RFC's wage structure

[Victor Meldrew]

It will be interesting to see what players are bought in the Summer.
Can the club keep on finding lower division players and improving them?
Has Sodje been worth what we paid for him and has he improved?
Has Seol been worth what we paid for him and improved?
Has Convey been worth what we paid for him and improved?
Has Halls been worth what we paid for him?
Is Duberry going to be worth what we paid for him?
Will the young Irish centre-back turn out to be worth what we paid for him?

For every Kevin Doyle there are going to be more that don't come up to scratch and don't improve regardless of the wages so we may find that the club brings in a few more Duberrys on higher wages but possibly on free transfers.
I see in today's paper we are being linked with Arsenal's Muamba again at around £4 million.
We didn't get Lescott or Mensah for that sort of money last season (was it wages or little club?) so we may have money in the bank plus the new TV money of £30million this year which may mean that we can pay higher wages.

Apart from Sidwell most players have signed new contracts which (with the speed with which they signed) presumably gave them a big increase on what they had been earning,however if they and we remain in the Premiership and International recognition increases will they all be looking for more money?

[Huntley & Palmer]

How much was Murty? £700k or something, I'd say that means he was hardly a nobody if Mr Burns convinced Mr Mad to cough for him. Likewise, Hahnemann was taken on loan by us as he was a Fulham player, which meant he was part of a team that were above us.

BehindU - Shorey was not a well thought of player at Leyton Orient, Adam Lockwood was the left back that everyone had their eyes on but Pardew obviously saw a little more in him

Shorey was rated, had certainly heard him mentioned as a good prospect although agree that Lockwood was the one thought most likely to.

Sadly H&P I don;t think you are going to concede that Hahnemann has made his name whilst with us then it's a pointless exercise. As I have said, Hahnemann was about to quit the game due to lack of any prgres at Fulham, wasn;t guaranteed a game for their reserves and had done nothing before we signed him. Compare that to over 200 games as first choice keeper in a very good side, international gaps and awards and it's just unsupportable to argue he hasn;t proggressed massively !!!

He's the best keeper in the Premiership I hear

[Dirk Gently]

But last season hardly anyone (e.g. Lescott etc) wanted to come to reading because not only are we seen as low payers but we were seen as near-certainties for relegation. Seol, for instance, wasn't a planned buy, but he was available and happy to come, so he was bought.

One year on we may find it a whole lot easier to attract the right type of players.

[readingbedding]

Reading are still in the process of building the club and it would be wrong to start paying silly wages until the club has proven itself over a few seasons in the premiership.

I still think their are loads of potential superstars lurking in the foreign leagues who would love to be on £10k-£25k.

Danny Murphy just shows that English players are overpaid.

True that.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Behindu]

[
He's the best keeper in the Premiership I hear

I rest my case

[fester_royal_blue]

we pay what we can afford and i for one am extremely happy that we have two heads that are firmly screwed on running our club.
why raise the wages to silly prices at the risk of upsetting the whole structure of the club and team? we have a long and well run system at reading of bring in young and up comming youth who have a lot to proove, why start rocking the boat now?
as fans dont we all think that supporting our club costs to much? i certainly have noticed the difference from travelling away this year to the last 10 ive been doing it. with attendances dropping throughout the leagues i think the 'boom' time in football is finally becoming more logical, thus in time players wages will have no choice but to drop to more of a logical amount.
i for one hopes madejski will stay at reading forever more because theres no one more down to earth in football, he wont pay for big names and i hope it stays that way, we have a good method and i hope we stick with it.


on a seperate note, i believe doyles new contract wasnt far from being 25k anyway

[westendgirl]

No one really whinges about what players are paid when they're winning. Players will get the market (and above because it's football) rate, that's a reality.

Do you really believe that - if so you have not been around hear when season ticket prices are announced. However you may be right because there seems to be a reality gap in some fans eyes between what they think we should pay as wages and what we should pay for our tickets.

I agree with whoever pointed out that expressing a footballers wage in weekly terms is wrong as it sounds OK to be on 25k - but when you call that 1.3 million I find it extremely hard to find a justification for those of us earning less in a year than they do in a week to pay for an increase in their wage.

I am happy that the club I support does not subscribe to the idea of throwing more money at the players to just escalate the players wage spiral that is bound to follow the additional TV money in the premiership - I just wish a few more clubs believed that a 'team' is worth more than a bunch of extremely well paid individuals - maybe our example will help but not if we cave in to the Danny Murphy's of this world.

[glass half full]

Israel Nil England Millionaires nil.

[Henleyensian]

But last season hardly anyone (e.g. Lescott etc) wanted to come to reading because not only are we seen as low payers but we were seen as near-certainties for relegation. Seol, for instance, wasn't a planned buy, but he was available and happy to come, so he was bought.

One year on we may find it a whole lot easier to attract the right type of players.

It may be that we will not need to worry too much about attracting players if our Youth team keeps doing so well that most of them are now reserves for the first team. From what I read about those who are out on loan, they are all have talent and perhaps we shall see one or more of them in the first team before too long.

We should beware of asking for players to be paid like the so-called stars of the Premiership unless we want to pay Chelsea type prices for our season tickets. In any case, it is better to have players with talent rather than a big ego.

[Stranded]

Israel Nil England Millionaires nil.

Almost a good point but certainly all the Israeli side playing outside their own country would be millionaries by now and I'm sure even those playing in their own league won't be doing too badly either.

[tom_t69]

i would love it if we signed murphy he is a top class player who kept up charlton last year by himself, as soon as he left they went downhill. he would be an ideal replacement for sidwell. this just underlines why we should just pay sidwell more because to get a player of his money we will have to pay them 40k a week and also they will have a big price tag aswell.

[Huntley & Palmer]

But last season hardly anyone (e.g. Lescott etc) wanted to come to reading because not only are we seen as low payers but we were seen as near-certainties for relegation. Seol, for instance, wasn't a planned buy, but he was available and happy to come, so he was bought.

One year on we may find it a whole lot easier to attract the right type of players.

It may be that we will not need to worry too much about attracting players if our Youth team keeps doing so well that most of them are now reserves for the first team. From what I read about those who are out on loan, they are all have talent and perhaps we shall see one or more of them in the first team before too long.

We should beware of asking for players to be paid like the so-called stars of the Premiership unless we want to pay Chelsea type prices for our season tickets. In any case, it is better to have players with talent rather than a big ego.

Are you serious? I can't think of one Academy player that is even close to being Premiership quality at the moment. They don't even get to play in the Cup games so they must be well off the first team. We must compete on a wage level with the majority of the clubs outside of the top four or we will struggle to sign anyone