RFC accounts for 2021/2 published

[Clyde1998]

Our 2012 staffing costs were very heavily bonus based though for getting promoted. So being at -120% looks bad but we managed to get promotion.

Indeed - promotion bonuses can heavily skew the wage figures. A recent example is Blackburn offering £10m combined to players if they got promoted last season (around £700k to any player who played every minute - equivalent to an extra £13.5k p/w), with their highest turnover figure within the past five seasons accounts have been published for (2016-17 to 2020-21) being £16.7m. If you said they got £20m revenue in a promotion season, that £10m bonus would increase their wages to turnover ratio by 50%.

[Vision]

My memory (dodgy as it is) reminds me that , with all the talk about relegation being a possible positive reset, that the last time we were in the 3rd tier (over 20 years ago) our wages to turnover ratio wasn't far that. The collapse of ITV digital was a factor in that but there's no doubt that even with "cut our cloth accordingly" owner Madejski to some extent we attempted to buy our way out of the division. Tommy Burns open cheque book - signed off by Nigel Howe and sanctioned by SJM whilst out of the country.

If the current rules were in place we'd have been in a bit of bother even back then.

ITV Digital collapsed around the time of our promotion from Division Two (2001-02). Our promotion that season means it doesn't show up in the accounts as a revenue drop, as being in Div 1 with Sky's reduced TV deal was still an improvement on being in Div 2 with ITV Digitial's TV deal.

Wages to turnover peaked under Madejski at 112% in the 1999-2000 season. In that period we had operating losses around 70% of turnover, largely due to keeping a Division One budget in Division Two - something Madejski could sustain through his own wealth - but even that is under half of the average for the past five seasons. Our wage bill in the 2018-19 season was approaching our 2012-13 Premier League wage bill with massively lower revenues.

Table: Season End, Turnover, Staff Costs, Operating Profit, Net Player Trading, Post-Tax Profit, Operating Profit/Turnover, Wages/Turnover since 1984-85


The promotion seasons in 2005-06 and 2011-12 feature promotion bonuses in the staff costs - in the 2011-12 season, especially, is a major factor as to why the loss for that season was so high. The seasons 2008-09, 2009-10, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 all include parachute payments.

The table basically shows if we'd kept our average operating profit/turnover and wages/turnover between the 1984-85 season to 2016-17 season our operating losses would be around £4.6m and wages around £15m p/a with our 2021-22 revenue. If we had the average of the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 figures with our current revenue, it would be operating losses of £11.8m and wages of £18.5m.

In other words, we've been spending significantly more in the past few seasons, in relative terms, than the Burns era.

OMFG!! How unbelievably irresponsible to increase our staff costs from £28m to £37m and then £41m whilst we're in the Championship. And without parachute payments by that point as well. Both those seasons finishing 20th for oxf*rd sake. Not only is it massive cheating, it's unbelievably incompetent cheating.

It's stark that the Thais were gradually lowering our wage budget and then that absolute pcunting clown Dai came in and completely destroyed us. It's criminal how he's mismanaged us at every conceivable point. No wonder his clubs cease to exist.

Just oxf*rd off. Five years of absolute shit to get our wage bill back to where it started, when it should have been being brought down to about half.

I've bleated on about this for years but whilst the Thais were a little eccentric and I'm not sure how much their heart was really in it, they did set up a plan. Employing Tevreden as a DOF and subsequently Stam with the stated intention of being a mini Ajax of sorts. Most of the signings that summer made sense. Whatever our feelings about Moore now, he was a good signing at the time as were Swift, Meite and Beerens. There were a few pointless punts along the way of course but there was at least some semblance of a path forward.

The problem was that 1) many supporters were (understandably up to a point) angry at how McD was treated so were against the process from the start and 2) the playing style was so far removed from what we'd been accustomed to, that it was a hard watch for many.

I firmly believe that over time this could have been workable and relatively successful. Unfortunately we got good results very early and when you're that close to the Premier League Circus it attracts the clowns. From the moment Dai came sniffing around halfway through that season, the methodology shifted. Lewis Grabban, Jordan Mutch, Reece Oxford, Tiago Illori (I think Popa may have come during that January window) all added to a squad that was doing perfectly fine without them and added very little to.

The remit from there was promotion or bust and with Gourlay basically taking over from BT, the whole ethos of the club changed. There was a chance to reset when Gomes stated at the end of 18/19 season that he wanted a smaller , younger squad. I don't think for one minute he was good enough to deliver promotion however much time he was given but he was generally very good with the younger players so from the point of developing them it might have been worth it. But of course Dai finds some money "down the back of the sofa" with the selling of the ground and in come Joao, Puscas, Boye, Ejaria (on loan but with the 3.5m permanent fee committed to) This combined with the inability to move on the big earning senior players unwanted by Gomes (Gunter, McCleary, Baldock) as well as not maximising the potential fees for Moore and Loader, sees us where we are now.

Buying your way out of League 1 around 2000 is a whole different financial ball game to buying your way out of the championship 15-20 years later. To try it is dangerous enough but to fail so miserably is pretty damning.

[Winston Biscuit]

Our 2012 staffing costs were very heavily bonus based though for getting promoted. So being at -120% looks bad but we managed to get promotion.

Indeed - promotion bonuses can heavily skew the wage figures. A recent example is Blackburn offering £10m combined to players if they got promoted last season (around £700k to any player who played every minute - equivalent to an extra £13.5k p/w), with their highest turnover figure within the past five seasons accounts have been published for (2016-17 to 2020-21) being £16.7m. If you said they got £20m revenue in a promotion season, that £10m bonus would increase their wages to turnover ratio by 50%.

yep. the riches of the PL also impact heavily on transfers to championship clubs and how they are reported. When a Championship club buys a player a significant chunk of that fee reported is often part of a promotion bonus clause. I remember years ago (just checked and it was 9 years back) when Ross McCormack went from Leeds to Fulham for £11M people were gobsmacked and outraged that such a fee was being paid by a 2nd tier club. IIRC it turned out 50% of it was an add on payment upon promotion to the PL and the 50% that was not also had clauses in so not all of that may have ended up being paid if the player didn't perform well

[Snowflake Royal]

ITV Digital collapsed around the time of our promotion from Division Two (2001-02). Our promotion that season means it doesn't show up in the accounts as a revenue drop, as being in Div 1 with Sky's reduced TV deal was still an improvement on being in Div 2 with ITV Digitial's TV deal.

Wages to turnover peaked under Madejski at 112% in the 1999-2000 season. In that period we had operating losses around 70% of turnover, largely due to keeping a Division One budget in Division Two - something Madejski could sustain through his own wealth - but even that is under half of the average for the past five seasons. Our wage bill in the 2018-19 season was approaching our 2012-13 Premier League wage bill with massively lower revenues.

Table: Season End, Turnover, Staff Costs, Operating Profit, Net Player Trading, Post-Tax Profit, Operating Profit/Turnover, Wages/Turnover since 1984-85


The promotion seasons in 2005-06 and 2011-12 feature promotion bonuses in the staff costs - in the 2011-12 season, especially, is a major factor as to why the loss for that season was so high. The seasons 2008-09, 2009-10, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 all include parachute payments.

The table basically shows if we'd kept our average operating profit/turnover and wages/turnover between the 1984-85 season to 2016-17 season our operating losses would be around £4.6m and wages around £15m p/a with our 2021-22 revenue. If we had the average of the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 figures with our current revenue, it would be operating losses of £11.8m and wages of £18.5m.

In other words, we've been spending significantly more in the past few seasons, in relative terms, than the Burns era.

OMFG!! How unbelievably irresponsible to increase our staff costs from £28m to £37m and then £41m whilst we're in the Championship. And without parachute payments by that point as well. Both those seasons finishing 20th for oxf*rd sake. Not only is it massive cheating, it's unbelievably incompetent cheating.

It's stark that the Thais were gradually lowering our wage budget and then that absolute pcunting clown Dai came in and completely destroyed us. It's criminal how he's mismanaged us at every conceivable point. No wonder his clubs cease to exist.

Just oxf*rd off. Five years of absolute shit to get our wage bill back to where it started, when it should have been being brought down to about half.

I've bleated on about this for years but whilst the Thais were a little eccentric and I'm not sure how much their heart was really in it, they did set up a plan. Employing Tevreden as a DOF and subsequently Stam with the stated intention of being a mini Ajax of sorts. Most of the signings that summer made sense. Whatever our feelings about Moore now, he was a good signing at the time as were Swift, Meite and Beerens. There were a few pointless punts along the way of course but there was at least some semblance of a path forward.

The problem was that 1) many supporters were (understandably up to a point) angry at how McD was treated so were against the process from the start and 2) the playing style was so far removed from what we'd been accustomed to, that it was a hard watch for many.

I firmly believe that over time this could have been workable and relatively successful. Unfortunately we got good results very early and when you're that close to the Premier League Circus it attracts the clowns. From the moment Dai came sniffing around halfway through that season, the methodology shifted. Lewis Grabban, Jordan Mutch, Reece Oxford, Tiago Illori (I think Popa may have come during that January window) all added to a squad that was doing perfectly fine without them and added very little to.

The remit from there was promotion or bust and with Gourlay basically taking over from BT, the whole ethos of the club changed. There was a chance to reset when Gomes stated at the end of 18/19 season that he wanted a smaller , younger squad. I don't think for one minute he was good enough to deliver promotion however much time he was given but he was generally very good with the younger players so from the point of developing them it might have been worth it. But of course Dai finds some money "down the back of the sofa" with the selling of the ground and in come Joao, Puscas, Boye, Ejaria (on loan but with the 3.5m permanent fee committed to) This combined with the inability to move on the big earning senior players unwanted by Gomes (Gunter, McCleary, Baldock) as well as not maximising the potential fees for Moore and Loader, sees us where we are now.

Buying your way out of League 1 around 2000 is a whole different financial ball game to buying your way out of the championship 15-20 years later. To try it is dangerous enough but to fail so miserably is pretty damning.

Yep. Although Stam absolutely had to go, Clement got shafted and neither he nor Gomes were remotely good enough.

Basically, all our troubles can be laid at the door of Zingarevich and Dai. Who couldn't manage a piss up in a brewery.

[Elm Park Kid]

The most head scratching element of that entire period was our manager recruitment. We were obviously going for broke, spending millions on players and wages, yet we got for these managers with absolutely no record of achievement.

How was it that we couldn't just throw a big contract at a some kind of Harry Redknapp type of manager? Someone would would inspire both the players and fans and bring years of experience to the club?

[Royals and Racers]

STAR`S take on the accounts(written by someone who posts on here i think).
https://star-reading.org/wp-content/upl ... counts.pdf

[Hound]

OMFG!! How unbelievably irresponsible to increase our staff costs from £28m to £37m and then £41m whilst we're in the Championship. And without parachute payments by that point as well. Both those seasons finishing 20th for oxf*rd sake. Not only is it massive cheating, it's unbelievably incompetent cheating.

It's stark that the Thais were gradually lowering our wage budget and then that absolute pcunting clown Dai came in and completely destroyed us. It's criminal how he's mismanaged us at every conceivable point. No wonder his clubs cease to exist.

Just oxf*rd off. Five years of absolute shit to get our wage bill back to where it started, when it should have been being brought down to about half.

I've bleated on about this for years but whilst the Thais were a little eccentric and I'm not sure how much their heart was really in it, they did set up a plan. Employing Tevreden as a DOF and subsequently Stam with the stated intention of being a mini Ajax of sorts. Most of the signings that summer made sense. Whatever our feelings about Moore now, he was a good signing at the time as were Swift, Meite and Beerens. There were a few pointless punts along the way of course but there was at least some semblance of a path forward.

The problem was that 1) many supporters were (understandably up to a point) angry at how McD was treated so were against the process from the start and 2) the playing style was so far removed from what we'd been accustomed to, that it was a hard watch for many.

I firmly believe that over time this could have been workable and relatively successful. Unfortunately we got good results very early and when you're that close to the Premier League Circus it attracts the clowns. From the moment Dai came sniffing around halfway through that season, the methodology shifted. Lewis Grabban, Jordan Mutch, Reece Oxford, Tiago Illori (I think Popa may have come during that January window) all added to a squad that was doing perfectly fine without them and added very little to.

The remit from there was promotion or bust and with Gourlay basically taking over from BT, the whole ethos of the club changed. There was a chance to reset when Gomes stated at the end of 18/19 season that he wanted a smaller , younger squad. I don't think for one minute he was good enough to deliver promotion however much time he was given but he was generally very good with the younger players so from the point of developing them it might have been worth it. But of course Dai finds some money "down the back of the sofa" with the selling of the ground and in come Joao, Puscas, Boye, Ejaria (on loan but with the 3.5m permanent fee committed to) This combined with the inability to move on the big earning senior players unwanted by Gomes (Gunter, McCleary, Baldock) as well as not maximising the potential fees for Moore and Loader, sees us where we are now.

Buying your way out of League 1 around 2000 is a whole different financial ball game to buying your way out of the championship 15-20 years later. To try it is dangerous enough but to fail so miserably is pretty damning.

Yep. Although Stam absolutely had to go, Clement got shafted and neither he nor Gomes were remotely good enough.

Basically, all our troubles can be laid at the door of Zingarevich and Dai. Who couldn't manage a piss up in a brewery.

Some truth in that but it’s kind on the Thai’s

Stam was as big, if not a bigger punt than our other recent managers. Just one that happened to work (for a bit).

We did make some decent signings but we also let Norwood go on the cheap, and binned off a load of good academy prospects at the same time. Could argue some of the seeds of our demise started there

Didn’t they also ‘asset strip’ to an extent. Took away the car park etc and started off the Royal Elm Park nonsense?

The plan seemed to be run things as cheaply as possible and hope Tevreden found some gems - which he did tbf

Dai fcuked up 100% - but not sure it was out of any Ill intent, rather just cluelessness. Guess he thought investing a ton of money, bringing in a highly rated CEO, a big name agent running recruitment would guarantee success at a short cut. It worked for wolves so why not here?

[Brogue]

Just seen an article showing agent fees paid from Jan 2022 - Jan 23. Reading spent the least of any club in the champ at £200,323.

Norwich City were the division’s highest spenders, forking out £4.381m, closely followed by Watford (£4.331m) and Burnley (£4.140m).

Rotherham United paid £273,412. Blackpool £321,254 which with us make up the bottom 3 spenders

To put that into perspective newly promoted league 2 Stockport County paid £236,944.

And 10 league 1 clubs paid more that us. Including derby at just over 1 mill

And to the big spenders in the champ? Nottingham Forest signed 30 players in both the transfer windows, but they only paid £4.4m for agent fees.

[Snowflake Royal]

£200k on agent fees without making a single paid for transfer. We're mugs.

[Hendo]

£200k on agent fees without making a single paid for transfer. We're mugs.

How? Players still have agents, whether that’s players we’ve signed on a free, players we’ve signed on loan or players who have had their contracts renewed.

I know you like to bash the club at any given opportunity, but this isn’t one of them.

[Snowflake Royal]

£200k on agent fees without making a single paid for transfer. We're mugs.

How? Players still have agents, whether that’s players we’ve signed on a free, players we’ve signed on loan or players who have had their contracts renewed.

I know you like to bash the club at any given opportunity, but this isn’t one of them.

To put it in perspective, we've brought in the dregs no one else wanted, for nothing who aren't very good and we've paid £200,000 for the privelege. Although I guess it's only the equivalent of 6 weeks of Liam Moore.

[Hendo]

£200k on agent fees without making a single paid for transfer. We're mugs.

How? Players still have agents, whether that’s players we’ve signed on a free, players we’ve signed on loan or players who have had their contracts renewed.

I know you like to bash the club at any given opportunity, but this isn’t one of them.

To put it in perspective, we've brought in the dregs no one else wanted, for nothing who aren't very good and we've paid £200,000 for the privelege. Although I guess it's only the equivalent of 6 weeks of Liam Moore.

Yeah I get that, but even those players are represented by agents.

To put it in perspective ( ) we’ve bought in 18 players over the last 12 months, whether they’re good or bad is irrelevant, at an average of £11,000 per transaction to agents, which is a pittance really and heavily, heavily reduced from what we have paid in the past. I don’t think this makes us mugs at all.

Unfortunately agent payments are part and part of football, whether you’re playing at the top table or all the way down in the conference.

[Dirk Gently]

You also pay agents for getting rid of players - I'd be a lot of the attempts to offload Puscas and other high-earners weren't carried out for free.

[Hendo]

You also pay agents for getting rid of players - I'd be a lot of the attempts to offload Puscas and other high-earners weren't carried out for free.

^this also.

I’d agree with Ian, if we were still one of the highest agent payers in the league. But the fact we’ve payed less than a league 2 club, and less than 10 league 1 clubs shows the club is moving in the right direction, with regards to agent payments.

[3points]

you also pay agents' fees when an existing player extends a contract (thinking players like Yiadom, Holmes, McIntyre)

[Ascotexgunner]

I'm a little curious over the fake Oligarch years. We seemed to spend bugger all when going up and certainly the PL money would cover that spending....is this a case of false accounting and money being syphoned off somehow by the owner?.

[Snowflake Royal]

I'm a little curious over the fake Oligarch years. We seemed to spend bugger all when going up and certainly the PL money would cover that spending....is this a case of false accounting and money being syphoned off somehow by the owner?.

The money went on the wages of Guthrie, Pogrebnyak, Gunter, McCleary, Roberts and Kebe etc.

[Dirk Gently]

I'm a little curious over the fake Oligarch years. We seemed to spend bugger all when going up and certainly the PL money would cover that spending....is this a case of false accounting and money being syphoned off somehow by the owner?.

The money went on the wages of Guthrie, Pogrebnyak, Gunter, McCleary, Roberts and Kebe etc.

ISTR - although I may well be wrong on this - that SJM reclaimed some of his soft debt at this time. But it gets complicated - TSI bought 51% of the club for £12.7m, and had an option to buy the other 49% for £12.3m, and I don't believe that either instalment was ever actually paid by the Russians/charlatans. But SJM didn't just give the club away, so maybe an/both instalment was made from PL money? I don't remember - that's if we ever knew in the first place.

[Snowflake Royal]

I'm a little curious over the fake Oligarch years. We seemed to spend bugger all when going up and certainly the PL money would cover that spending....is this a case of false accounting and money being syphoned off somehow by the owner?.

The money went on the wages of Guthrie, Pogrebnyak, Gunter, McCleary, Roberts and Kebe etc.

ISTR - although I may well be wrong on this - that SJM reclaimed some of his soft debt at this time. But it gets complicated - TSI bought 51% of the club for £12.7m, and had an option to buy the other 49% for £12.3m, and I don't believe that either instalment was ever actually paid by the Russians/charlatans. But SJM didn't just give the club away, so maybe an/both instalment was made from PL money? I don't remember - that's if we ever knew in the first place.

Recollection also hazy, but I think the first payment went through or the deal wouldn’t have happened, and the second didn’t, hence the club essentially reverting to Madejski.

SJM presumably got his money from the initial salw fee, and subsequent sale to the Thais, as new owners buy the debt as much as they buy the club iirc.

But given our income in the Champ is about £16m and our PL wages were ~£44m, its not hard to see where most of the promotion money goes. The headline promotion bonanza figures always include not just the PL money for the season but the subsequent parachute payments as well.

[Dirk Gently]

The money went on the wages of Guthrie, Pogrebnyak, Gunter, McCleary, Roberts and Kebe etc.

ISTR - although I may well be wrong on this - that SJM reclaimed some of his soft debt at this time. But it gets complicated - TSI bought 51% of the club for £12.7m, and had an option to buy the other 49% for £12.3m, and I don't believe that either instalment was ever actually paid by the Russians/charlatans. But SJM didn't just give the club away, so maybe an/both instalment was made from PL money? I don't remember - that's if we ever knew in the first place.

Recollection also hazy, but I think the first payment went through or the deal wouldn’t have happened, and the second didn’t, hence the club essentially reverting to Madejski.

SJM presumably got his money from the initial salw fee, and subsequent sale to the Thais, as new owners buy the debt as much as they buy the club iirc.

I definitely remember hearing that the first payment was never made.