SC hasn't a clue.

[Sarah Star]

It's not Steve Coppell that doesn't have a clue...........

It's the people of Reading that don't have a clue.

If you want a decent football team, then 25,000 more people need to show up every week. Then Reading could afford to hold onto their best players. Whilst we can't even sell out the Mad Stad then Reading are a Championship club.

I'm doing my best, bringing my friends and family, forcing them to become Reading FC members for life. What more do you want?

[Hoop Blah]

Tell that to Wigan, Fulham, Portsmouthm, Blackburn, Bolton, Hull, Stoke and West Brom. None of them average much higher than we did in the Premiership.

All teams struggle to hold on to their best players, it's knowing how and when to replace them successfully at the right price that is the key.

[CMRoyal]

Tell that to Wigan, Fulham, Portsmouthm, Blackburn, Bolton, Hull, Stoke and West Brom. None of them average much higher than we did in the Premiership.

And three of them won't last longer than we did in the Prem. Plus, overindebted Pompey will go the way of Southampton, or worse.

We're doing OK. Really, we are.

[Woodcote Royal]

Tell that to Wigan, Fulham, Portsmouthm, Blackburn, Bolton, Hull, Stoke and West Brom. None of them average much higher than we did in the Premiership.

All teams struggle to hold on to their best players, it's knowing how and when to replace them successfully at the right price that is the key.

Spot on in your response to yet more clueless pro Coppell dogma.

[brendywendy]

Tell that to Wigan, Fulham, Portsmouthm, Blackburn, Bolton, Hull, Stoke and West Brom. None of them average much higher than we did in the Premiership.

All teams struggle to hold on to their best players, it's knowing how and when to replace them successfully at the right price that is the key.

Spot on in your response to yet more clueless pro Coppell dogma.

says captain dogma

[Hoop Blah]

Tell that to Wigan, Fulham, Portsmouthm, Blackburn, Bolton, Hull, Stoke and West Brom. None of them average much higher than we did in the Premiership.

And three of them won't last longer than we did in the Prem. Plus, overindebted Pompey will go the way of Southampton, or worse.

We're doing OK. Really, we are.

Wigan, Fulham, Blackburn and Bolton already have of course.

I do think we're doing ok on a financial basis, and I don't want to see the club throw money away or load itself up with unworkable debt, but on the pitch we took our eye off the ball.

Our wage bill was £28m in 2007 and £31m for 2008, Wigan's was £27m in 2007, Blackburn's mid 30's for both years, Bolton's the same, Fulham's a couple of £m for than ours. It's not like we haven't been covering a similar wage bill.

Admittedly that extra 3 or 4 million might make all the difference but I don't think it's the defining factor.

[Top Flight]

So Reading are 5th in the table of clubs of similar stature.

Considering there are about 40 odd clubs of Readings stature and potential, maybe more, we are definitely doing very well.

Reading's board has the most cautious approach to football finance (compared to the 4 clubs listed above) and there is no doubt that it affects the outcome on the pitch.

I really don't think there is anyone out there who could replicate what Coppell is achieving under Readings unique circumstances. He is doing a truly amazing job.

All this ridiculously high expectation has been created by one truly sensational season that was a one off in not just the history of Reading but the history of any club.

5th in the Championship is a spectacular achievement for a club like Reading.

[Top Flight]

Football is a Fffd up game.

There is no reason why Reading can't somehow scramble in to the Premier League via an unjust Playoff final win and then following a summer of changing the playing staff go on to a top half Premier League finish and a cup final appearance.

That is pretty much what happened at West Ham under Pardew.

People forget that football is a beautiful game. Anything can happen to anyone.

Just enjoy the ride all you moaners.

[brendywendy]

2 truly spectacular seasons

[papereyes]

Our wage bill was £28m in 2007 and £31m for 2008, Wigan's was £27m in 2007, Blackburn's mid 30's for both years, Bolton's the same, Fulham's a couple of £m for than ours. It's not like we haven't been covering a similar wage bill.

... but I get told we can't compete ...

[boy1985]

the difference is Wigan spent their £27m wage budget on players like palacios, valencia and koumas while we spent it on halford, fae and shunt.

[brendywendy]

doh!!

coppell out





is it because we pay fairly across the board, but those teams pay daft wages on the palacios',
and low wages for everyone else?

[boy1985]

doh!!

coppell out





is it because we pay fairly across the board, but those teams pay daft wages on the palacios',
and low wages for everyone else?

yeah i guess so, but maybe that's the way to do it!

[Hoop Blah]

is it because we pay fairly across the board, but those teams pay daft wages on the palacios',
and low wages for everyone else?

I doubt it.

Hunt, Doyle and Harper had some significant pay increases from what we've been led to believe.

I can't imagine the likes of Ivar or Long were on the £25k our top earners were reportedly on.

EDIT: I doubt Palacios and Valancia are on massive wages for the Premiership anyway. They only paid £1m for Palacios remember, so it's not like he was a big money signing commanding mega bucks.

[brendywendy]

by fair i meant that the better players get incrementally more money as they perform most consistently
not that everyone got the same


up to a point anyway, once you cross that certain line you return to the footballing ability of a salted slug

[Vision]

It's not that we necessarily can't compete its that we won't. Its just that it does involve gambling to a large extent, something the club has never been prepared to do. Given that of the 8 clubs listed by Hoop Blah its entirely possible that 2 or even 3 can go down this season despite that gamble then I can understand the reluctance. The other 2 incidently both survived relegation on the last day of the season in the last 2 years so its hardly a guarantee of avoiding a dogfight either.

Its our policy to promote and reward from within rather than bring in outsiders on more money than those that have, in theory, contributed to our success. Honestly can you imagine us paying enough to attract the likes of Heskey, Anelka or Sol Campbell & David James? Hell we couldn't wave enough money at Scott Brown to even get his agent to talk to us. It's a policy that bore fruit when we were successful but has its flaws when your team then breaks up (gets old) and you have to replace it. Hence the (inevitable in my view) downturn in results. We could have gambled more but between them Coppell, Hammond and Madejski chose not to. Fine as far as I'm concerned but if people want to lay the blame for relegation solely at the door of Coppell then thats down to them. Manager takes responsibility of course but surely its only a blinkered (dare i say dogmatic) few that can't see there are a culmination of factors at work as well.

[Terminal Boardom]

With all the talk about who gets paid what, it appears that Wolves have been operating with a £10k a week salary cap.

[Hoop Blah]

We could have gambled more but between them Coppell, Hammond and Madejski chose not to. Fine as far as I'm concerned but if people want to lay the blame for relegation solely at the door of Coppell then thats down to them. Manager takes responsibility of course but surely its only a blinkered (dare i say dogmatic) few that can't see there are a culmination of factors at work as well.

Agreed Vision but don't forget that Coppell repeatedly said that it was his decision not to spend the money available to him as he didn't think there was anything better out there than what he had available.

I agree it's unlikely that we'll stretch our wage structure enough to attract the likes of Heskey, James etc but I'm sure we could've gone for the likes of Cahill and Taylor that played key roles in keeping Bolton up (examples of effective Prem players not necessarily who we needed).

It's our inability to successfully spend our budget and replace the key cogs we lost that cost us. We spent money at times, but on players that just weren't ready or weren't suitable for what we needed.

[Top Flight]

With all the talk about who gets paid what, it appears that Wolves have been operating with a £10k a week salary cap.

And they'll probably be back in the Championship the season after next despite the fact that Mick McCarthy is an excellent manager.

The Premier League is a bullsh*t division.

The sooner Sky goes bust the better.

[boy1985]

With all the talk about who gets paid what, it appears that Wolves have been operating with a £10k a week salary cap.

We probably werent far off that when we won the league.
good luck to them if they think they could get relegated and go back to spending that.