? On top of that, where are the funds we have made the last few years put? Is there a reading FC bank? or is it all going into his bank? We can't be certain. He could up and leave and take our premiership profits with him and we could be penniless.

[strap]

If we have surplus cash and their are players available that want to come to us for a price that reflect their market value that will also improve the team then I am sure we will buy them. These kind of players are very hard to come by unfortunately. In the last 3 years Madejski has always allowed money to be available on players like Lita, Seol, Bikey, Kebe, Cisse, Noel Hunt and Fae. Spending lots of money like all Reading fans seem desperate for us to do does not always guarentee a brilliant player and instant sucess, it is a MASSIVE gamble as Fae has proved. 2 years ago Steve Coppell turned a mediocre Championship side into the best side the Championship as ever seen, for less than 1.5 million.

Anyway this whole argument about blaming Madejski for us not making big money signings and especially those of you saying he should just sell up is mental. Madejski has been saying for years he would happily sell up to anyone who will take the club forward and provide plenty of financial backing for the team. Problem is there are only a few people in the world willing to do things like that and most of them, with the exception of QPR tend to buy clubs like Chelsea! He has never claimed to be the next Roman Abramovic he has always said he would not just continue to bank roll the club, instead he would do his upmost to make the club self sufficient and able to survive without constant injections of cash, to ensure our long term survival!

Anyone that is critical of John Madejski is absolutly nuts. He has done pretty miraculous things for this club e.g building us a brand new stadium and investing in infrastructure that has enabled the club to flourish, incrased our fan base massively and helped us to attract the players that took us to the top tier of english football for the first time in our history.

Utter kack fella!! He will only sell for the right price - i.e. sufficient for him to get his £40M LOAN back and then some!!!! The right price is of course the price that is right for HIM, not for the good of the club. I've been saying for bloody years that this bloke is a business man, NOT a football supporter. If he is such a wiz at business, (and if you read your history, you will note that he simply copied the idea for Auto Trader from a similar mag in the States), why did he piss away our premiership status for the sake of buying a couple of decent players in the Jan transfer window!? And you call us STGs Nuts!! If he wanted the £35M from this season's Sky, wouldn't it have made more business sense to have spent £5M of last season's money to help secure this season's? Similalrly, had we still been in the Prem this year, the chances of him finding a buyer for the club FOR THE PRICE HE WANTS would have been about 100 tims easier than it is today.

As for the £91M (BBRB figure) allegedly entering the clubs coffers over the last 2 years and this - Mr Ego reckons it all gone!!!! Ha!!! Where!? Stadium refurbishments? What, on a stadium only 10 yewars old?!?!?! Transfer fees?!?!! Derrr! And then of course there's this myth of players wages and the MASSIVE (Mr Ego's words) squad we CURRENTLY have!?! Utter oxf*rd lies and bollocks. Cannot WAIT for the next accounts to be published. Wonder if we will see a great fat hefty dividend paid to shareholders for the first time in living memeory!?!?! Or will we see Me Ego's LOANS of £40M start to come down?!?!?

Soak up all the lies, bullshit and empty rhetoric RTGs. The Emporer's cloths are threadbare. The kitchen is FAR too hot for Mr Ego.

[Southbank Old Boy]

I heard some of the Madejski interview on the radio today, and I have to say he sounded like he was just trying to play things down and almost hide the truth behind the finances.

As one of the radio guys says, he always trys to play down the available money and build up the costs. I think that was kind of what he was trying to do, the problem was that he was all over the place doing so. I can't believe that all that Premiership money has gone and we're back to square one with no funds available.

If that is the case then I'd like to see the club be a bit more transparent about how the money is spent. Yes the accounts are available if you go to search them out but it would be a good bit of PR for the club to show some more up to date information to give its "customers" a bit more insight into how the club is positioned so that there isn't just a slagging of the chairman.

[Skin]

...and people had to have it spelt out before recognising what was going on? c'mon it was obvious, and just after everyone has shelled out for their STs. Timing JM, timing.

[Drew_3]

i say we hold a protest in his parking space!!!tuesday good for everyone?ill ring the local rags!

[Platypuss]

BUT do you think the players wages will have come down?

Er, yes?

Fewer players, and fewer players on lower wages.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

If we have surplus cash and their are players available that want to come to us for a price that reflect their market value that will also improve the team then I am sure we will buy them. These kind of players are very hard to come by unfortunately. In the last 3 years Madejski has always allowed money to be available on players like Lita, Seol, Bikey, Kebe, Cisse, Noel Hunt and Fae. Spending lots of money like all Reading fans seem desperate for us to do does not always guarentee a brilliant player and instant sucess, it is a MASSIVE gamble as Fae has proved. 2 years ago Steve Coppell turned a mediocre Championship side into the best side the Championship as ever seen, for less than 1.5 million.

Anyway this whole argument about blaming Madejski for us not making big money signings and especially those of you saying he should just sell up is mental. Madejski has been saying for years he would happily sell up to anyone who will take the club forward and provide plenty of financial backing for the team. Problem is there are only a few people in the world willing to do things like that and most of them, with the exception of QPR tend to buy clubs like Chelsea! He has never claimed to be the next Roman Abramovic he has always said he would not just continue to bank roll the club, instead he would do his upmost to make the club self sufficient and able to survive without constant injections of cash, to ensure our long term survival!

Anyone that is critical of John Madejski is absolutly nuts. He has done pretty miraculous things for this club e.g building us a brand new stadium and investing in infrastructure that has enabled the club to flourish, incrased our fan base massively and helped us to attract the players that took us to the top tier of english football for the first time in our history.

Utter kack fella!! He will only sell for the right price - i.e. sufficient for him to get his £40M LOAN back and then some!!!! The right price is of course the price that is right for HIM, not for the good of the club. I've been saying for bloody years that this bloke is a business man, NOT a football supporter. If he is such a wiz at business, (and if you read your history, you will note that he simply copied the idea for Auto Trader from a similar mag in the States), why did he piss away our premiership status for the sake of buying a couple of decent players in the Jan transfer window!? And you call us STGs Nuts!! If he wanted the £35M from this season's Sky, wouldn't it have made more business sense to have spent £5M of last season's money to help secure this season's? Similalrly, had we still been in the Prem this year, the chances of him finding a buyer for the club FOR THE PRICE HE WANTS would have been about 100 tims easier than it is today.

As for the £91M (BBRB figure) allegedly entering the clubs coffers over the last 2 years and this - Mr Ego reckons it all gone!!!! Ha!!! Where!? Stadium refurbishments? What, on a stadium only 10 yewars old?!?!?! Transfer fees?!?!! Derrr! And then of course there's this myth of players wages and the MASSIVE (Mr Ego's words) squad we CURRENTLY have!?! Utter oxf*rd lies and bollocks. Cannot WAIT for the next accounts to be published. Wonder if we will see a great fat hefty dividend paid to shareholders for the first time in living memeory!?!?! Or will we see Me Ego's LOANS of £40M start to come down?!?!?

Soak up all the lies, bullshit and empty rhetoric RTGs. The Emporer's cloths are threadbare. The kitchen is FAR too hot for Mr Ego.

Given the price of clubs these days, and the fact that there don't seem to be any Reading supporting multimillionaires out there who would buy us because they are supporters of the club, what makes you think another chairman would automatically be any better?

Anyone who buys us will almost certainly be a businessman too, and will also want a return on that investment, possibly more of a return than Madejski. It's as if you believe that there's a world of Jack Walkers out there just queuing up to spend several million pounds a year bringing success to Reading.

[Denver Royal]

There will be loads of clubs who have risked everything on chasing a dream, going into Administration in the next 2 to 3 years.

Makes you wonder if there will be any clubs left in 2 years for us to play against. Maybe we'll be playing against ourselves at the training ground.

So your theory is the other clubs are complete idiots, and the board room at RFC are the only people in the country who magically know how to run a club?

As far as the Premiership, how do you suppose we magically knew what to do, when we had never been there before and had no experience of it?

Some of these other clubs that have bounced up and down a bit, they haven't learned anything and they know nothing?

[Southbank Old Boy]

BUT do you think the players wages will have come down?

Er, yes?

Fewer players, and fewer players on lower wages.

Although, despite what we've been led to believe, the wages haven't actually come down by much according to the chairman

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

The thing that always confuses me and makes me believe that it was Coppell just spending the money.

Is that, it's cost him a lot more to get relegated than spending an extra £20m on transfers and wages. You're talking between £100m - £50m.

Still, his comments contradict that.

[The 17 Bus]

Were we not told by the club that wages were to fall by 40% following relegation?? if so that puts S hunt on £15k a week now, down from £25, unless some fool at the club in January gave Hunt a deal that did not include a clause that his wages would drop should we be relegated, if someone did they should they not carry the can.

Keane did not really want Hunt, he wanted to rock the boat at RFC and he succeeded, if he had wanted him he would have come back and had him in the summer, because as sure as most shite is brown Hunt had a getaway clause in the new contract.

Mr Madejski sounded like he was answering the questions, but flummoxed at the same time, verty few will believe all that money was spent on RFC, if you took your loans back then say so, am not sure i really mind, but do not treat the fans as fools, too many have brains and knowledge as well Mr Madejski, you will be the one ending up looking wrong.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

There will be loads of clubs who have risked everything on chasing a dream, going into Administration in the next 2 to 3 years.

Makes you wonder if there will be any clubs left in 2 years for us to play against. Maybe we'll be playing against ourselves at the training ground.

So your theory is the other clubs are complete idiots, and the board room at RFC are the only people in the country who magically know how to run a club?

People have been saying, so many clubs will go out of business, for so many years.

There's still plenty of money in football.

[West Stand Man]

a post thread supporting madejski = deleted
post a thread criticising madejski = allowed in numbers

sums up moderators here nicely.. only accept THEIR views.. no room for others

and it has taken you just how long to work that out?

[SCIAG]

Keane did not really want Hunt, he wanted to rock the boat at RFC and he succeeded, if he had wanted him he would have come back and had him in the summer, because as sure as most shite is brown Hunt had a getaway clause in the new contract.

He came back, but didn't meet the clause, realised Hunt is actually rubbish and bought Diouf and Malbranque.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Mr Madejski sounded like he was answering the questions, but flummoxed at the same time, verty few will believe all that money was spent on RFC, if you took your loans back then say so, am not sure i really mind, but do not treat the fans as fools, too many have brains and knowledge as well Mr Madejski, you will be the one ending up looking wrong.

Spot on, that was how I read it really

Some upfront honesty about whats going would be nice

[West Stand Man]

Utter kack fella!! He will only sell for the right price - i.e. sufficient for him to get his £40M LOAN back and then some!!!! The right price is of course the price that is right for HIM, not for the good of the club. I've been saying for bloody years that this bloke is a business man, NOT a football supporter. If he is such a wiz at business, (and if you read your history, you will note that he simply copied the idea for Auto Trader from a similar mag in the States), why did he piss away our premiership status for the sake of buying a couple of decent players in the Jan transfer window!? And you call us STGs Nuts!! If he wanted the £35M from this season's Sky, wouldn't it have made more business sense to have spent £5M of last season's money to help secure this season's? Similalrly, had we still been in the Prem this year, the chances of him finding a buyer for the club FOR THE PRICE HE WANTS would have been about 100 tims easier than it is today.

As for the £91M (BBRB figure) allegedly entering the clubs coffers over the last 2 years and this - Mr Ego reckons it all gone!!!! Ha!!! Where!? Stadium refurbishments? What, on a stadium only 10 yewars old?!?!?! Transfer fees?!?!! Derrr! And then of course there's this myth of players wages and the MASSIVE (Mr Ego's words) squad we CURRENTLY have!?! Utter oxf*rd lies and bollocks. Cannot WAIT for the next accounts to be published. Wonder if we will see a great fat hefty dividend paid to shareholders for the first time in living memeory!?!?! Or will we see Me Ego's LOANS of £40M start to come down?!?!?

Soak up all the lies, bullshit and empty rhetoric RTGs. The Emporer's cloths are threadbare. The kitchen is FAR too hot for Mr Ego.

It is a shame that you did not wait longer in the queue for brains. You might just have had a wider selection and had the option to get a decent one. ASh well, such is life.
As to your vitiol. Why shouldn't he wait for the 'right price'. Surely it is not unheard ofto do that? Refurbishments on a 10 year old building are petty normal. The wage bill at RFC is huge, check out the facts sometime.



ps, as a diehard RTG I really enjoyed today. I know the STGs will search to identify problems, but the fact is we won!