Summer Rebuild

[strap]

Strap's scenario is improbable and a bit apocalyptic and the truth about the Thai owners probably lies further towards the side of being beneficial to the club than destroying it.

The new owners are property developers essentially as that seems to be where the majority of their money comes from.

The lady owner is on record I think as saying she wants to turn the M4 corridor town into a 'little London.'

So how do they achieve that? Buy a football club in a part of the town which has excellent transport links, a new station planned, and plenty of room for development. Those boxes ticked.

But how do they achieve the partnership with local councils and decision makers that could make their dream a reality.

They make contacts, and the biggest player here is SJM obviously, who can open doors for them, as they are new to the area and its foibles politically and socially.

So far so good, all boxes ticked. But, and it's a big but, to do this their PR and continued acquiescence of both SJM and the local council would depend to a large extent on whether their plans were good for the area and the town.

Asset stripping the local football club would not win them friends, it would make them enemies and make their Little London dream a nightmare.

If they are cute business people they will know this. They will also know that there are vast financial rewards now for promotion to the Premiership, and more doors opening with new contacts.

I don't think it's true that they have not put money into the club so far. They have bought it for a pretty penny for a start, and secured the debts I think.

My guess is that the club will continue to be run on the frugal side but there will be money available to ensure a team that has at least a chance of getting into the Premiership. Time will tell of course.

Sure, but if they relocate us into a modern "community statdium with good rail links, they could argue it was a stadium fit for our size and ambition, and would create a better atmosphere/fan experience with 5000 crowds in an 8000 capacity stadium, rather than 5000 lonely souls rattling around the MadStad. Build the new stadium, (which at the size I am suggestsing would cost no more than a few million tops), in advance of an outline planning permission for the area, with the MadSatd still being used by a successful PL rugby team as tenant on a yearly rolling basis, and it will be very easy to say they are doing the best for the football club. As soon as the new stadium is in use, don;t renew the rugby tenancy, and in a year the bulldozers will move in.

They wouldn't make any planning apllpication for the area whilst this chnageover was taking place, but use the tranition year to put together their property plans and submit the application once we were into the second year of our new stadium.

RBC would simply love the application, redeveloping a relatively underdeveloped area, removing football traffic from the A33, and of course don;t forget the tens of millions they could extort from the develpoer via Section 106 "agreements" - or Community Infrastructure Levy as it is known.

Sadly, the more I let my deranged mind go down this route, the more perturbed I am at just how simple such a plan becomes.

Fingers crossed I am totally deluded and that sanity will return to Chez Strap in the not too distant future!

[strap]

Just another conspiracy theory - with Feds gone, and assuming Pearce, Karacan and S Kelly also decide they can get better wages elsewhere, then assuming no Acadmey players step up to make say, (an arbitrary), 20 starts next year, I think I'm right in saying we will be left with 15 senior players.

This assumes Ansersen is offered a new contract and signs it. Anton Ferdinand can actually get his @rse off the treament table. HRK returns to something like his old self of 2/3 years ago. Jake Taylor progresses to warrant a first team squad place.

Let's take a punt and suggest Dominic Samuel and Aaron Tshibola both make it into the 1st team squad following their successful loan stints last season, and we get to 17.

Clearly one of two things must therefore happen if we are to challenge for propmotion next seaosn, as the Owners have said. 1) We must sign 4/5/6 experienced players to get us to a squad of 21 to 23 players, or 2) we must promote the same number of Academy players.

I would argue the first point is a non-starter on the grounds our wages are going to be very low. We could of course recruit from the 4th and 3rd tiers, but I put it to you that this will NOT represent a promotion chasing squad.

So the second option is top promote from within. This raises the question of which Academy players are sufficiently ready to make a regular contribution to the 1st team squad?

In no particular order, we must hope Kuhl, Fosu, Kelly (Liam), Long (Sean), Moore & Sweeney have what it takes to make the jump from U21 regular to 1st team squad regular. Past history suggests expecting EIGHT such players, (including Tshibola and Samuel), to make the jump in a single season simply isn't going to happen.

Blimey, the more I think about next season, the more concerned I am becoming. The two phrases bandied about from the Owners and Clarke are " we will challenge for promtion to the PL next season", and "we will not be involved in a arlegation fight next season". Frankly with the concerns noted above, just how on earth are those aspirations going to be met???

[paddy20]

Umm the way things appear it would seem we will be looking forward to a season of fighting relegation. We have lost arguably our best asset in Federici. We have not tried to sign anyone that appears to be on all the other championship clubs radar. It seems we are just intent on reducing the wage bill and little else. If we have to rely on young players and Loanees we are going to struggle. There doesn't seem to be much of a plan for the short term future other than to survive.

This time last year we would have been disappionted if we were not preparing for a return to the premiership. Now all thats being said is we won't go down. I guess we have had the best times in the last 7 years and now have to accept we are in downturn.

[Ian Royal]

I'm positive we won't be fighting for promotion next season strap.

Don't forget that this season our Academy managed 5 full debuts, 4 more appearance debuts and over 100 appearances between three recent graduates, if not current Academy lads.

That in itself is unprecedented when we had more options. Hector, Obita, Taylor and Cooper are already firmly first team. The likes of Kuhl, Stacey, Keown, Sweeney, and Tanner aren't too far off, with Tshibola, Fosu, Novakovich and Samuel not far behind them. And then there's Griffin, Long, Dickie, Hyam, Watson, Owusu, Cardwell, Husin, Fridjonsson, Moore, and Kelly among others.

We've basically got a first team already (even if it's unbalanced and a bit iffy). So we don't need that many to start stepping up for more than a dozen games. Providing we make 3 or 4 decent signings for the first 16 and improve the first 11 as part of that.

My problem isn't with our options, it's that I just don't think we're going to make the right moves with who we do sign to fix the few desperate holes we have.

[paddy20]

I'm positive we won't be fighting for promotion next season strap.

Don't forget that this season our Academy managed 5 full debuts, 4 more appearance debuts and over 100 appearances between three recent graduates, if not current Academy lads.

That in itself is unprecedented when we had more options. Hector, Obita, Taylor and Cooper are already firmly first team. The likes of Kuhl, Stacey, Keown, Sweeney, and Tanner aren't too far off, with Tshibola, Fosu, Novakovich and Samuel not far behind them. And then there's Griffin, Long, Dickie, Hyam, Watson, Owusu, Cardwell, Husin, Fridjonsson, Moore, and Kelly among others.

We've basically got a first team already (even if it's unbalanced and a bit iffy). So we don't need that many to start stepping up for more than a dozen games. Providing we make 3 or 4 decent signings for the first 16 and improve the first 11 as part of that.

My problem isn't with our options, it's that I just don't think we're going to make the right moves with who we do sign to fix the few desperate holes we have.

I doubt more than 2/3 of the young players will come through. Also Taylor is nowhere near good enough. You have to look at history when relying on the youth team although ours is improving. If there are any stars they move on early these days.

[Ian Royal]

I'm positive we won't be fighting for promotion next season strap.

Don't forget that this season our Academy managed 5 full debuts, 4 more appearance debuts and over 100 appearances between three recent graduates, if not current Academy lads.

That in itself is unprecedented when we had more options. Hector, Obita, Taylor and Cooper are already firmly first team. The likes of Kuhl, Stacey, Keown, Sweeney, and Tanner aren't too far off, with Tshibola, Fosu, Novakovich and Samuel not far behind them. And then there's Griffin, Long, Dickie, Hyam, Watson, Owusu, Cardwell, Husin, Fridjonsson, Moore, and Kelly among others.

We've basically got a first team already (even if it's unbalanced and a bit iffy). So we don't need that many to start stepping up for more than a dozen games. Providing we make 3 or 4 decent signings for the first 16 and improve the first 11 as part of that.

My problem isn't with our options, it's that I just don't think we're going to make the right moves with who we do sign to fix the few desperate holes we have.

I doubt more than 2/3 of the young players will come through. Also Taylor is nowhere near good enough. You have to look at history when relying on the youth team although ours is improving. If there are any stars they move on early these days.

We've only moved on stars early, what? twice? Both of those in financially difficult times, which are supposedly less the case now.

We've never had a situation with an Academy this strong before, ever. Looking at history is therefore stupid. The fact is, we've already had at least 2/3 come through this season. And the next year or two from the Academy look stronger than anything we've ever had before. By a mile. We need to avoid putting pressure on the players to instantly step up, or all make it. But we can have faith that there is a lot of talent there to be used. I'm not saying 5 of them will break through as stand out first teamers making 35 appearances each. But they're the only thing to get excited about right now. And they should be considered a big deal.

[Forbury Lion]

I don't see the stadium being demolished, but the entire car park may become offices or retail units along with the dome, The Green Park station / park and ride over the M4 in Grazely may be cited as reasons why this can happen. I doubt it will happen in the short term, particularly if it's to be offices due to the number of offices empty around Reading and near the stadium in particular.

[Gunny Fishcake]

Strap's story does contain some truth , details are unclear but there are plans that include the development of the red car park , the moment our club was sold to foreign owners you don't need to be a genius to work out what they're in for . It's certainly not going for a night out to the likes of Rotherham on a wet cold January night as always concerning times

[winchester_royal]

Lol. Sorry, but there's absolutely no chance Sir John would have sold us to the Thais if that was the intention.

Yeah because the previous sale was so successful

Tbh, this shower are either sneakily hiding in the background or absolutely useless at PR. We have had little or no mission statement, we don't even really know who they are and what their roles are. You really can't blame supporters for being concerned - even cynical - given the cluster-f*ck of the past 3 and a half year.

At no point did winch say they'd be successful, just that their intention wouldn't be to ruin us for property values.

In the same way that clearly wasn't the Russian's intention. He was just oxf*rd playing with a toy and lied about his resources.

That's exactly my point - thanks Ian.

I also find it highly unlikely that if the Thais did have naughty intentions Sassima would have flaunted her face around the press a few weeks ago. Last thing she needs at her age is that kind of aggro. And I also find it highly unlikely that Sir John would have been quite so pally with Sassima if they were planning on stripping down the stadium to build a few flats.

[winchester_royal]

Oh - and given they're currently selling red parking permits for next season I doubt any development is imminent.

[Coppelled_Streets]

Oh - and given they're currently selling red parking permits for next season I doubt any development is imminent.

It wont be as no planning permission has been submitted yet, so we're some time away from seeing any of these plans materialise, but Charles Watts agrees they're coming.

[PeterReadingborn59]

If the new training ground goes ahead it would make sense to knock down the training dome near the Mad Stad and redevelop the area to include a decent multi-storey car park using a smaller footprint than the existing red car park. Especially if the train station ever gets built, it would make the area a lot more attractive and potentially open other facilities near the Mad Stad.

[ZacNaloen]

It's obvious there will be development around the stadium complex, when the new training ground is complete The Dome and the pitches behind become available for redevelopment for one. What will go in there will be interesting.

[Coppelled_Streets]

I'm amazed at how many people still talk about promotion next season. We will do well to finish in the top half. I'm fully expecting another rollercoaster season in the bottom third. Too many changes are taking place on and off the field. It's very unlikely the team will just click, and more so unlikely these kids we're seemingly going to be relying on will be good enough to challenge. Some people really need to take a reality check.

[PeterReadingborn59]

It's obvious there will be development around the stadium complex, when the new training ground is complete The Dome and the pitches behind become available for redevelopment for one. What will go in there will be interesting.

Exactly, SJM lifted Reading FC to a new level with the Mad Stad but clearly sought someone else to take it onto the next stage - hence a group who are experienced developers with funds. The Reading FC is to do things one step at a time and not make any public announcements until the background work is completed. The possibilities for the site are tremendous an entertainment complex with cinema, restaurants etc. would be ideal near the M4 etc.

[Norfolk Royal]

Ideal for anyone who likes homogenised entertainment, overpriced unhealthy snacks, sitting in traffic queues, being irritated by other people's behaviour, obese people and ugly buildings, yes.

[PeterReadingborn59]

Ideal for anyone who likes homogenised entertainment, overpriced unhealthy snacks, sitting in traffic queues, being irritated by other people's behaviour, obese people and ugly buildings, yes.

Quite - proven money generators that a developer seeks, rather than an ugly open dirt space that is just used on about 30 times a year to "park" cars, in random rows and has no flow control on exit. Camberley, Basingstoke, Aldershot all have such complexes, the potential to get ameal / drink close to the ground before or after a match would be attractive to a lot and slightly reduce the car crush leaving after a match.

This is what the current owners might consider an attractive option about Reading FC especially if they could have a Premier club sharing the location. Time will tell.

Hopefully, this is more optimistic than some others see in their crystal fortune spheres as to what attracted the current owners.

[Forbury Lion]

If they do build a cinema I look forward to seeing how many customers leave 10 minutes before the end of the film to try and get out of whats left of the car park quicker.

[West Stand Man]

If the new training ground goes ahead it would make sense to knock down the training dome near the Mad Stad and redevelop the area to include a decent multi-storey car park using a smaller footprint than the existing red car park. Especially if the train station ever gets built, it would make the area a lot more attractive and potentially open other facilities near the Mad Stad.

You wont get anywhere with that positive attitude. It is just not welcome on HNA. The rule is that you have to assume thateveryone at the club is sitting in their offices doing nothing for 99% of the time, only leaping into action to keep the HNA warriors off their backs every so often.

However, you are probably closer to the truth than you might think, I suspect.

The reason that we don't have a multi-storey car park at present is that RBC wouldn't sanction it - they deleted that from the original plans (mind you, the funds probably weren't there either). If, however, there is a sensible development plan for the land then that could include some better car parking facilities too. So, everyone gets what they want;
- the owners get a decent return on their investment by building on the car park.
- there is better car parking built as a part of the deal.
- the stadium gets a better surrounding environs and becomes less isolated from the rest of the world,
- the owners can actually invest in the stadium and the team to help attract customers to the wider development.

As to the comments above that there hasn't been any sign of investment in the team during the last window --- which bit of the FFP have some of you missed. They made it clear that they would not risk breaking those rules.

It is dismaying that there is so much negativity re the current state fo the squad. FFS, it is still May. None of us have any clue which players are being talked to as we discuss this whole issue. It is clearly unlikley that there will be any replacements for players who are in contract discussion - until they make a decision on their own future (or the offer is withdrawn when they dither too long). It is equally clear that there is no way that there will be replacements for Pog, HRK etc until they go (and, again, none of us is aware of who, if anyone, NH is talking to about them).

In short, chill and let the summer develop. Then enjoy the season when we actually climb back up the table with a new vigour.

[Coppelled_Streets]

Nathan Ake close to joining Boro on loan next season. Where are we?? We should be all over that!