Mcd says we haven't got any cash....

[Royal Lady]

So in order to save his other businesses, Mr Mad is taking money AWAY from the club?

[Northern Git]

So in order to save his other businesses, Mr Mad is taking money AWAY from the club?

It would appear so, not sure if cash is coming out of Reading FC limited, or out of Reading FC PLC (the holding company of the Millenium Madejski Hotel and Reading FC Ltd)

Will be interesting to see how this 'support' is being carried out, could be one of many ways, perhaps loans or overdraft guarantees.

[Royal Lady]

So while a bunch of posh people enjoy the 5* hotel in the Galapagos Islands, our little club is suffering. Nice.

[RoyalBlue]

So in order to save his other businesses, Mr Mad is taking money AWAY from the club?

It would appear so, not sure if cash is coming out of Reading FC limited, or out of Reading FC PLC (the holding company of the Millenium Madejski Hotel and Reading FC Ltd)

Will be interesting to see how this 'support' is being carried out, could be one of many ways, perhaps loans or overdraft guarantees.

Understandable if he is doing this but in terms of his support and commitment to RFC, surely it means his halo is slipping more than a little!

[Hugo Boss]

LOL @ People moaning at JM not pumping all his pots of cash (which are obviously in a room in one of his houses like Scrooge McDuck ) into the football club.

Do something about it and pump your own cash in if you're that f*cking bothered - If not, f*cking deal with it and shut up.

[Terminal Boardom]

All I wish for is for the football club to be competitive in whatever league / division it finds itself. Fans expectations can look after themselves. If people want to believe the b/s coming out of the Mad Stad, sobeit. I for one have for once, refused to buy into the product for now. I do not believe that we will be competitive this season or until SJM finally sells up.

Sadly, this will reflect on the players. They will know that their places are safe so they slip into a comfort zone and start to perform at 80% rather than 100%. Little injury niggles will see players starting to miss games rather than play through the pain barrier. Worse, is that when we do dip into the transfer market, the players that we would need to attract because they are better than what we have will not want to join because we are not competitive. Whether we could meet their financial demands is another matter altogether.

[RoyalBlue]

LOL @ People moaning at JM not pumping all his pots of cash (which are obviously in a room in one of his houses like Scrooge McDuck ) into the football club.

Do something about it and pump your own cash in if you're that f*cking bothered - If not, f*cking deal with it and shut up.

For the hard of understanding, supporters already pump large percentages of their disposable income into RFC thank you very much. In many cases that percentage will be higher than Madejski. So stop making out that people are being so unreasonable in expecting him to deliver on his talk. And that doesn't mean we expect him to 'pump all his pots of cash' in, merely to create (however he feels best) an environment where the necessary cash is available from some source(s).

He keeps making himself out as the saviour of RFC and being that saviour clearly has a price associated with it. He can't (shouldn't is probably more appropriate in his case) expect to have his cake and eat it

[Hugo Boss]

He keeps making himself out as the saviour of RFC...

And where would we be if he hadn't come along 20 years ago??

[Royal Lady]

He keeps making himself out as the saviour of RFC...

And where would we be if he hadn't come along 20 years ago??

I get your point, but it doesn't make it right that he can now effectively pull the plug on any spending, particularly when he has only recently re-stated his annual ambition of getting us back in the premiership! If we all stopped going/buying STs/buying food and drink/going to his hotel/buying merchandise- he'd be a far lot worse off financially than he is now!

[Royal Rother]

I find that utterly bizarre.

Why isn't it right that the owner of the club, still owed many millions of pounds, should dictate whether or not the club spends more money than it can afford without his financial support?

How is that wrong?

Why is it wrong that he should tell the manager that if he feels he needs to bring in more players then he needs to sell one / some first?

[Royal Lady]

Oh I see, you've changed your tack now have you.

Personally, I find it utterly bizarre that a chairman would even bother to mention his ambition for the club, when he knows full well there is no money to compete with the likes of Cardiff/Pompey/Palace et al. I don't expect, neither does anyone else for that matter, that he puts us millions of pounds in debt in order to bring in a couple of players. But take Bellamy for instance, the increased revenue at Cardiff just for signing him on loan resulting in more tickets bought, more merchandise etc will probably go a fair way to covering Cardiff's half of his wages for the season. I'm not even saying that we should have gone for Bellamy - we need more defenders, we need a more proven striker imo and the old "speculate to accumulate" adage is never more true in cases such ours at this moment in time.

EDIT: And anyway, have we not received a bean for any of the players we've currently offloaded?

[Row Z Royal]

Chris Makin, isn't it?

Good call !!

[Royal Rother]

A lack of additional investment in playing staff is not an indication of a lack of ambition except in the minds of some of our more blinkered supporters.

[Royal Lady]

Oh Royal Rother, you can't seriously, hand on heart, tell me you are happy with the make-up of the current squad and do not see the need for any additional investment/loan?

[Royal Rother]

Thing is RL, although I enjoy keeping in touch with all things RFC, I mostly go and watch Windsor & Eton these days so can really only talk in general terms.

Not ashamed of that but you won't generally find me discussing the merits of individuals and specific performances, simply because I haven't seen them! I am happy with the fact that we have so many (apparently) capable and developing youngsters but I can't honestly answer your direct question about the overall quality of the squad.

[Terminal Boardom]

Investment in the club is not just for the acquisition of players but also in the fabric and infrastructure. If the way forward for the club is to become more self sufficient, then why not invest more in the coaching side of things within the Academy? Over the years, Tottenham, Arsenal, Southampton and Man Utd have regularly produced a steady stream of talented youngsters. The only one of the youngsters that we have seen that can be adjudged to be quality is the Sig. There is nothing special about the likes of Church, Pearce and Karacan. Shirley the logical approach would be to produce the best youngsters that we possibly can.

[Ian Royal]

Investment in the club is not just for the acquisition of players but also in the fabric and infrastructure. If the way forward for the club is to become more self sufficient, then why not invest more in the coaching side of things within the Academy? Over the years, Tottenham, Arsenal, Southampton and Man Utd have regularly produced a steady stream of talented youngsters. The only one of the youngsters that we have seen that can be adjudged to be quality is the Sig. There is nothing special about the likes of Church, Pearce and Karacan. Shirley the logical approach would be to produce the best youngsters that we possibly can.

you've just named three of the biggest clubs in the country, f course they produce better youth than us. They have the absolute pick of everyone.

An academy can't just be judged on whether it produces Premier League players. The fact that we've produced / developed loads of players who are or have got plenty of games in the top two divisions is testament to how well put together our academy is, and the longterm investment that involved.

Sigurdsson, Tyson, Henderson, Ashdown, Cox, Henry, Pearce, Church, Karacan, Robson-Kanu...

Then you have the likes of Hamer, Andersen, Taylor, Bignall, Bell-Baggie, McCarthy, Kelly...

We have invested massively on the non-player side with the Media Centre, Academy, Stadium, Training Ground and all those other things. We're a club that's built for the long term, and I find that exciting and refreshing.

That doesn't mean things won't go wrong, or we won't make mistakes (this is the real world after all not some computer game), just that those mistakes shouldn't (or won't be allowed to) jepordise the long term future of the club.

[Royal Lady]

Thing is RL, although I enjoy keeping in touch with all things RFC, I mostly go and watch Windsor & Eton these days so can really only talk in general terms.

Not ashamed of that but you won't generally find me discussing the merits of individuals and specific performances, simply because I haven't seen them! I am happy with the fact that we have so many (apparently) capable and developing youngsters but I can't honestly answer your direct question about the overall quality of the squad.

Yet on another thread you berated me for saying something about Bryn! Despite the fact you got the wrong end of the stick in what I was saying anyway! Well, I can assure you Mr Rother that if you did go to the games you would be more understanding of some of the comments I have made!

[Hugo Boss]

He keeps making himself out as the saviour of RFC...

And where would we be if he hadn't come along 20 years ago??

I get your point, but it doesn't make it right that he can now effectively pull the plug on any spending, particularly when he has only recently re-stated his annual ambition of getting us back in the premiership! If we all stopped going/buying STs/buying food and drink/going to his hotel/buying merchandise- he'd be a far lot worse off financially than he is now!

Agreed, but he's hardly gonna say at the start of the season "Right, I aint gonna be spending anything so get yourselves ready for a mid-table finish" is he??!! Goes without saying he's gonna try and put a positive spin on it all.

The thing I really struggle with is why people feel they have the right to demand he spend money on the Club. Yes, I agree, we do need some new players but if he aint gonna spend, that's his choice and it's got f*ck all to do with us supporters. The argument that we're paying Customers so we get a say in how the business is run is just wrong, just like I don't demand that the owner of Waitrose spends money on more staff just cos that's where I opt to buy my weekly shopping

[Ian Royal]

I love the people who seem to think that saying you have an ambition to get back to the Premier League automatically means your entire plan is to do it this year or next year by spending bucket loads.

Madejski's stated ambition 15 years ago was to get us to the Premier League. And he did it in 2005. And kept us there for a nicely successful season as well. That is not the actions of a man who is all wind and doesn't want us to go up. An accusation that was also made against him prior to 2005.