What are we here for?

[Mr Irascible]

As a fan of 40 plus years I have followed the club through thick and thin...mainly thin. One of the happiest days of my life was at Leicester when we finally reached the Premiership. One fantastic year followed then the disappointment of the near relegation. Throughout the recent years I have been a firm supporter of the board as they aim to build a self-sufficient club and I can see that the sale of Doyle helps to make more funds available.....but....

I am saddened to read on the web site that this represents "excellent business for the club". In basic factual terms I can see that buying players and making profits on their sale does indeed represent good business.

But where in the objectives of the club do ambition, promotion, entertainment etc stand? If our only aim on business is to make the profits then, as a long standing and (one would have thought) valued customer where does the club deliver to me?

Being a fan is a highly emotional attachment and one that can cost a lot in terms of time and money...but if our only aim is to be a trader of players then what I am expecting to see this season...a team of players with maybe some future ahead of them...if sold to the highest bidder when they reach a higher standard?

I am becoming a bit disillusioned...we lost our place at the top table through complacency...will we spend the next few years in the Div2/Div 3 levels of the past.

I think it is time to hear from the board about their true mission!

[Deathy]

Excellent post!

[Blue Label]

+1.... great post

[FiNeRaIn]

Good post.

Great business for Mr mad, not great business for the club. Won't see a penny of it.

[boy1985]

It's good business if we buy a player for cheaper than £6mil that is as good or better than Doyle.

We won't/can't though so..

+1

[Royal With Cheese]

Mr Mad's wallet is the only happy place at the Mad Stad today.

[maf82]

Yep we need answers,soon as season ticket deadline goes,are best player is no longer here,are we going to get value next year?and also brendan rodgers is talking bull crap if he thinks we will go back up,every reading fan knows we will struggle this season.this will be my last season ticket this season if we dont show a little bit of ambition ,20 yrs i been going even in the old days at least we had something to look forward to.

[Dirk Gently]

I'd say that they're definitely not out to make money as a short-term objective - except that the overall strategy is to increase the sale value of the club in case a bidder can be found.

But the objective this year - financially - will be to consolidate and get the club back into a position where it's ready to challenge to go up. In the immediate term, that does mean balancing the books. We need to change from a club running the playing side on a PL-level budget (as we were last season, albeit a small-for-the PL level budget) into a club running the playing side on a CCC level budget. So if we can do "excellent business" and also significantly reduce the wage bill that's one of the facts of life we've got to embrace.

How long it takes for us to challenge again on a CCC-level budget remains to be seen - that's down to BR.

And let's not forget - this "board" that everyone always speaks of does not actually exist, except in the strictest legal sense that every company must have a "board" with a minimum of two members. In reality we have one person who owns virtually every share .. and so makes all the financial decisions.

[West Stand Man]

Well I'll be the one to burst the bubble about the original post. Far from being a 'top post', it is drivel of the first order. Why? Well if that isn't obvious to you then no explanation will make it any clearer - you just haven't got the intellect to cope with it.

Yup, could have been more polite in my response - but what the hell.

[Alan Partridge]

Think Reading are at a cross roads, the sale of Doyle was inevitable as he's a good player and shouldn't be wasting his time in this league. This is Reading's last year of parachute payments, it's their last year with a slight advantage over 19 of the teams in this league. So in theory they need to go for it this season. Problem is if they fail they could be in a situation the year after where a bit of a 'firesale' is needed to balance the books up. That's the fine line and the gamble that we'll see if they are willing to take.

The worry is that the club having created such a positive feel good factor for a couple of seasons could quite easily drift into obscurity just like teams such as Coventry, Watford, Sheffield Wednesday, Norwich and the like. All ex prem sides that having failed in their 2nd year down had to flog nearly all their better players and start again.In some cases getting relegated again.

It's a difficult scenario for Reading. I think they need to create a buzz around the place again,a high profile or an established player coming in might do that. Lots of buzz at the time of Lita signing, something like that may do the trick, because there are a lot of fans out there concerned or losing a lot of heart in the club at the minute.

[donface]

LOL@anyone who thinks Madejski makes money out of football.

LOL

[Arnie_Pie]

LOL@anyone who thinks Madejski makes money out of football.

LOL

'greed

[Terminal Boardom]

Part and parcel of supporting a football club.

[Hoop Blah]

Dirk, we're not running on Premiership wage budget. The wages were slashed by 40% remember...

As for where do we stand and where are we going. As a fan I want to see the club striving to improve at every opportunity, to try their utmost to win every game, and to aim to be as successful as possible.

Unfortunately there are times when you have to accept that players will move on when you don't want them to and sometimes we won't be able to replace them immediately, if at all. When that happens all I expect is that we do our best to make the side as strong as we can. Sometimes that will be ploughing signifcant sums of money back into the team, sometimes it won't.

I'm happy that the board are running the club sensibly and I believe that they've made significant funds and wage budget available to the managers throughout the last 10 years.

[Halifax 4-1]

The objective of the club will be to remain solvent and try to achieve as high a league position as possible.

The players leaving the club are long seving and as such (even with relagation clauses in their contracts) will be on wages too high for this club to support at this level.

Our record breaking season in The Championship saw the club post a £7 million loss so "the cloth has to be cut".

A recent poster likened Reading to Fulham, Wigan and Bolton and yet these clubs have combined debts of over £300 million. Personally I like the way the club is run and will rue the day when the Madjeski era ends, someone who has the interest of club at heart and its value to the community not some "flash harry" looking for a play thing (aka Newcastle).

So lets get behind the team, its a new beginning with hopefully a blend of youth and experience that hopefully can challenge for the Premiership again.

[CMRoyal]

Without the financial input of one slightly unhinged egomaniac, we wouldn't be in the luxurious position of being able to have an existential crisis. We are here to attempt the construction and support of another promotion-winning team. Exciting, isn't it?

[donface]

Without the financial input of one slightly unhinged egomaniac, we wouldn't be in the luxurious position of being able to have an existential crisis. We are here to attempt the construction and support of another promotion-winning team. Exciting, isn't it?

powerpost

[Dirk Gently]

Think Reading are at a cross roads, the sale of Doyle was inevitable as he's a good player and shouldn't be wasting his time in this league. This is Reading's last year of parachute payments, it's their last year with a slight advantage over 19 of the teams in this league. So in theory they need to go for it this season. Problem is if they fail they could be in a situation the year after where a bit of a 'firesale' is needed to balance the books up. That's the fine line and the gamble that we'll see if they are willing to take.

The worry is that the club having created such a positive feel good factor for a couple of seasons could quite easily drift into obscurity just like teams such as Coventry, Watford, Sheffield Wednesday, Norwich and the like. All ex prem sides that having failed in their 2nd year down had to flog nearly all their better players and start again.In some cases getting relegated again.

It's a difficult scenario for Reading. I think they need to create a buzz around the place again,a high profile or an established player coming in might do that. Lots of buzz at the time of Lita signing, something like that may do the trick, because there are a lot of fans out there concerned or losing a lot of heart in the club at the minute.

Agree with this with but with two minor additions :

The advantage isn't over 19 teams - there are now 3 teams with 2 years' worth of parchute payments, plus Derby with one year left, like us. Plus the money Sheffield Utd will be getting from West Ham will effectively be like parachute payments to them.... so the advantage isn't as great as it was.

Plus, to point out that the financial gamble was taken last year, when everything (except hotels) on the football side of the club was run on a PL budget. Many other clubs would have scaled things back then and shipped out Doyle, Hunt & Harper immediately on going down. Just how long should they be gambling for - until the money actually runs out and there really is a firesale, Southampton-esque?

[Alan Partridge]

Think Reading are at a cross roads, the sale of Doyle was inevitable as he's a good player and shouldn't be wasting his time in this league. This is Reading's last year of parachute payments, it's their last year with a slight advantage over 19 of the teams in this league. So in theory they need to go for it this season. Problem is if they fail they could be in a situation the year after where a bit of a 'firesale' is needed to balance the books up. That's the fine line and the gamble that we'll see if they are willing to take.

The worry is that the club having created such a positive feel good factor for a couple of seasons could quite easily drift into obscurity just like teams such as Coventry, Watford, Sheffield Wednesday, Norwich and the like. All ex prem sides that having failed in their 2nd year down had to flog nearly all their better players and start again.In some cases getting relegated again.

It's a difficult scenario for Reading. I think they need to create a buzz around the place again,a high profile or an established player coming in might do that. Lots of buzz at the time of Lita signing, something like that may do the trick, because there are a lot of fans out there concerned or losing a lot of heart in the club at the minute.

Agree with this with but with two minor additions :

The advantage isn't over 19 teams - there are now 3 teams with 2 years' worth of parchute payments, plus Derby with one year left, like us. Plus the money Sheffield Utd will be getting from West Ham will effectively be like parachute payments to them.... so the advantage isn't as great as it was.

Plus, to point out that the financial gamble was taken last year, when everything (except hotels) on the football side of the club was run on a PL budget. Many other clubs would have scaled things back then and shipped out Doyle, Hunt & Harper immediately on going down. Just how long should they be gambling for - until the money actually runs out and there really is a firesale, Southampton-esque?

I forgot about Sheffield Utd getting money off West Ham, it's 18 teams then. +Reading, Sheff U, Derby and the 3 teams relegated this term.

I am vastly concerned that people with knowledge of the game that Coppell and the like had that they deemed HArper and Hunt two players that no matter what league they play in traditionally blow hot and cold as absolute keys to Reading's success. That's the first worry with that statement.

Reading aren't going to run out of money, if what we hear on here is true,that we are this 'fantastically run club'. I personally have never claimed that 20,30 million needs to be spent and it still isn't. Reading do need some fresh blood in the team for this season if they want to be succesfull. They can look at one or 2 of the young players but it also has to come from outside the club. They now have to replace 19 goals they've just got rid of. The answer is definitely not here already.

This is Reading's last season with any sort of advantage, on top of that they are going to make some serious money from player sales while also having already cut their wage bill significantly. We'll see the extent of Reading's ambition over the coming months Ifeel.

[Sun Tzu]

As for where do we stand and where are we going. As a fan I want to see the club striving to improve at every opportunity, to try their utmost to win every game, and to aim to be as successful as possible.

Agreed, but I also want them to be ensuring that in 10, 20 or 50 years time me and my kids still have a team to support.

I guess that comes under your 'as possible' caveat, but it's an important factor. I don't want short term dreams of glory to be put above mid to long term survival. It's a really tough balance and I understand that you can;t have a long term future without investing in the present.