Northern Git
Several possible reasons. Support his lifestyle? Support his other businesses (same of which are struggling badly)? Support other projects - station Hill? Get his investment back? Report and accounts show how much interest he is amassing from his loans. Those come straight off the bottom line.
I know football goes in cycles ever was and ever will be the case. However, as should be obvious, any business, be it football or anything else, it is easier to move forward or reorganise from a position of strength. Dont wait untill you are in the shit before doing something. A small correction/ investment in the promotion season may have kept us up. A slightly bigger correction/ investment last season might have got us promoted.
We now have dumped most of our assets, have plummeting income, have an inexperianced manager and squad - plus a Chairman that wants out.
We now face a massive task to get back anywhere near the position we were in and I now dont believe we have the Management with the required desire, or a Manager and players with the skills to even start the task. Hope I am wrong but I fear not.
Talk of Ipswich, Leeds etc is irrelevant - its Reading we are talking about here.
How is talk of Ipswich, Leeds etc is irrelevant? they are examples of clubs who overspent chasing the dream 'from a position of strength' and have struggled ever since.
I'm not disputing for one second that a little more investment in the PL would have seen us stay up, but the players we did have SHOULD have kept us up and just bottled it at home to Bolton and Fulham but that's not the issue. SSC did TRY and buy but the likes of Mensah, Scott Brown and Lecsott wanted to go to bigger clubs.
In terms of asset dumping. What really winds me up is that the players we've sold WANTED to leave and it was fair enough that Hunt, Doyle, Bikey, Shorey, Kitson, Sonko, et all we allowed to leave if they wanted too. They weren't kicked out of the door. We have invested in replacements it's just they haven't worked out. Cisse, Fae, Bikey, Armstrong, Mills, Marek, Doobs, Rosey all cost more then the players who left (when we originally signed them) If Coppell had faith in signing players of lesser value before and it worked, was it unreasonable to try it again?
Yes Madejski has business interests but the peanuts he could take out of this club are nothing near what he needs for things like station hill. You are talking hundreds of millions of pounds, not the 2.8 million we got for Bikey. Yes he's getting interest on his loans but I very much doubt (though admittedly can't confirm) that he's taken any of it. In all probability he would only take it when someone with deep pockets comes in and in that scenario why the bloody hell shouldn't he?
And as for people suggesting he's going to come out even because of the loan listed on the books. Oh come on, millions of money has been ploughed in not just loans.