So, we now know. Sir Steve is staying. And as with most of you - I am absolutely delighted!
What did concern me was some of the latter areas of the interview.
Chairman, can I ask you; now you have secured this deal, is the biggest job for you and Nick Hammond now to sort out the future of the players, those who'll be coming in and those who'll be leaving. And how big a job is that?
It is a pretty big job. I think Steven has gone public in saying he feels the squad is too big at the moment. But what I would like to say is that the thing that comes through, and I think Steve buys into it, is that this Club is very much a community club and that's what we try to emphasise as much as possible. I think that's why we have this fellowship here, which is very special and which we are very proud of that. I think that plays an important part too.
Will any other predatory Premier League club be able to get your players on the cheap?
Certainly not! We don't sell anything on the cheap here. We're good business people at the end of the day. They'll obviously try but I'm sure we won't let anything slip through our hands.
Chairman, are you in a position to say today that Steve will have substantial financial backing from you to bring the team back up the the Premiership?
As I've already expressed, the squad is too large at the moment so I think we'd have to do some trading to achieve that objective. At least that's my spin on it.
Now, firstly, well done Mr. Mad for laying down a line in the sand on our better players. It is nice to know if Shorey, Hunt, Doyle, Lita or any other big name is going to go, it is going to be for sensible money, not the first offer that comes in.
Having said this, whilst we have a strong squad, the question is, how many does SSC want to get rid of, and how many will Madejski need to see go before we continue making the investment needed to re-secure our premiership status?
Presumably Fae, Shorey, Bennett and Sodje will all go. If so, is that enough, or will we need to offload more before we invest? Or, will Mr. Madejski still invest under the preise that it is the right player, and Coppell look to offload over the rest of the summer?
My big fear is that, reading between the lines, we miss out on a player because the wage bill is deemed to be too high.
What do the rest of you think?