Madejski Announcement

[The Prisoner]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3765517/Reading-1-Barnsley-2.html

LOLZ! I'm guessing he heard them then

[Ferris]

http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... reading_fc

Reading chairman Sir John Madejski spoke candidly to the press after his side’s dismal performance on Saturday in which they went down 2-1 to Barnsley at home.

Responding to fans’ chants urging the Royals supremo to put his hand in his pocket and give manager Brian McDermott a cash windfall to boost his squad after another summer of sales, the full transcript has been printed for the fans by getreading.

You obviously heard the fans’ chants, can you understand their frustrations?

I’m p****d off. Everyone is frustrated, none more than the players, the manager, me, the board and the fans. Everybody is frustrated. Sadly two penalties were taken, but saved very well.

It’s difficult to come back from, we got the third penalty, but it could have been different if we got one of those penalties and I think we would have seen a different game.

It’s the wonderful world of football. I think we were the better team on the day, but the gods just weren’t with us and Barnsley managed to win 2-1.

We should have won and I’m sure everybody will tell you that.

Clearly you have to sell players, but does the club need the money? Or are the offers too good to turn down?

It’s not a question about the offers being too good to turn down. The people that have gone from here, and Shane Long, bless him, well done to him for scoring the goal against Manchester United, but the reason he left was that he was a Premier League player.

He we had gone to the Premier League then he would be playing for Reading. However, we didn’t, that’s the fact of the matter.

And all this talk about how much money we got for him is a load of baloney. We didn’t get anything quite like that at the end of the day.

But when push comes to shove I’m not allowed to say how much we got because of contractual reasons. But it’s nowhere near the figures being banded about in the newspapers and the media.

Football is that sort of whirly gig and sometimes you are disappointed and Saturday was a great occasion for disappointment. As far as I remember, I’ve never seen us lose at home against Barnsley before.

We will come back and get over this. We have a good team and good spirit in the camp.

Will there be money to spend?

I don’t know where you’re going to find this money from? We have budgets that we work to and there is a bit of scope to do some more deals before August 31.

Do you think the manager will be able to bring somebody in?

I’m sure something will happen. I have no doubt about that. But these things are rather clandestine in this day and age due to the fact that as soon as you mention anything you put yourself at a disadvantage.

You don’t want people to know what you are getting up to frankly and that’s the way it is.

Some of the fans writing on message boards ask “Where has the money gone?”

Well I just explained these sums of money that are cast in the media are nothing like the sums of money that we get.

Matt Mills went for £4.5million though?

You don’t know that. You don’t know what the net figure was after bits and pieces were paid out and commission.

But it was quite a lot of money?

Well it’s not a lot. If you look at our wage bill, which I wish somebody would. And work it all out to how it computes then you would realise that I’ve never taken money out of the club, EVER. No one is taking money out of the club, football is a very expensive game.

We have quite a lot of players and some fantastic young players coming through and we cut the coat according to the cloth.

I’ve been asked the question to whether or not we will strengthen the team and the answer to that is possibly. I don’t know, that’s the bottom line.

I’m sure we are plotting, scheming and so on before August 31, but that’s all I can tell you. The point is, there isn’t a great big caldron of money. There isn’t, there just isn’t.

It’s a very expensive business to be in and you only have to look at the figures properly and they can.

Then they would see that keeping the show on the road, with all the expenses of football, including every single thing you could imagine, you will find out that there isn’t a great big heap of cash there waiting to be spent.

But we’re doing our best and we’re doing our best under the circumstances – as always. That’s all for the fans and everybody at Reading football club.

I guess last season would have given you a boost though with the FA Cup run and play-off final?

We do need things like that to boost the coffers, there is no doubt about it. But there isn’t some hoard of money that we are keeping secret or anything like that.

It isn’t there I’m afraid, but every year we struggle like mad to keep the show on the road and do out best.

Is the club breaking even at the moment?

It’s difficult to say right now because we’re in the middle of things, so I can’t say whether it is or not. I would be very surprised if it is quite honestly.

Does this all go back to wages being too high?

Everyone knows that footballers are paid an extraordinary amount of money, which is not composite with what we have got. That’s why football is struggling.

Not just in this division, but in the Premier League and everywhere else. It’s a fact of life now and I’m sure that is going to change.

We can’t wait until they bring in the football fair-play rules as we decided on in the last conference. We just try to do the best we can and that is what we do.

We have some very good people here struggling to make it work and square the rubican, but there is no fat on the bone.

[bigmike]

I am not reading that because I know that all it will say is I have never taken money out of the club We have to cut the coat according to the cloth.

Same as Last year the year before and the year before

[muddyfeet]

understand what he's saying and have never been anti Madejski as such. but how can nearly every other championship club afford to bring new players in and we cant. I dont want to be in financial sh1t like Pompey etc but what about the others?

from that article we dont sound very well run, we sound like we are struggling to keep afloat

[madstadblues]

Has anyone done the maths ?

I agree with Mr. M that no one knows exactly how much we were paid for Mills and Long and over what terms.

[The Goat was fed]

Has any other club in the Championship:

(a) Received money in transfers?
(b) Enjoyed a better cup run/made extra revenue from the play-offs?

[Royal Lady]

LOL that the Sun's take on the interview was slightly different to the EP one!

[Silver Fox]

understand what he's saying and have never been anti Madejski as such. but how can nearly every other championship club afford to bring new players in and we cant. I dont want to be in financial sh1t like Pompey etc but what about the others?

from that article we dont sound very well run, we sound like we are struggling to keep afloat

Other championship clubs can't afford to bring in the players either, we're just honest enough not to build up unsustainable debts to do it

[marcusopp]

Will you morons stop fecking complaining about SJM!
We'd have probably done an aldershot if he hadn't taken over when he did.
He's spent millions of his own money on you ungrateful b@stards.
I'm a proper RFC fan, and love attending the mad stad, it's a great facility.
We're a well run club, and probably the envy of many a top flight club (?everton).
Our level is probably upper to mid championship, so be grateful we're at that.
Look at the sheffield clubs for crying out loud, it could be a lot worse.
Shut your cake holes and try and be supportive.

[southbank1871]

I think the painful truth is SJM ain't as rich as he once was so can't cover any deficits at the moment with the ease he once could. He has been falling steadily in the Times Rich List year after year, and although he is still a very wealthy man, he has seen he fortune halved in the last 10 years or so to about £175 Million. He is selling off one of his Hotels, shares in companies at the moment and it appears has been hit hard by the economic downturn, so I hardly feel he is in the mood to pump more money into the football club. It is not exactly a hard luck story, but £175million doesn't go a long way in football these days, which is more or a sad reflection on football than SJM.

The sooner a new buyer comes along the better, but we just don't know when that will be. Until then, we will stand still. Madejski can't just step aside if there is nobody to take over.

I have a feeling he may put this across in a more heartfelt way than before when his interview is published tomorrow.

This is essentially it. Madejski doesn't have the money or really the inclination anymore to subsidise the club as he did before.

[friday fan]

I don't believe that he doesn't know the current state of the books and whether they are being balanced, he is the chairman for gods sake and he knows. He just didn't like a public show of people rising against him. The issue that he needs to come to grips with is that fans are customers and the money that goes through the tills each matchday can decrease if people get sick of the product. I think he needs to understand the value for money principal in terms of what people are prepared to pay for. Cutting the cloth is a yearly quote and if he can't afford to perform his role as chairman and remember he got into this knowing the cost then he should get out. LOL at the report that he is waiting for a billionaire buyer as if he doesn't want the club to be sold to a mere meagre millionaire well what is he then, a falling millionaire who is flogging off his wares which suggests to me that he is in trouble, he might be asset rich but not liquad rich.

If he can't stand the chants then get out of the business unless of course he is going to be more relevant and informative when interviewed.

Nobody wants to mortgage the club but fans do desrve a decent standard of football and evidence on the pitch that the club will be competative.

[Schards#2]

So we sold Gylfi to cover the black hole at the end of 2010/2011.

We've subsequently sold our best forward and best defender.

Yet there's no pot of money avaialble for replacements

World class business model at work.

[Row Z Royal]

I am not reading that because I know that all it will say is I have never taken money out of the club We have to cut the coat according to the cloth.

Same as Last year the year before and the year before

Well you have read it because you've C&P'd from the article.

[southbank1871]

Nobody wants to mortgage the club but fans do desrve a decent standard of football and evidence on the pitch that the club will be competative.

An FA Cup quarter-final and a play-off final not competitive enough for you?

There's some (seemingly) fairly intelligent people on here who struggle to grasp pretty simple concepts.

[Row Z Royal]

Nobody wants to mortgage the club but fans do desrve a decent standard of football and evidence on the pitch that the club will be competative.

An FA Cup quarter-final and a play-off final not competitive enough for you?

There's some (seemingly) fairly intelligent people on here who struggle to grasp pretty simple concepts.

First day on the internet m8?

[southbank1871]

So we sold Gylfi to cover the black hole at the end of 2010/2011.

We've subsequently sold our best forward and best defender.

Yet there's no pot of money avaialble for replacements

World class business model at work.

That's the football business model unfortunately, unless you want to risk the future of the club by taking on insane levels of debt.

[Terminal Boardom]

Having read the cut and paste from the Scrote, either SJM is talking football BS or he does not have a clue wtf is going on. My bet is on the BS line and hoping that his lackeys on this board lap it up and cream themselves. Sometimes, it is best to say nothing.

[Silver Fox]

You really should take your own advice

[Ups and Downs]

Telling us that he can't tell anyone the amount for contractual reasons! LOL

Yes John, they were contractual clauses that you insisted on! As you alwas do and then we are told the player went or came in for an undisclosed fee.

I understand that football is expensive but it's frustrating when you see teams around us, who haven't had the opportunity to sell off £11 million of players, spending more than we do.

It makes you wonder where we would be if we hadn't sold over £20million of players in the past 2 or 3 years?

[Terminal Boardom]

You really should take your own advice

Now now. There is nothing new in what he said. Same old spin and BS. If that pacifies the masses then it has served its purpose. Fact is, there is nothing in what has been reported to suggest anything other than more of the same. The last time he invested in the squad was back in 2005. How many other Football Chairmen have gone 6 years without personally investing in the playing squad?