BLAME MADEJSKI !!!!!!

[Wycombe Royal]

this is the 1st time ive read this thread, and may i say what a huge array of retarded (and spasticated) comments, bar the odd few.

RoyalBlue's comments were in particular out of the Addington School of Economics.

Madejski HAD TO sell or loan our prized assets to keep us finacially stable, and i really don't understand how some 'Reading' fans can be so f'ing thick to think that all the transfer fees made should be fully reinvested.

Correction. The club i.e. Madejski claimed that they had to sell or loan our prized assets to keep us financially stable. I can't believe how some 'Reading' fans can be so f*ing thick as to swallow that line, hook and sinker!

One moment we are being told we ar the model of perfect financial management, the club all others look to and, the next moment we are having to sell everything bar the kitchen sink to remain financially stable. Ironically those very actions will probably now be the thing that most threatens financial stability.

I doubt anyone believed that the transfer fees would be fully reinvested - that's never been the man's style. However, I doubt many believed the cloth cutting would be so ridiculously severe and there were certainly no hints whatsover when they were pushing for season ticket renewals prior to another promotion push!

So when we report a loss for this seasons financial results, on top of those from last season will you still believe the cloth didn't need to be cut so severely? That to me shows how well our club is run. They aren't waiting for the parachute payments to stop before cutting costs, they are doing it first so that the financial stability remains.

Of course we could take the route that some other clubs have taken and keep the costs high in the hope that we get promoted quickly, but history shows that is an extremely risky approach, and as we know, Madejski is not going to risk the future of this club chasing promotion.

[rhroyal]

I'd rather support a Championship club, or even a League 1 club, than see my club become bankrupt and disappear from existence.

[facaldaqui]

One thing I don't understand, could not someone like Hahnemann, who was still useful, have been offered a new contract at reduced wages? He may not have accepted, particularly if he already had other offers, but at his age he might have considered it.

[Dirk Gently]

Do you seriously believe what you've just posted?

Have you ever seriously looked at the figures for income and expediture levels between PL and CCC? Average wages levels alone are on a multiplier of approximately 3.5.

BTW, Hull City's accountants this week have warned that their uncertain financial position threatens the club's "ability to continue as a going concern". The club's accounts, filed five months late to Companies House, say that in the event of relegation the Premier League club will need to generate a £23m surplus just to meet their existing liabilities. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oct/28/hull-city-accounts-losses

Wigan Athletic have a debt which is currently £22m and growing.

[andrew1957]

Do you seriously believe what you've just posted?

Have you ever seriously looked at the figures for income and expediture levels between PL and CCC? Average wages levels alone are on a multiplier of approximately 3.5.

BTW, Hull City's accountants this week have warned that their uncertain financial position threatens the club's "ability to continue as a going concern". The club's accounts, filed five months late to Companies House, say that in the event of relegation the Premier League club will need to generate a £23m surplus just to meet their existing liabilities. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oct/28/hull-city-accounts-losses

Wigan Athletic have a debt which is currently £22m and growing.

You are right. At the moment the PL is a mugs game and unless you have a rich sugar daddy like Chelsea or Man City you are likely to go bust. The debt that some clubs have is horrendous. In some ways I hope that a couple of PL teams DO go bust as it may bring some realism back in.

Maybe we will be just as well to stay in the lower reaches for a while until this plays out.

[Dirk Gently]

The sad fact is that it's virtually impossible for clubs to compete unless they are either happy to run up debts that are ultimately unsustainable or they have a "sugar-daddy" prepared to throw in free money (and there are very few of the latter - Chelsea and Wigan's money is on their balance-sheets as "debt", so can be demanded back at any time.)

Things are changing so that it's harder for clubs to run up debt (for instance the Football League's new tax disclosure arrangements with HMRC) but the horrible truth is that while some clubs are running up debts that will eventually hurt them badly, other clubs have just two choices - try to compete with them by running up debts themselves or try and find success whilst balancing the budget.

And the second option is something that can't be done quickly - it takes time and exceptional circumstances (q.v. Steve Coppell)

[Sir Dodger Royal]

Hello Boys
How are things at the Madhouse? Not looking rosie. Poor old RTGs. Even SDR has wasted his dosh on a season ticket.

Still the Madman is still milking the dosh to bail out his other businesses. Most of them are currently in the **** and bleeding money LR&C.

There is a difference between overspending and no investment. It's important to have the right balance. Problem is if you are a 'me to' business then you stagnate, lose market share and become yesterday's brand.

That's precisely what is happening to Reading. They had a Plan A which clearly didn't work. That was followed by sheer panic. That has clearly not worked.

Losing market share from a football club point of view is relegation, which is where the Royals are heading. SDR does feel a little sorry for Brenda. He was on a loser from day one due to the Madman's complete lack of strategic direction. Panic stricken is the name of the game. Any successful business requires the right team at the helm to move the business forward. Unfortuantely RFC has yesterday's man. He doesn't understand the marketplace. Is an egotistic manic street dictator and listens to no one.

He is a demon in disguise full of bo**oc**. Now he is a gutless wimp who turns down interviews. Strange we haven't seen him on the pitch waving his arms around like a deranged monkey looking for peanuts. It's time for the fans to turn on Madejski. Let him know what many of us think. Either support the manager or **** off soon.

Those are the Real Facts from the Main Man. He knows it makes sense but hasn't the balls to defend his case. Get real SDR spot on as usualllllllllll

[Forest Gump]

To help with the shortage of funds at the Club let's try the following:

Sack the DoF
Sell the Hotel to Travelodge so that it can be run by professionals and concentrate on playing football.
Commensurate with the reduced attendances close the North Stand thereby reducing the utility costs and reducing the number of matchday staff.
Apply to the League for permission to play matches in daylight hours in order to avoid the need for floodlights.
Sack the DoF

or we could continue with the policy of:
refusing to accept that more experience/expensive players are required
ignoring that relegation is a bad thing for gate receipts, sponsorship, TV revenue
Inexplicable bad club management
wasting money on a DoF

[Vision]

Once again the Madejski bashers completely overlook the realities of the situation we're in and the fact that the majority of clubs have to take the same action.

Middlesborough and Newcastle are in their 1st season down yet have sold off more in assets than we did and have re-invested a fraction of it. We could have gone the "Derby" route (which seemed very popular on this board last summer) and spunked a fortune on a 3rd successive transfer window of expensive failures. The consequence of that is that a new manager inherits a bloated squad of expensive failures that no-ne else wants end they end up terminating player contracts with huge compensation packages.

Sheff Utd and Watford cashed in on their biggest assets (James Beattie & Marlon King) in a January transfer window whilst in a promotion chasing position. I can just imagine the dogs abuse JM would have taken had we flogged Doyle last January. Hell it could be argued that Sheff Utd (with the Tevez compo) have the highest turnover in this division yet still couldn't hang onto their two brightest young talents in Walker and Naughton after just one full season each.

Charlton Norwich,Southampton,Leeds etc all examples of the realities of Premiership relegation and not accepting the harsh realities of the situation by putting all their eggs in gaining promotion straight away, despite the fact that something like only 10 of the last 40 odd relegated clubs have bounced straight back. Leicester could also be added to that group although having been taken over by Mandaric their current start is in the ascendancy. However I'd ave a nagging doubt about their future too given that when Milan gets bored it wont bother him in the slightest where his successor comes from (see Pompey's current predicament).

Birmingham and Sunderland seem to be the only 2 examples of bucking that trend but Sunderland were fortunate enough to have massive injection of cash from wealthy new owners whilst Birmingham took a huge gamble last season. Fair enough it worked but if it hadn't then they'd be in a worse state than us right now. West Brom seem to be the only side that haven't as yet fallen foul but they seem happy to be a yo-yo club who don't over-extend themselves in the top flight and as a result seem able to remain pretty stable when relegated.

Then there's the likes of Coventry & Palace also who both carry far more pedigree than us and are similiar in terms of financial turnover and are pretty much mediocre plodders over the last couple of seasons where even a financial takeover and new stadium in Cov's case and a very productive youth system in Palaces's case have yet to see them rise above mid-table mediocrity.

So for us the sensible solution is to take the short term hit now and build again from a solid financial base knowing that at worst we are not having to sell players simply to keep the club afloat like so many others but merely to stabilise in an uncertain financial market.

As I said earlier you can't say mistakes haven't been made and the appointment of Rodgers may prove to be another one but blaming Madejski for all the so-called ills currently at the club is extremely naive given the evidence of clubs that have found themselves in the same situation as us.

Either you throw small fortunes that you haven't got to get back to a promised land where you have to throw bigger fortunes that you don't have just to give yourselves a chance to survive or you rely on inspired management. The former rightly in my view JM is not prepared to do whilst as for the latter , well there aren't too many Steve Coppell's or Owen Coyle's out there.

[rhroyal]

Do you seriously believe what you've just posted?

Have you ever seriously looked at the figures for income and expediture levels between PL and CCC? Average wages levels alone are on a multiplier of approximately 3.5.

BTW, Hull City's accountants this week have warned that their uncertain financial position threatens the club's "ability to continue as a going concern". The club's accounts, filed five months late to Companies House, say that in the event of relegation the Premier League club will need to generate a £23m surplus just to meet their existing liabilities. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oct/28/hull-city-accounts-losses

Wigan Athletic have a debt which is currently £22m and growing.

You are right. At the moment the PL is a mugs game and unless you have a rich sugar daddy like Chelsea or Man City you are likely to go bust. The debt that some clubs have is horrendous. In some ways I hope that a couple of PL teams DO go bust as it may bring some realism back in.

Maybe we will be just as well to stay in the lower reaches for a while until this plays out.

One of the best things for English football would be for the Premiership bubble to burst some time soon. Portsmouth have come close, there are other examples on here. Imagine if 4 or 5 Premiership clubs in 1 season had all their spending and living beyond their means catch up with them. It would be brilliant, people would be forced to act to protect the future of their beloved Premier League. Things might start heading back to normal.....I can dream.

[Gordons Cumming]

Vision talking sense, making SDR look a mug shocker!!

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

You need to be in the Premiership for 3 years.

We're paying for the relegation that we should have avoided and it wasn't down to JM not stumping up the cash.

Added to the fact that Rodgers hasn't spent well the money he has had.

[Dickie's Spear]

Wow that Hull report was real interesting and answers alot of questions for me that have been bandied about on this board as far
as the club [RFC] being well run etc. I think I'll look at things a bit differently now. Perhaps the game will be played off the park
with several clubs positions being decided on accounts rather than on the pitch. But this problem seems to be spread through every tier
of the game so it does seem a well run club in any tier is in it for the long term.
But those silver spoons like Manure, Celtic, Man City etc, what can you do to stop them dominating.

[Forest Gump]

Dear JM,

There is a vacancy for you at Derby that I think you should consider. Bigger catchment area than Berkshire and without the glamorous London clubs to appeal to the more nuetral fans. Also, property is cheaper, road systems better and the countryside nicer.

[SHORT AND CURLY]

SJM could go on a free transfer (especially as its quite near Stoke)and we could sign David Dein as financed by Alisher Usmanov.

Stan Croenke could then take a major share holding at Arsenal and were all happy.


We become a major force in football and break into the Premiership top four..........................


















Then I woke up

[Victor Meldrew]

As ever these debates are polarised.
We as fans never know the truth and never will.
I don't believe that the club HAD to repay the overdraft-£6.5 million is not massive when there are such assets as the ground itself,the hotel and of course that mysterious £7 million or so spent on infrastructure.

If there was some honesty around we might have heard that the chairman wanted the o/d cleared for his own personal eventual gain-are none of us brave enough to accept the truth?
It really gets to me that exceptionally wealthy people like to create smokescreens-it's often the seedy world they operate in and so often (like politicians) they are afraid to tell the truth.

If the chairman had come out and said that he had become pissed off with not enough return from the club,he would arrange sales of £10 million of assets and we would go with what we have got by employing a cheap manager who has already worked with our young players and hopefully would bring out the best in them I wonder what the fan reaction would have been.
Would the fans have respected the honesty ?
Maybe.
Now what we have is a situation where £2million was spent in an area where we were not too badly off because presumably as some kind of sweetener to Rodgers, and to some extent to the fans,it showed that the club is prepared to invest blah,blah,blah.
My post is muddled but so is our club-£10million in,£3million out and we end up with a hotch-potch of players with no plan,some experienced but too old,others inexperienced and too young.

Vision in his normal stance of defending the club to the full with the rare caveat of saying that it is not quite working out as some kind of insurance(as we stand 3rd from bottom and on the slide) and SDR as ever suggesting that everything is wrong at our club are the polarised views,one seemingly well-reasoned but lacking the emotion of most normal fans and the other full of emotion but with no sense of reason.

My stance is that I feel a bit conned-the usual talk of promotion but not providing the ammunition.
The chairman got 2 managers in McGhee and Coppell who worked wonders with peanuts and (as shown in that sick documentary)is,like many wealthy people,paranoid at the thought of losing that wealth so takes panic measures.
We look like a relegation side with old lags like Rasiak,Howard and McAnuff,all nearly men who have slipped further and further down the ladder after starting off brightly at other clubs.
The kids really haven't (yet) looked anything better than ordinary and without changes possibly in manager and definitely in the playing staff I see us playing 3rd tier football next season.

Some people don't seem to think that matters but wait and see what our stadium is like when each week there are only 8,000 fans there and we are hoping for a decent cup draw or progress in the Johnstone Paint Trophy-for those that haven't been there before it isn't great fun especially when any player with a semblance of ability gets sold (remember Neil Webb and Kerry Dixon).

As said earlier these are mainly ramblings of a disillusioned old man wanting to get a few things out of his system but more than anything I detest the deceit that I feel has crept into the upper echelons of our club.

[strap]

You are right. At the moment the PL is a mugs game and unless you have a rich sugar daddy like Chelsea or Man City you are likely to go bust. The debt that some clubs have is horrendous. In some ways I hope that a couple of PL teams DO go bust as it may bring some realism back in.

Maybe we will be just as well to stay in the lower reaches for a while until this plays out.

Trouble is, we need to be in the Championship to be in a position to take advantage of the fal lout when it finally happens. Right now, we've a snowball in hells chance. Still, things may be a little different after the next International break.

[North Eaat royal]

.

The kids really haven't (yet) looked anything better than ordinary and without changes possibly in manager and definitely in the playing staff I see us playing 3rd tier football next season.

The 'Kids' were given 4/5 games. We played alright in the first few games and since then he's dropped the kids and brought back in last years rubbish and we're getting beaten easily.

Davies looked promising but he was dropped.
Karacan puts in the work and covers the yardage... dropped
Siggy looks to be to be the best of the kids and when he does play they play him out of position
HRK quick direct now not getting a look in for the bench
Pearce looks twice the player that mills is
Hamer is a better goalkeeper than Federici
Church looks more creative than long and rasiak and actually looks like he might do something.

[Victor Meldrew]

.

The kids really haven't (yet) looked anything better than ordinary and without changes possibly in manager and definitely in the playing staff I see us playing 3rd tier football next season.

The 'Kids' were given 4/5 games. We played alright in the first few games and since then he's dropped the kids and brought back in last years rubbish and we're getting beaten easily.

Davies looked promising but he was dropped.
Karacan puts in the work and covers the yardage... dropped
Siggy looks to be to be the best of the kids and when he does play they play him out of position
HRK quick direct now not getting a look in for the bench
Pearce looks twice the player that mills is
Hamer is a better goalkeeper than Federici
Church looks more creative than long and rasiak and actually looks like he might do something.

So why do you think they aren't playing?
BTW can't agree with you about Pearce-he looks slower by the game and his spacial awareness is dreadful.

[North Eaat royal]

.

The kids really haven't (yet) looked anything better than ordinary and without changes possibly in manager and definitely in the playing staff I see us playing 3rd tier football next season.

The 'Kids' were given 4/5 games. We played alright in the first few games and since then he's dropped the kids and brought back in last years rubbish and we're getting beaten easily.

Davies looked promising but he was dropped.
Karacan puts in the work and covers the yardage... dropped
Siggy looks to be to be the best of the kids and when he does play they play him out of position
HRK quick direct now not getting a look in for the bench
Pearce looks twice the player that mills is
Hamer is a better goalkeeper than Federici
Church looks more creative than long and rasiak and actually looks like he might do something.

So why do you think they aren't playing?
BTW can't agree with you about Pearce-he looks slower by the game and his spacial awareness is dreadful.

They're not playing because we weren't winning, now he's brought back in last years crap. He won't re-bring in the kids because he's made the decision to drop them and he'll look like he didn't have a clue in the first place.