Madejski interview in the Mail

[JC]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... =1779&ct=5


'We're just an extraordinary team no one has heard of,' says Reading's Madejski
By ALAN FRASER

Last updated at 23:14pm on 15th February 2007


John Madejski will be at the stadium which bears his name at one o'clock on Friday to wish his Reading players bon voyage and good luck as the team coach heads north for a glamourous FA Cup fifth-round tie against Manchester United.

The chairman will be absent from the game itself on Saturday, preferring to stick with a previous private engagement at the Dorchester Hotel in London. "I'll watch it on television and hope for a draw," he told Sportsmail.

Nor would he be able to attend the sixth-round match should Reading produce what is known in the trade as a Cup shock. That weekend he will be with his two daughters on the Galapagos Islands where he owns the only five-star hotel.

"Shocking," Madejski says with the exaggerated disapproval of someone being not entirely serious, "that I would plan my social calendar around not being in the Cup."

Not surprising, therefore, that he should be entirely in accord with his manager, the enigmatic Steve Coppell, who intends pursuing his FA Cup policy of fielding a second-string side at Old Trafford.

Which rather begs a question: how can you tell the difference? Reading may have astonished everyone in the game, not least themselves, by winning 13 out of 27 Premiership matches to date but their players remain so comparatively unheralded that the first team and the reserves are indistinguishable in their anonymity.

Madejski, who enjoys a tease, is not so much offended as amused at the cheek.

"Absolutely right," he says. "We dine out on that. We are perceived like that and that is what we are like. And the great thing is that the players perceive themselves that way. That is half the battle. We don't have any big shots big-timing it around the dressing room and expecting to receive due deference.

"We are getting on happily growing our own players and dipping into the tranfer market when we need to. We paid a club record £2.5million for Greg Halford and who's heard of him?"

There is an endearingly naive bluntness in Madejski which would sit uncomfortably at a bigger, less unfashionable, more precocious club than Reading. He is an urbane businessman first and a football fanatic last, with several other interests in between.

This is the man who, years ago admittedly, took a telephone call from Alex Ferguson (recommending Mark McGhee for the manager's job) and proceeded to ask a roomful of people who he was. Ferguson, not McGhee.

When Madejski and Ferguson met at Old Trafford earlier in the season, the pair spoke not of football but of matters of interest to two 65-year-olds. "I'm not telling you what," he said.

Madejski categorizes his club's success this season as "bizarre" while describing opponents who have fallen victim to Reading as "bemused".

"They see little Reading come along with their scratch team, as they view it, and they look down the list and don't know any of the characters, just this extraordinary team that no one has ever heard of. And yet, hey-ho, they are winning lots of games. Now, they are having to think. That's why they are bemused."

Madejski identifies both the first game of the season and the first day of 2007 as significant, if not exactly defining moments, in a journey which has taken little (still a compulsory adjective) Reading to sixth place in The Premiership, and thinking about Europe.

"We lost two goals to Middlesborough and thought, oh, oh, this is the Premiership," said Madejski. "We came back to win 3-2 and thought well perhaps this aint so difficult.

"Since then it has been absolutely amazing and bizarre. The esprit de corps and the cohesion. I could not in my wildest dreams have imagined what has happened. It is beyond belief. You can throw money at anything but we haven't done that.

"New Year's Day came along and we beat West Ham 6-0. They had recently defeated Manchester United. I had been celebrating the night before and had a bit of a hangover. Half way through that game, I honestly wondered whether I was dreaming, whether I was going to make up in a minute and go to the match.

"Now we have got 43 points and we are pretty well assured of being in the same division next season. It is totally bizarre what is going on. I am delighted, over the moon.

"I know that this aint going to last forever. I hope it does. But history tells me it probably won't." Wigan represents a dark shadow alongside the ninth cloud where most Reading supporters can be found at present.

On the wall just inside the door of the chairman's penthouse, perched on top of the hotel adjoining the Madejski Stadium, hangs a framed drawing of a little boy with his back to a football.

"That's Johnny walking away from football," a pointing Madejski says, speaking of himself in the third person. "When that rich dude knocks at my door," he adds, answering the question before it is asked.

This is the same, as yet unidentified, figure with very deep pockets of which Madejski has frequently spoken who will come along one day and acquire Reading.

The picture, best viewed from the private lift which lowers Madejski to the basement home of his Rolls Royce, is a reminder that nothing lasts forever.

"I am not gagging to sell the club today or tomorrow," he explains. "I believe I will get a serious buyer next season. We have a fantastic set-up here, close to London, very important for foreign buyers. An English Premiershp football club is the must have fashion accessory of the super rich.

"We have had the nutters here, the people with no money and no sense who say I got a deal for you. I know who and what I am looking for. Of course, I may not [sell]."

Madejski talks with such enthusiasm and passion about how football success has made the citizens of Reading more confident in themselves and about how a proposed £500 million development by one of his companies for 1.4 million square feet of floor space next to the station will help turn Reading into a European city.

His £30 million plans to raise the capacity of the Madejski Stadium from 24,000 to 38,000 in the next two years seem modest by comparison.

Madejski does not sound as if he is going anywhere. Except, of course, the Galapagos Islands.

[OzBiscuit2004]

I have met Mr Madejski (as have many on here) a couple of times while we were still at Elm Park. Thoroughly nice bloke.

Good article too.

[Coppelled Streets]

Excellent read, cheers!

[Gordon Cumming's right ho]

Who was at Hull in '91, I think, when Mr Mad started strolling through the Iceland store ... I mean the away terrace? Top geezer with the totally eponymous name.

Sounds a little more positive about not in a hurry to sell up. I really should have a word with the nice people at Dubai International Capital...

[toppy]

An excellent read - thanks for posting it.

[Mr Angry]

Excellent article - very positive vibes re: "in no hurry to sell" and "may not even sell".

Mr Mad, Nicky Hammond and Sir Steve have taken this club to where it is now and for any of them to move on at this stage would not be in the long term best interests of the club.

[T.R.O.L.I.]

A great article - but I can't see SSC being too chuffed with the following comment:

Now we have got 43 points and we are pretty well assured of being in the same division next season.

[poohs pure]

LM, true Reading Legend

[Sharpy]

good old daily mail

[higher]

He was just on 5 live.Usual mantra about he`s going nowhere in a hurry but happy to sell club to right bidder.Too much money flowing out of the game.Very few agents when he first started negotiating players deals but he did admit we were in the old 3rd division which may have played a part!
Nice bloke that Mr Mad.

[Gordons Cumming]

"I know that this aint going to last forever.".

This is the key. We must savour every moment of this fantastic time.
Feast on every game. All Good Things Come To An End

[79Royal]

"I know that this aint going to last forever.".

This is the key. We must savour every moment of this fantastic time.
Feast on every game. All Good Things Come To An End

Which is exactly why I will be going to Old Trafford tomorrow and singing my heart out for the team, regardless of the personel, and I am going to thooughly enjoy myself. Whatever the outcome!

[Gordons Cumming]

"I know that this aint going to last forever.".

This is the key. We must savour every moment of this fantastic time.
Feast on every game. All Good Things Come To An End

Which is exactly why I will be going to Old Trafford tomorrow and singing my heart out for the team, regardless of the personel, and I am going to thooughly enjoy myself. Whatever the outcome!

I'm not sure I'll be thooughly enjoying myself if we're 0-4 at half time, ................but I'll try. (Though i don't think that will happen )

[Nezhen]

Sorry to put a dampner on this thread everyone, but although I absolutely admire Mr Mad and what he has done for 'little Reading', I know he provides funds to the Tory party and I for one would not want to share a pint with him or even give him the time of day !

[SpaceCruiser]

good old daily mail

And I'm surprised that they have done such an article. Last Sunday, I wondered why I bothered to buy one as their match report for Reading v Aston Villa was poor.

[Ian Royal]

good old daily mail

And I'm surprised that they have done such an article. Last Sunday, I wondered why I bothered to buy one as their match report for Reading v Aston Villa was poor.

Mr Mad is a good Tory old boy that's why.

[RobRoyal]

Sorry to put a dampner on this thread everyone, but although I absolutely admire Mr Mad and what he has done for 'little Reading', I know he provides funds to the Tory party and I for one would not want to share a pint with him or even give him the time of day !

Agreed! He's done great things for our football club but he's not done it for me so I don't really feel any need to feel grateful to the tory chump!

[brendywendy]

most people with money wish to keep it, and so vote tory

after all

who cares about 7 million unemployed, or inflation of 10 %, if your loaded

[royalflush]

The picture, best viewed from the private lift which lowers Madejski to the basement home of his Rolls Royce...

This comment has me a bit confused, is there an underground car park at the MadStad that no one knows about!?

[Rhys The Royal]

What I want to know is when are we going to get a John Madejski statue?

When it does come, it's got to be next to his parking space by the megastore.