SPECULATION - Charlie Austin

[davis69]

1 million for austin is not bad we can not go on with having just hunt long and church if we do want to reach the playoffs.

[NR_Royal]

I would expect that at least 25% of transfer revenue should be available for new transfers so why can't we oxf*rd get him in...

[brendywendy]

Frankly if we can get Austin for £1M and do not do so it would be an absolute joke.

Bearing in mind we were told there was a shortfall of £4M at the start of the season (which was why we had to sell players) and yet we recouped around £8M from the sales of Gylfi, Matejovsky, Henry and Cisse plus releasing Rasiak then we have £4M to spend on players now. I am not expecting the club to reinvest all that £4M - but a couple of million to buy Legs and Austin would be good business and give us a genuine chance of promotion. Without new blood our chance of even playoffs is limited.

In truth I am sure that we have worked out that the Chairman is no longer supportive of the club and has probably withdrawn that excess £4M - so now doubt next season (if we don't by some miracle get promoted) we will be told that yet again we have a £4M shortfall which will be used to justify the sales of Long, Kebe etc.

Ambitious club - LOL.

of course therell still be a shortfall next season- hopefully thouigh it will be relatively tiny since we have seriously reduced the wage bill this season.
but if that wasnt the case would you really buy a new striker now if it meant we had to sell fed/kebe/long next season? especially since nhunt and long have started to play well?
also you are just taking the transfer fees into account and not wages.so the financial picture you paint is skewed.

and i think that assuming that JM has "taken" 4 million for himself/other businesses is actually way off what has been done here up to this point.

Frankly if we can get Austin for £1M and do not do so it would be an absolute joke.

i agree totally with this statement- the only problem is they are already asking for 1.2-1.5 million, and rising everytime a new club expresses half an interest, so saying we lack ambition if we dont do it is ignoring the facts.

[brendywendy]

I would expect that at least 25% of transfer revenue should be available for new transfers so why can't we oxf*rd get him in...

except the 25% figure is plucked from the air, and yet again is accountancy that totally ignores the other column in the ledger.
would you still expect 25% of every transfer fee to be spent on new transfers if we made 20 million loss a year?

[The Surgeon of Crowthorne]

I refuse to believe there's any mileage in this rumour until I see it confirmed by Gazzer Loyal Royal

theres not really much to say, as i don't think much will go on. However, i only see my source in the summer transfer window so i will only really be able to confirm if there was contact or whatsoever.

However, it does sound like we've been priced out. The Gylfi deal made us stable as a club for the forseeable future, which is more important than paying £1.5m for a player we released as we never thought he'd make it. Looking at it, unless we're really lucky to find a bargain then i can see the only deal being done is Leigertwood

Thanks, gazzer, for a far more considered reply than my flippant post warranted.

[andrew1957]

of course therell still be a shortfall next season- hopefully thouigh it will be relatively tiny since we have seriously reduced the wage bill this season.
but if that wasnt the case would you really buy a new striker now if it meant we had to sell fed/kebe/long next season? especially since nhunt and long have started to play well?
also you are just taking the transfer fees into account and not wages.so the financial picture you paint is skewed.

and i think that assuming that JM has "taken" 4 million for himself/other businesses is actually way off what has been done here up to this point.

Brendy
I really think you must be Sir John Madejski. The wages argument is rubbish - see below the ins and outs last summer. We replaced 13 mainly high paid stars with 13 mainly academy lads plus Harte, Legs, Griffin and Khiz. If you truly believe that we are paying anything like as mush in wages this season you deluded. So not only has there been a substantial wage saving, but a net inflow of about £8M as I said earlier.

As for the point about Swindon wanting more and more - surely that is just trying to get the best deal for them and I suspect they will take 1M plus say Davies and/or a loan keeper if they need one.

Departing from the squad (13)
May 2010 – Liam Rosenior (aged 25) – released by Reading at the end of his contract term – released free. Signed Hull (Championship) for Oct – Dec 2010.
May 2010 – Gunnar Thorvaldsson (aged 28) – loan period expired and not renewed by Reading. He made no impact. Signed Fredrikstad (Norway) for 2010/11 season.
May 2010 – Ryan Bertrand (aged 20) – loan period expired and he was recalled by Chelsea – much as Reading would have liked him to stay. Loaned to Nottingham Forest (Championship) for 2010/11 season.
May 2010 – Andy Griffin (aged 31) – loan period expired and he returned to Stoke.
May 2010 – Zurab Khizanishvili (aged 28) – loan period expired and he returned to Blackburn
May 2010 – Oliver Bozanic (aged 21) – Academy professional – released by Reading at the end of his contract term - released free. Signed by Central Coast Mariners - Australia for 2010/11 season.
May 2010 – Mitchell Bryant (aged 19) – Academy professional – released by Reading at the end of his contract term - released free. Signed Gloucester City FC (Non League) for 2010/11 season.
May 2010 – Radoslav Vasilev (aged 19) – Academy professional – released by Reading at the end of his contract term - released free. Signed Slavia Sophia (Bulgaria) for 2010/11 season.
June 2010 – Marek Matejovsky (aged 28) – sold to Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) on a 3 year contract for a fee of £650,000
July 2010 – Khalifa Cisse (aged 26) – sold to Bristol City (Championship) on a 2 year contract for a fee of £500,000
July 2010 – James Henry (aged 21) – sold to Millwall (Championship) on a 3 year contract for a fee of £200,000
August 2010 - Grzegorz Rasiak (aged 31) – released for free and transferred on a 2 year contract to AEK Limassol (Cyprus) released free
August 31st 2010 – Gylfi Sigurdsson (aged 20) – sold to 1899 Hoffenheim (Germany Bundesliga) on a 4 year contract for a new club record fee received of £7,000,000

Added to squad (13)
May 2010 – Marcus Williams from Scunthorpe (Championship) on a 3 year contract – free as he left Scunthorpe under a Bosman transfer and is aged over 24.
July 2010 – Andy Griffin from Stoke (Premier League) on a 2 year contract for a fee of £250,000
July 2010 – Jacob Walcott – Academy
July 2010 – Michael Hector – Academy
July 2010 – Jack Mills – Academy
July 2010 – James Rowe – Academy
July 2010 – Simon Locke – Academy
July 2010 – Danny Joyce – Academy
Aug 2010 – Jordan Obita – Academy
Aug 2010 – Lawson D’Ath – Academy
Aug 31st 2010 – Zurab Khizanishvili from Blackburn (Premier League) – on loan until the end of the season.
Aug 31st 2010 – Ian Harte from Carlisle (Div 1) on a 2 year contract for a fee of £150,000
Nov 2010 – Mikele Leigertwood from QPR (Championship) - on loan until 25th January 2011.
Total initial transfer fees paid - £400,000 – less fees received of £8,350,000 equals surplus on dealing of £7,950,000 – the total number of players in squad is now 39.

[FiNeRaIn]

I;m not having this priced out nonsense. Reading have received the highest amount of outgoing transfers than the entire football league and half the prem in the last three years, they have also spend not very much in terms of most of the championship and premierleague in terms of wages on top of that. We can DEFINITELY afford to bring him in so stop this nonsense about money and get it done.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Our ambition is that of JM, spend bugger all and tell everyone we're serious about promotion so we can persuade the gullible to shell out for STs every year. Then complain about the fact that no-one comes to watch us and that there's a shortfall so we have to spend bugger all, meanwhile hoping the manager can keep working miracles.

Honestly, spending 1M in this day and age for a club in our position is hardly acting rashly. If we have financial problems then some of that has to be put down to JM and the way the club was run earlier, I mean getting rid of Rasiak as we couldn't afford him after we signed him after SC had left just points at bad management.

So, nice to see Heston being supported by the club. Of course if he could get Torres for 1M it might be different

Of course it could all be the standard smoke screen in an effort to make the Swine think we're brassic so they don't ask for so much up front - yes that ones really going to work, just as it was so successful in getting Tommy Smith in....

[FiNeRaIn]

Great post.

[Ian Royal]

Our ambition is that of JM, spend bugger all and tell everyone we're serious about promotion so we can persuade the gullible to shell out for STs every year. Then complain about the fact that no-one comes to watch us and that there's a shortfall so we have to spend bugger all, meanwhile hoping the manager can keep working miracles.

Honestly, spending 1M in this day and age for a club in our position is hardly acting rashly. If we have financial problems then some of that has to be put down to JM and the way the club was run earlier, I mean getting rid of Rasiak as we couldn't afford him after we signed him after SC had left just points at bad management.

So, nice to see Heston being supported by the club. Of course if he could get Torres for 1M it might be different

Of course it could all be the standard smoke screen in an effort to make the Swine think we're brassic so they don't ask for so much up front - yes that ones really going to work, just as it was so successful in getting Tommy Smith in....

Everyone is in financial difficulties after relegation from the Prem, especially when they stop getting the parachute payment. Plenty end up in administration and or falling apart and getting relegated again. It's a sign of how the club is managed that there hasn't even been a whisper of the word administration and largely we're still competing at the right end of the table. And that's despite a fair few quite serious mistakes in signings and management over the last 4 years.

[FiNeRaIn]

Everyone is in financial difficulties after relegation from the Prem, especially when they stop getting the parachute payment. Plenty end up in administration and or falling apart and getting relegated again. It's a sign of how the club is managed that there hasn't even been a whisper of the word administration and largely we're still competing at the right end of the table. And that's despite a fair few quite serious mistakes in signings and management over the last 4 years.

We don't need to whisper it, because we are actually ACTING like we are in administration. We have signed less people than portsmouth amongst others, how do you now see how bad it is?

[andrew1957]

Everyone is in financial difficulties after relegation from the Prem, especially when they stop getting the parachute payment. Plenty end up in administration and or falling apart and getting relegated again. It's a sign of how the club is managed that there hasn't even been a whisper of the word administration and largely we're still competing at the right end of the table. And that's despite a fair few quite serious mistakes in signings and management over the last 4 years.

We don't need to whisper it, because we are actually ACTING like we are in administration. We have signed less people than portsmouth amongst others, how do you now see how bad it is?

Agreed.

In the last 5 years we have made more than £20M profit on player sales plus squandered two year PL income and two years parachute payments and yet spent all but nothing reinvesting in the squad (the current squad cost just over £5.5M to assemble - see below). It is very disappointing and you really do wonder where the money has gone. Hardly a well run club if we have squandered all this on player wages for mainly very average players.

I like the Blackpool approach of limiting wages to £10K per week even in the PL and they will benefit from this when they inevitably get relegated this season or next.

The total squad cost of £5,545,000 is made up of the following transfer fees paid – Mills £1.5M, N. Hunt £600K, McAnuff £500K, Armstrong £500K, Howard £500K, Cummings £300K, Tabb £300K, Griffin £250K, Kebe £250K, Mooney £200K, Ingimarsson £175K (in total), Harte 150K, Andersen £100K, Gunnarsson £100K, Antonio £100K and Long £20K

[SpaceCruiser]

Christ, the usual moan about us not spending money and £1m being "not steep".

[andrew1957]

Christ, the usual moan about us not spending money and £1m being "not steep".

Why are so many RFC fans so content with mediocrity? Surely we should invest from our profits to improve the squad like virtually every other club does.

[SpaceCruiser]

Profits? What profits?

[Royalee]

Christ, the usual moan about us not spending money and £1m being "not steep".

Roll your eyes all you want, but you've not put through any proper argument and any Reading fan who thinks the football club itself has made a loss in football-related matters (Madejski taking money back out aside) is frankly braindead - just look at the transfer fees and the wages we've offloaded, plus the TV money.

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

Christ, the usual moan about us not spending money and £1m being "not steep".

Roll your eyes all you want, but you've not put through any proper argument and any Reading fan who thinks the football club itself has made a loss in football-related matters (Madejski taking money back out aside) is frankly braindead - just look at the transfer fees and the wages we've offloaded, plus the TV money.

...I think Spacecruiser is just frustrated that its out of season ,and he can't pull his hockey stick out ...but I guess if he's supporting the clubs stance, he too, simply lacks ambition as well

[Row Z Royal]

of course therell still be a shortfall next season- hopefully thouigh it will be relatively tiny since we have seriously reduced the wage bill this season.
but if that wasnt the case would you really buy a new striker now if it meant we had to sell fed/kebe/long next season? especially since nhunt and long have started to play well?
also you are just taking the transfer fees into account and not wages.so the financial picture you paint is skewed.

and i think that assuming that JM has "taken" 4 million for himself/other businesses is actually way off what has been done here up to this point.

Brendy
I really think you must be Sir John Madejski. The wages argument is rubbish -

This is where I stopped reading but you're obviously a peddlar of bunkem.

[Ian Royal]

Everyone is in financial difficulties after relegation from the Prem, especially when they stop getting the parachute payment. Plenty end up in administration and or falling apart and getting relegated again. It's a sign of how the club is managed that there hasn't even been a whisper of the word administration and largely we're still competing at the right end of the table. And that's despite a fair few quite serious mistakes in signings and management over the last 4 years.

We don't need to whisper it, because we are actually ACTING like we are in administration. We have signed less people than portsmouth amongst others, how do you now see how bad it is?

Oh really? I hadn't noticed us being unable to pay players, staff, the Taxman or St John's Ambulance. Or having an adminstrator appointed and getting most of our debt wiped for nothing. Or the court cases from our various creditors trying to wind us up.

We have a good team, a good manager and are in minimal danger of getting into significant financial trouble, which is one of the major reasons you'll see teams struggling with relegation. We challenging for a play off place, despite being in the middle of a rebuilding phase.

I don't see it's bad because it isn't.

[andrew1957]

Everyone is in financial difficulties after relegation from the Prem, especially when they stop getting the parachute payment. Plenty end up in administration and or falling apart and getting relegated again. It's a sign of how the club is managed that there hasn't even been a whisper of the word administration and largely we're still competing at the right end of the table. And that's despite a fair few quite serious mistakes in signings and management over the last 4 years.

We don't need to whisper it, because we are actually ACTING like we are in administration. We have signed less people than portsmouth amongst others, how do you now see how bad it is?

Oh really? I hadn't noticed us being unable to pay players, staff, the Taxman or St John's Ambulance. Or having an adminstrator appointed and getting most of our debt wiped for nothing. Or the court cases from our various creditors trying to wind us up.

We have a good team, a good manager and are in minimal danger of getting into significant financial trouble, which is one of the major reasons you'll see teams struggling with relegation. We challenging for a play off place, despite being in the middle of a rebuilding phase.

I don't see it's bad because it isn't.

Neither have we been in two Cup Finals or been one of the top clubs in Europe (Leeds).