Nigel Howe says...

[Alan Partridge]

Nigel....football is played on the pitch mate, and as long as half our team belongs in the Championship we will never rival those clubs you mention, sorry to burst the bubble of big club bullshit.

I think you should write and tell him that in order to be a big club we'll also need better players.

It's amazing that nobody at the club has realised that. I'm sure they are planning to be fielding the very same championship winning team in 5-10 years time without buying anyone else.

It's a good thing you are here. A flaw in the plan like that could confuse a stupid person.

They've made a good effort of doing that plan over the last couple of years.

Worked pretty well last season and we're far from the worst team this season as well.

*far from* Is the only bit I'd disagree with from that. We aren't THAT much better tbh.

Thought we were talking about the future? Bit pointless harping on about last season, it's gone, not gonna help us now!

[towserSL2crew]

I started bringing the 2 grandsons 3 years ago when they wanted to go to watch a live match. We travel from Sunny Slough to every game with home and away season tickets.There are a number of Royals in Slough but if Reading were better represented in the town there could be many more. Most kids in Slough think they must be Chelsea fans coz thats the only football shirt they sell in the sports shops. Ive never seen a Reading shirt for sale in Slough yet although the local rag now does a small column each week.Better promotion work to spread the word required I think.

Nigel....football is played on the pitch mate, and as long as half our team belongs in the Championship we will never rival those clubs you mention, sorry to burst the bubble of big club bullshit.

Go and support Torquay you killjoy.

Great comeback

Reading - talking big since 2001. Just please stop.

It's called ambition, you Devonian.

Brick by Brick

I don't doubt they have ambition or the way they go about it, but this nonsense doesn't need to be out in the open. Reading will never be as big as some of those clubs mentioned, so what if we have 38,000 seats soon, they will rarely be filled IMO, when we just about manage to sell out 24,000 I could see us getting around 30,000 ish for the big games? Do we have another 14,000 fans just waiting to get through the door? No, IMO.

Reading HAVE to spend big to try and compete with those clubs named, need some names here and need to go forward and replace half our current team if they are to rival those clubs in the short- medium term. That's not going to happen - probably rightly so. So why spout this sort of talk?

Best location? says who!!?

nob

we sell out every week, 24 k is no problem for us

30-38k just gives us the potential to reduce prices for kids, and casual fans
we have the biggest catchment area in the prem, no other prem club for miles in every direction, and no other decent football club close, in any division either IMHO-southhampton and pompey to the south
london to the east, and vast swathes of the country up to birmingham in the north
and bristol and cardiff to the west. that is a massive area
allied to that its also the most disirable area to live in the country,one of the most densely populated, and the richest.
seems pretty good to me

we have come from third tier to top tier in a very short space of time, having spent very little
this years money will see us financially secure for many years to come, and increased capacity and gates can only see us get bigger and better
once that money, and prem survival is safe we can really push on and start spending to match that ambition


and is this the same half of the team(belonging in the championship)that won the chamionship on record points and got to 8th in their 1st ever season in the top flight?

cLOLueless

However, we have the greatest density of Private Schools and the Egg Chasers and Boat Rowers are on the increase. You also have the high concentration of other League teams in leagues 1 and 2 etc and I can't see a S*****n born person ever, ever becoming a Royals supporter, or Wycombe or O****d or Ald****t either. The cachement area is predominantly about 10 mile zone around Reading.

i know people in reading that support swindon
and oxford, and fulham, and west ham, and arsenal, and chelsea, and man u,and man city, and pompey, and southampton, and bristol etc etc

and i also know that given a 5 year stint in the prem, the kids in all of the towns outside of your daft ten mile radius(im sure i grew up further away from the ground than that too) will start to gravitate towards us, raher than the swine oxford, or anyother tinpot team in the lower divs, just like half of readings kids did when we werent in the top flight

your statement just ignores everything we know about the modern game

[Behindu]

I started bringing the 2 grandsons 3 years ago when they wanted to go to watch a live match. We travel from Sunny Slough to every game with home and away season tickets.There are a number of Royals in Slough but if Reading were better represented in the town there could be many more. Most kids in Slough think they must be Chelsea fans coz thats the only football shirt they sell in the sports shops. Ive never seen a Reading shirt for sale in Slough yet although the local rag now does a small column each week.Better promotion work to spread the word required I think.[

Until recently the club had n exclusive distribution deal on the shirts and you could pretty much buy them in the club shop and a couple of local sports shops. I think the deal is very different now and the manfacturers own the distribution rights and you can get the shirts in JJB etc. Worth pestering local shops for shirts - I don;t think there is any reason they cannot stock them but they will only do so if they are getting asked for them.

[Victor Meldrew]

Even though I don't like Howe's tone as a product provider to us consumers I have no problem with his mood of ambition even if that has yet to be shown on the pitch with better quality players.
Where I would disagree with him is that he left out previous champions such as Aston Villa and Man City who IMHO will always be much bigger clubs than us with a core support built up over the past 100 years and more.
Clubs like Wolves and Sheff Wednesday would have the capability of attracting 40,000 crowds if they ever make it back to the top level and Pompey would attract the same level with a suitable ground.

Just because we are where we are geographically doesn't guarantee anything, it takes much,much more than the right geography to become an attractive team that neutrals might want to come to watch.
If we play like we did v Arsenal much more we would struggle to get the 17,000 that Bolton had on Sunday v Middlesborough.
Keep talking the talk Nigel but make sure that we survive this season first by bringing in better players otherwise we are in danger of relating more to Coventry and Ipswich rather than Spurs and Newcastle.

[Ian Royal]

Nigel....football is played on the pitch mate, and as long as half our team belongs in the Championship we will never rival those clubs you mention, sorry to burst the bubble of big club bullshit.

I think you should write and tell him that in order to be a big club we'll also need better players.

It's amazing that nobody at the club has realised that. I'm sure they are planning to be fielding the very same championship winning team in 5-10 years time without buying anyone else.

It's a good thing you are here. A flaw in the plan like that could confuse a stupid person.

They've made a good effort of doing that plan over the last couple of years.

Worked pretty well last season and we're far from the worst team this season as well.

*far from* Is the only bit I'd disagree with from that. We aren't THAT much better tbh.

Thought we were talking about the future? Bit pointless harping on about last season, it's gone, not gonna help us now!

You brought it up first you pestulant pissing piece of parmesan.

oops wrong thread and forum.

[Oxon_Royal]

Whatever Howe says is the typical corporate bullshit that we hear all day long from w***ers in overpaid positions in every 'company' throughout the land.
They just read from a script FFS.
Ignore it.

[Tinrib]

Whatever Howe says is the typical corporate bullshit that we hear all day long from w***ers in overpaid positions in every 'company' throughout the land.
They just read from a script FFS.
Ignore it.

Ah yes... Those same 'oxf*rd' who laid down the vision of RFC as we now know it all those years ago...

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Nigel....football is played on the pitch mate, and as long as half our team belongs in the Championship we will never rival those clubs you mention, sorry to burst the bubble of big club bullshit.

I think you should write and tell him that in order to be a big club we'll also need better players.

It's amazing that nobody at the club has realised that. I'm sure they are planning to be fielding the very same championship winning team in 5-10 years time without buying anyone else.

It's a good thing you are here. A flaw in the plan like that could confuse a stupid person.

They've made a good effort of doing that plan over the last couple of years.

was the plan to be a top 10 club by now?

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Whatever Howe says is the typical corporate bullshit that we hear all day long from w***ers in overpaid positions in every 'company' throughout the land.
They just read from a script FFS.
Ignore it.

it's a devasting blow when the chief of exec of a company shows ambition and wants the company to get better. Such people are just dangerous.

I say start a petition now to get him sacked, and demand a man in charge who'll categorically state that we have no intention of ever trying to be better. That's the kind of leadership we need at the club. Or better still, one who'll advocate making the stadium smaller, so it won't be so empty when we are back in the championship or lower.

[Gordons Cumming]

Whatever Howe says is the typical corporate bullshit that we hear all day long from w***ers in overpaid positions in every 'company' throughout the land.
They just read from a script FFS.
Ignore it.

it's a devasting blow when the chief of exec of a company shows ambition and wants the company to get better. Such people are just dangerous.

I say start a petition now to get him sacked, and demand a man in charge who'll categorically state that we have no intention of ever trying to be better. That's the kind of leadership we need at the club. Or better still, one who'll advocate making the stadium smaller, so it won't be so empty when we are back in the championship or lower.

I propose Alan Partridge as the new Chief Executive.
He'll move us in the right direction.

[weybridgewanderer]

[I don't doubt they have ambition or the way they go about it, but this nonsense doesn't need to be out in the open. Reading will never be as big as some of those clubs mentioned, so what if we have 38,000 seats soon, they will rarely be filled IMO, when we just about manage to sell out 24,000 I could see us getting around 30,000 ish for the big games? Do we have another 14,000 fans just waiting to get through the door? No, IMO.

Did people not say the same thing about a 24000 seater stadium?

We may not fill it in year 1, just as we didn't fill 24000 seats in year 1

[kevan]

Anyone who thinks there is no football interest in Reading check out all the other clubs shirts in town or the station on a Saturday

With decent marketing their kids will be Reading supporters.

Place is essential to marketing and our potential cachment area is large, relatively rich and with little competition.

What's different to traditional marketing is that team loyalty is hard to change (less consumer switching), positive to this is that once you have them, you have them for life. Hence the club focus on 7 year olds.

Think 5 to 10 years to fill 38K regualarly (big matches will fill up 30-34 pretty well striaght away) and a couple of glory years to step up into the top 10

And stop criticising "plastics" we need them to fill the ground as it grows and some will stick and become sad addicts like the rest of us on here.

[Duke the Dog]

I know it's frustrating to hear the same stuff peddled by the club time and again (you know, brick by brick, ambition, ground expansion, future development etc etc) without the financial clout of an Abramovich, Whelan or Walker behind it (or various yanks..), but it's worked so far. But what else would expect the club to say (sorry, we're crap and don't want to spend any money, isn't the championship a good league, they'd be lynched!).

Why slate the man for having ambition ffs! I want us to win a trophy, finish in the top 5 maybe even a european run or a Premiership championship.... who knows. But I don't WANT relegation and so long as we have 3 teams worse than us I will be satisfied (5/10 must do harder next season - that sums up most Reading seasons doesn't it).

We CAN be a big club (possibly not in my lifetime - I'm not THAT old!), but it will take time. It is starting, think of the 3-4k crowds at EP in eighties and early nineties, would you have predicted regular 20+k crowds watching Reading, I certainly didn't (might've dreamt it, but that's back to the ambition thing again).

We do need some realism here. Mr Mad is never going to splash the cash at this level (yes he could do it at the League One/Two level, but you probably need to add at least a couple more noughts to the figures now!). Wait for the billionaire and become the next Real Madrid (how much do they owe to the banks!!!) or stay Reading and grow slowly, or shall we do a Barnsley, Swindon, Oxford, Wimbledon, Bradford, Sheff Wed or Forest and sink out of sight again?

[Alan Partridge]

Whatever Howe says is the typical corporate bullshit that we hear all day long from w***ers in overpaid positions in every 'company' throughout the land.
They just read from a script FFS.
Ignore it.

it's a devasting blow when the chief of exec of a company shows ambition and wants the company to get better. Such people are just dangerous.

I say start a petition now to get him sacked, and demand a man in charge who'll categorically state that we have no intention of ever trying to be better. That's the kind of leadership we need at the club. Or better still, one who'll advocate making the stadium smaller, so it won't be so empty when we are back in the championship or lower.

I propose Alan Partridge as the new Chief Executive.
He'll move us in the right direction.

I'd do it, at least you would have someone with an idea about the game in the position.

[Behindu]

I'd do it, at least you would have someone with an idea about the game in the position.

The saves you from everyone pointing out that we seem to have done OK over the last decade with someone who has 'no idea' about the game at the helm !!

[Gordons Cumming]

I propose Alan Partridge as the new Chief Executive.
He'll move us in the right direction.

I'd do it, at least you would have someone with an idea about the game in the position.

[/quote]

But you support Torquay!!!!

[Alan Partridge]

I propose Alan Partridge as the new Chief Executive.
He'll move us in the right direction.

I'd do it, at least you would have someone with an idea about the game in the position.

But you support Torquay!!!! [/quote]

Let it go mate. You think the people in charge of the club all support Reading?

[Alan Partridge]

I'd do it, at least you would have someone with an idea about the game in the position.

The saves you from everyone pointing out that we seem to have done OK over the last decade with someone who has 'no idea' about the game at the helm !!

Would have won the league by now if they did

[Gordons Cumming]

I propose Alan Partridge as the new Chief Executive.
He'll move us in the right direction.

I'd do it, at least you would have someone with an idea about the game in the position.

But you support Torquay!!!!

Let it go mate. You think the people in charge of the club all support Reading? [/quote]

What I would say that anyone who supported Torquay I'd have to doubt their football credentials.

[Alan Partridge]

I propose Alan Partridge as the new Chief Executive.
He'll move us in the right direction.

I'd do it, at least you would have someone with an idea about the game in the position.

But you support Torquay!!!!

Let it go mate. You think the people in charge of the club all support Reading?

What I would say that anyone who supported Torquay I'd have to doubt their football credentials.

[/quote]

ooh where was the need for that?!