What are we here for?

[papereyes]

Hoop Blah, please tell me those figures are from Portsmouth's own Annual Review?

They're from Mr Musambo of Nigeria's African bank.

[West Stand Man]

2 FA CUPS
2 CHAMPS OF ENGLAND
5 SEMIS
2 LOSING FA CUP FINALS

READING - NOTHING

In precisely which decade was all of that then? On your, apparent, logic the Royal Engineers are still a big club! If historical success was all that counted for 'bigness' Woolworths would still be bigger than Tesco, but strangely enough things change. Reading was a small provincial club and is now a big player in the football world (not as big a player as Man Utd, Chelsea etc but still a big player). That could change, up or down, in the future. Live with it.

[boy1985]

Reading was a small provincial club and is now a big player in the football world

[handbags_harris]

Reading was a small provincial club and is now a big player in the football world

But we're not really are we WSM? Your otherwise pretty good post is spoiled slightly by that quote.

Otherwise a comedy thread lit up by one of the many lairy, cocky, Portsmouth pikies. Never got it with Portsmouth, an average sized club, won the odd trophy here and there, but their fans have a massive chip on their shoulder which begs the question, where the hell from?! Even when they were getting 9000 in 2-0 home defeats against us (beautiful day, one of the few when Bullivant was in charge) they had this chip.

And if Oxford Utd are a bigger club than Reading, I'll eat Compo's Hat.

[boy1985]

Never got it with Portsmouth, an average sized club, won the odd trophy here and there, but their fans have a massive chip on their shoulder which begs the question, where the hell from?!.

Its because they've got that island mentality that makes them think it's them against the world. When really other than Southampton RIP nobody gives shyte about them.

[Hoop Blah]

Some of the key numbers for Financial Year 07-08

Revenue = £70m
Wages = £55
Short Term Debt = £43m
Long Term Debt = £22m
Other Liabilities = £70m

Total Liabilities = £137m

total wage bill of 55 quid, fooking hell no wonder we couldn`t attract players

They're Pompey's figures not ours....but good point well made anyway!

Start of 2008? Say you say. This is middle of 2009. As I say, things have dramatically changed for the better.

Say you say? You sound like some dodgy Cliff Richard record!

Those are the figures for the financial year of 2008, not the start of the year. You say things have dramatically improved, and for all the fee's your've received they have had, but what you actually said was they'd been categorically stated at £30m blah blah blah. I've not seen that anywhere and was showing you the last accounts I'd seen and hoping you'd complete the picture...

Anyway, thanks for popping in and reminder me why I hate Pompey quite so much!

[West Stand Man]

Reading was a small provincial club and is now a big player in the football world

But we're not really are we WSM? Your otherwise pretty good post is spoiled slightly by that quote.

Otherwise a comedy thread lit up by one of the many lairy, cocky, Portsmouth pikies. Never got it with Portsmouth, an average sized club, won the odd trophy here and there, but their fans have a massive chip on their shoulder which begs the question, where the hell from?! Even when they were getting 9000 in 2-0 home defeats against us (beautiful day, one of the few when Bullivant was in charge) they had this chip.

And if Oxford Utd are a bigger club than Reading, I'll eat Compo's Hat.

I stand by that comment. We are not a huge club, that I'll concede .

[Dirk Gently]

Reading was a small provincial club and is now a big player in the football world

But we're not really are we WSM? Your otherwise pretty good post is spoiled slightly by that quote.

Otherwise a comedy thread lit up by one of the many lairy, cocky, Portsmouth pikies. Never got it with Portsmouth, an average sized club, won the odd trophy here and there, but their fans have a massive chip on their shoulder which begs the question, where the hell from?! Even when they were getting 9000 in 2-0 home defeats against us (beautiful day, one of the few when Bullivant was in charge) they had this chip.

And if Oxford Utd are a bigger club than Reading, I'll eat Compo's Hat.

We certainly are a big player in the football world - but not in the way most supporters think.

The influence we have over other clubs and the game's administrators is much larger than it ought to be. Off the field there is an awful lot on innovation here that is watched closely and often copied by other clubs, and the business model is much admired and discussed by others in the game - look at the number of other clubs that talk about "the Reading model." Much of what has happened at this club is quite different from what has traditionally happened in the game - and that has certainly made ripples across what tends to be a pretty conservative (small "c") industry. Plus in the world of supporter activism our supporters have a fair degree of influence, too.

[boy1985]

We certainly are a big player in the football world - but not in the way most supporters think.

The influence we have over other clubs and the game's administrators is much larger than it ought to be. Off the field there is an awful lot on innovation here that is watched closely and often copied by other clubs, and the business model is much admired and discussed by others in the game - look at the number of other clubs that talk about "the Reading model." Much of what has happened at this club is quite different from what has traditionally happened in the game - and that has certainly made ripples across what tends to be a pretty conservative (small "c") industry. Plus in the world of supporter activism our supporters have a fair degree of influence, too.

Whilst that is all true it doesn't make us a 'big player' does it? We may have a lot of influence on the way other clubs run as a business, but on a football side I would say there are at least 50-100 teams that can be considered bigger players than us.

Being a good role model is different to being a big player imo

[Dirk Gently]

We certainly are a big player in the football world - but not in the way most supporters think.

The influence we have over other clubs and the game's administrators is much larger than it ought to be. Off the field there is an awful lot on innovation here that is watched closely and often copied by other clubs, and the business model is much admired and discussed by others in the game - look at the number of other clubs that talk about "the Reading model." Much of what has happened at this club is quite different from what has traditionally happened in the game - and that has certainly made ripples across what tends to be a pretty conservative (small "c") industry. Plus in the world of supporter activism our supporters have a fair degree of influence, too.

Whilst that is all true it doesn't make us a 'big player' does it? We may have a lot of influence on the way other clubs run the club as a business, but on a football side I would say there can be at least 50-100 teams that can be considered bigger players than us.

Being a good role model is different to being a big player imo

It's all really down to semantics ..... for me a "big player" is someone whose ideas are copied, someone who is listened to at meetings and across the industry - and certainly in terms of influence that's exactly what we are.

That's quite different to size, success or history in my book - but I'm happy to say that it's all down to personal interpretation.

[loyalroyal4life]

I think people need to look at the bigger picture and realise football is effectively and entertainment business.

we have just made 6.5 mill profit so naturally in any business this is good business.

To say that this wont be reinvested is IMO an unfair judgement as although i agree a vast amount of it wont go on transfers, this nicely highlights the reasons why someone like brendan rodgers was chosen as our new manager.

The guy obviously has some useful contacts in the game that will enable us to pick up youngsters and loan signings that will not only cost us minimal amounts but also could well prove to play to a high enough standard for us to challenge this year.

HAVE FAITH IN THE RFC'S NEW ERA

[Vision]

Shame that the thread became a slanging match between us and a Pompey fan who has nothing better to do than come on another club's site-such a good job that we have the diplomatic Spacey to fight our corner.
I don't care much about Pompey or Southampton or how Reading compares with those on grounds of chaviness or potential-having lived and worked in and around all 3 towns I would say that they are about as good or as bad as each other but as football places I would say that Pompey is more of a football town than either Reading or Southampton.

That is by the way,so as the topic says (and we have done this type of topic just about every year ) Where do we go from here?
As a fan for longer even than the earlier poster West Stand Man I have seen more changes than most but the biggest change seems to me to be a lack of soul in the sense that our club (the first team) has become what some said on here 5 or 6 years ago that they didn't want to see,i.e a team of footballing mercenaries with no real affilliation to our club but that has exactly what has happened.

We have had a load of Irish imports,Americans,Australians,Icelandics,Africans,French and even an East European and that is exactly what some of those posters didn't want to happen.
A lot of clubs have followed a similar path and paid lip-service to developing their own talent but haven't done so.

Much as I think through tightness we gave up a fantastic position in The Premiership-talk about throwing away something that had take all those years to get to-I think now where we are at is a smallish club with no great nor reckless ambition that almost through accident will be playing home-grown kids in the immediate future.

Maybe with this new approach will mean that the club will feel like Reading again and not a mixed-bag of foreigners here for the dough and hopefully the worst of the mercenaries will have gone by the time we face Forest.

FWIW I think it will be a hard slog this season where we consolidate in a mid-table position and attendances fall to about a 15,000 average but at least we will have seen more of OUR players from the Academy which for some of us will be o.k(having accepted that we have cocked up 2 years ago) and we can have this debate all over again,i.e should we be splashing out on foreign players who might get us promoted or are we happy to stay where we are which is higher than where we have been for most of our history?

Probably no secret but that final paragraph is pretty much where I stand.

One thing I would take issue with (there's always something ) is that we need to be careful when referring to foreign mercenaries. The likes of Doyle, Hahnemann & Ingimarsson (as 3 examples) felt every bit a part of the football club as any Academy graduate would do. Its also a bit naive in this day and age to think that our academy is made up entirely of home-grown kids from Whitley and Tilehurst. There's still more than a fair proportion that will have been picked up from elsewhere as a 15/16 year olds and made a career based decision to join us in just the same way as older foreign professionals do.

I genuinely think that the future for us is fine because like most things we've taken our time with building up the Academy and slowly but hopefully the benefits are about to be felt. It was the same with the slow build up of the 106 team which took 3 years to build (perhaps even longer if you consider certain key memebrs pre-dated Coppell's arrival). The problem is that top-flight football now is such a short-term, instant culture that its completely at odds with the ideals that got us there in the first place. I don't think its a case that the club doesn't want the Premiership or lacks the ambition for it, its just that it simply doesn't suit us.

I'd also like to say that although I don't really agree with the sentiments of the OP, I can't really understand some of the stick he's got. It's generated some decent discussion (Pompey pillock aside) which is a rarity on here these days.

[rhroyal]

In 04/05 our average attendance was over 17,000. The idea that it could now fall to about 15,000 really isn't plausible to me.

[Mad Dog's Ghost]

It is to me.

[Dirk Gently]

Already this year we've sold more STs this season than we had at the start of the Champinship-winning season.

[rg6royal]

From the interviews BR has given I can see alot of ambition...

[Vision]

Economic climate is a little different to 2004/05 and I think people are more likely to pick and choose their games this season..
As with everything it will depend on how we do but if the scenario described as mid table mediocrity then although 15k might be stretching it a bit, its not inconceivable to think that attendances could dip.

[maf82]

are they taking refunds on season tickets?yet again hammond,talks aload of tosh

[West Stand Man]

are they taking refunds on season tickets?yet again hammond,talks aload of tosh

I am sure they can be persuaded to take yours back. In fact I suspect that they might all chip in to ensure that you are not at any games.

[maf82]

are they taking refunds on season tickets?yet again hammond,talks aload of tosh

I am sure they can be persuaded to take yours back. In fact I suspect that they might all chip in to ensure that you are not at any games.

doubt it i spent over 3k on reading last season home and away pre season trip to sweden,im just saying i think hammond is a lier.