Coppell's latest backtrack

[Hoop Blah]

I'd also suspect that he's now well and truly in the black on the whole deal, and he also owns s well as now owning a saleable asset worth in excess of £100 million. Not criticising him, BTW - he saw the opportunity and took it.

And thank god he did!

I don't think I can bring myself to criticise Madejski's motives or the way he's built the club up through his drive and enthusiasm. If he's done it to build a legacy, to give back the community, to raise his profile or just purely to make money, I don't really care.

Along to way I'd like to have seen a bit more cash injected at times but in general he has, in my opinion, been the saviour many make him out to be for the club.

[Dirk Gently]

You've not included the transfer fees that have come out of his pocket..
When we've bought players he has often paid for them, but when we sell them again it goes into the club.

Ah, but I have - I allowed a million a year for the 7 years between 1998 and 2005, which I think will more than cover all losses including transfer fees.

Although the previous post wasn't meant as a criticism of JM, but was just intended to answer the questions about how much he'd put in, I will happily criticise him about this business of "transfer fees coming straight out of his own pocket." I've always disliked this as being particularly disingenuous and designed to portray him as the "generous benefactor."

He owns the club virtually lock, stock and barrel - so in the years when we were making a loss everything came out of his pocket. In fact, as there has never been a transfer budget as such set, every transfer was down to Nicky Hammond or previous managers going to JM with justification to sign a particular player. To have this then presented to supporters as "look at how generous I am, I'm putting my hand into my own pocket in order to buy you all a new player to watch" leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

The simple fact is that investing in players is a crucial part of building his business - brick-by-brick - and should be seen as such, rather than as a "gift" to supporters.

[Hoop Blah]

You've not included the transfer fees that have come out of his pocket..
When we've bought players he has often paid for them, but when we sell them again it goes into the club.

I disagree with this recent wave of attacks against JM. It's not his fault, JM has said continually that there is PLENTY of funding available for transfers.
Yet we are not spending, and who is responsible for transfers?
That's right, NICK HAMMOND.

So if you guys want to blame anyone, you should at least put the blame onto the right person(S), which in this case would be a) NICK HAMMOND b) whoever is scouting and can't identify suitable players/targets c) Steve Coppell and Hammond for not "pulling the trigger" when we have a "target" in sight
My main objection is with Hammond and the scouts. What the fcuk are they doing? Why are we not targeting any championship players? There are lots of good ones. Why are we only scouting the continent and coming back with french africans like FAE who has been a miserable failure for £2.5M? We could have spent £2.5M on championship players and done a hell of a lot better!!!
Why are we not scouting ENGLAND anymore?

Hammond doesn't have the final say on tranfers, how can it be down to him? They work as a team in identifying and scouting players and the weaknesses in the squad that need addressing.

Coppell wouldn't work with Hammond if he wasn't in control of who was in his squad.

[2.8 lita injection]

http://www.chatsoccer.eu/news/index.php ... uaded.html

[JimGRoyal]

This was in the Irish papers last week
Tey 're just waiting for him to resign to jump on him

[2.8 lita injection]

If Coppell was going to resign he would surely do it at the end of the season ?

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

unless we miraculously pull away and start playing football like we used to, I can see him resigning whatever division we are in.

Mind you I was convinced of that after everything turned to crap in 2005, and he stayed on then happily enough, even though his contract was up.

[Royal Lady]

I've said on here more than once that I thought he'd resign at the end of the season and take the ROI job. Time will tell if I am barking up the wrong tree though.

Gooding said earlier on Radio Berks that when he was with Quinny as Manager, they didn't have a budget and had to go to the Chairman to ask to buy a player. He thinks it's probably the same for Coppell. Maybe once, Coppell tried to sign a player for a few million and Mr Mad refused. Maybe this is why we never go for anyone over about £2.5 million? Gooding also said he thought it was wrong that we didn't strengthen last Summer and still wrong now that we didn't sign in January.

THIS will be the undoing of our club's success. 2 or 3 £5million type players with proven Premiership quality and experience would have steadied the ship and the others here would have learned from them as well as from Coppell/Dillon/Downes imho. I truly believe Mr Mad has shot himself in the foot with this one, as if we go down we're a less saleable commodity than if we are still a PL team with all the kudos that brings. As for Oster also saying in interview that the players aren't unduly worried about being in the bottom three - SHAME ON YOU - where do you think we're going to get 6 wins from in the remaining 12 games if we've only managed 6 wins so far. You should all be bloody worried and desperate to get out of this situation.

[Man Friday]

I've said on here more than once that I thought he'd resign at the end of the season and take the ROI job. Time will tell if I am barking up the wrong tree though.

Gooding said earlier on Radio Berks that when he was with Quinny as Manager, they didn't have a budget and had to go to the Chairman to ask to buy a player. He thinks it's probably the same for Coppell. Maybe once, Coppell tried to sign a player for a few million and Mr Mad refused. Maybe this is why we never go for anyone over about £2.5 million? Gooding also said he thought it was wrong that we didn't strengthen last Summer and still wrong now that we didn't sign in January.

THIS will be the undoing of our club's success. 2 or 3 £5million type players with proven Premiership quality and experience would have steadied the ship and the others here would have learned from them as well as from Coppell/Dillon/Downes imho. I truly believe Mr Mad has shot himself in the foot with this one, as if we go down we're a less saleable commodity than if we are still a PL team with all the kudos that brings. As for Oster also saying in interview that the players aren't unduly worried about being in the bottom three - SHAME ON YOU - where do you think we're going to get 6 wins from in the remaining 12 games if we've only managed 6 wins so far. You should all be bloody worried and desperate to get out of this situation.

Agree with all of this except that this season I believe 37 points will be enough so "only" 5 wins are needed - can't see where even 5 are coming from, though.

[2.8 lita injection]

I've said on here more than once that I thought he'd resign at the end of the season and take the ROI job. Time will tell if I am barking up the wrong tree though.

Gooding said earlier on Radio Berks that when he was with Quinny as Manager, they didn't have a budget and had to go to the Chairman to ask to buy a player. He thinks it's probably the same for Coppell. Maybe once, Coppell tried to sign a player for a few million and Mr Mad refused. Maybe this is why we never go for anyone over about £2.5 million? Gooding also said he thought it was wrong that we didn't strengthen last Summer and still wrong now that we didn't sign in January.

THIS will be the undoing of our club's success. 2 or 3 £5million type players with proven Premiership quality and experience would have steadied the ship and the others here would have learned from them as well as from Coppell/Dillon/Downes imho. I truly believe Mr Mad has shot himself in the foot with this one, as if we go down we're a less saleable commodity than if we are still a PL team with all the kudos that brings. As for Oster also saying in interview that the players aren't unduly worried about being in the bottom three - SHAME ON YOU - where do you think we're going to get 6 wins from in the remaining 12 games if we've only managed 6 wins so far. You should all be bloody worried and desperate to get out of this situation.

I tell you what, if I were John Madejski and some guy spent £2.5M on Emerse Fae and £2.5M on Greg Halford... and then came round my office asking for another £2.5M to spend on some french african guy, I would probably tell him what orifice he could shove that money up and call security.

But if a guy who bought Kevin Doyle came knocking on my door i would give him as much money as he wanted.