Reading are crap

[retro royal]

Problem is when SJM puts the club up for sale, no stadium, no hotel, no retail park and he still wants 70m, thats why no one is interested. He has taken the mickey out of us fans in the last few years. Like I've said before no problem with a business man making money, but there is a limit when he gets us fans buying into a hotel project to support the club then siphons it off into another company.

[PEARCEY]

Cracking post by Floyd. HNA's top man no doubt about it.
However there is a degree of rose-tinted spectacles going on with some of the older posters. For most of our history we have been a dire,under-achieving club stuck in the lower divisions. The past decade has been a golden period for the club. That may well be over and we may well end up back with the Rochdales and Burys of this world. Its what we were all used to in the past but having had a taste of the promised land of the Premiership the slide will feel all the more painful...with a bit more ambition in the summer of 2007 when the club's stock was at its highest this could all have been avoided(or at least the gradual decline could have been slowed). Too late now.
What I don't agree with is the talk of the game being dead and nothing like as good as it used to be. If it was so good back then why were we only averaging gates of 4,000 at Elm Park back in the 70's? If it was so good back then why were football attendances in general on such a steep decline? In those days I remember watching games standing on terraces stinking of urine and often getting soaked when I used to see the team play away from home. I don't miss any of that although I'll admit that Elm Park under floodlights had an atmosphere that the Madejski does not match.
Football had to change...it did with so many clubs having new stadia. It has become more sanitised. It is less violent. That had to happen otherwise the marked decline would have continued.
The game had to become more family friendly. Some of you resent this. I don't. Its meant I have been more willing to take my kids to games when in the past I wouldn't have. Doubtless others will have felt the same and brought their kids along. It means a new generation of fans won't be lost and that has to be a good thing.

Thats not to say things are perfect. The game has lost its soul. Too much money is spoiling the game and this years World Cup was a dreadful advert for the game. Its up to Fifa and domestic authorities to look at ways of improving the game as a spectacle...this means radical changes are needed...maybe including the introduction of sin-bins as in rugby,goal-line technology and much much stricter refereeing of cheating and a complete overhaul of ticket prices(especially in this country where we pay over the odds to watch a 90 minute game of often indifferent quality).

[SLAMMED]

- Why do I have to mind my p's and q's at football anyway? F*ck me, there are 8,000 empty seats most weeks; can't we sit all the kids in families in some sort of enclave with a sound-proof safety fence? At football, people shouldn't be thrown out for swearing, they should be ejected for doing the EA-SAY clap or for wearing face-paint or a jester's hat; these things are far more offensive.

I LOL'd

[seahawk10]

lol at the Floyd love. Look at me post # 3000.

In fairness, it's a brilliantly crafted post. I think there's a glaring irony in this thread though. The inadequacy of a Reading team full of young relatively low-paid journeymen becomes an excuse to wax lyrical about how big money has ruined the game. I can't believe that anyone has the gall (or is it a tin-ear) to think floyd's post opens an opportunity to complain about Madejski's lack of investment. Surely the main lesson is that it would be altogether better if we were playing in Northampton's league at Northampton's prices. That would have been a great fourth division match, and a decent fourth division crowd.

Anyway, just like last year, and in 2005 and 2001 and even a bit in 2008, people will overreact the other way as soon as we start to put in some exciting displays. There a some short memories around here.

'greed. I have a feeling (hope?) that this is our low-point of the season. We will make a push and sign Kissmydanishwilly, get healthy and be a strong team in this division.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Problem is when SJM puts the club up for sale, no stadium, no hotel, no retail park and he still wants 70m, thats why no one is interested. He has taken the mickey out of us fans in the last few years. Like I've said before no problem with a business man making money, but there is a limit when he gets us fans buying into a hotel project to support the club then siphons it off into another company.

would that be the retail park that neither the club nor JM own????

[pea]

Problem is when SJM puts the club up for sale, no stadium, no hotel, no retail park and he still wants 70m, thats why no one is interested. He has taken the mickey out of us fans in the last few years. Like I've said before no problem with a business man making money, but there is a limit when he gets us fans buying into a hotel project to support the club then siphons it off into another company.

would that be the retail park that neither the club nor JM own????

that's the one , we should sell that and use the money to buy Khiz!

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

oxf*rd me are you for real Mr Pea???

[Terminal Boardom]

Pearcey said...
Thats not to say things are perfect. The game has lost its soul. Too much money is spoiling the game and this years World Cup was a dreadful advert for the game. Its up to Fifa and domestic authorities to look at ways of improving the game as a spectacle...this means radical changes are needed...maybe including the introduction of sin-bins as in rugby,goal-line technology and much much stricter refereeing of cheating and a complete overhaul of ticket prices(especially in this country where we pay over the odds to watch a 90 minute game of often indifferent quality).

100% spot on. Referees and linesmen are instructed to check players' underwear to ensure no colour clash with the oppo. If any are missed, and the referee is being assessed, they lose 2.5 marks out of 100 for each occurrance. Something, somewhere, is ludicrously wrong with the game. Ironically, match officials have to undergo CRB checks as well yet are expected to check undergarments.

There is so much wrong with the game and the punishments meted out to those that attract the wrath of FAs is farcical. A player gets sent off in a pro game may get a 1 match ban. What is the punisshment on a park pitch on a Sunday morning? The same if there is a fight on the pitch. If in a professional game there may be a fine - probably suspended. A Sunday League game? The club may be thrown out of the league. This, imho, is inherently wrong, completely inconsistent and totally over the top.

But as Messers Herring and Streete have so eloquently stated, it is the ordiinary punter who is to blame for pandering to the great oligarch Murdoch

Not that one, as well as joining the happy clappy brigade, scrabbling for the latest piece of merchandising on offer and spunking tens of £ on something that simply takes you for granted but demands that you do not get excited.

Thankfully, we all have a choice. This is not North Korea. What I do know is that there is football outside of RG2 and the Championship and Permier League.

[working class hero]

I agree with messrs Streete and Herring. Hence I cancelled Sky sports last year and did not renew my ST this season. If we all spit together we can drown the bastards....

I plan on watching RFC away and going to Reading Town otherwise. Back in the mid 80s when prices shot up I quit watching any football and didn't come back until 1999 when I started watching RFC in the 3rd tier. Prices were OK and I have had a ST for many years. But no longer. If fans stop paying then we will see some reaction. At the moment the egoman is merely milking the fans and pleading poverty. Stop going to games and he will be forced to invest or lose shed loads of cash as his Club slumps in value....

[PEARCEY]

I agree with messrs Streete and Herring. Hence I cancelled Sky sports last year and did not renew my ST this season. If we all spit together we can drown the bastards....

I plan on watching RFC away and going to Reading Town otherwise. Back in the mid 80s when prices shot up I quit watching any football and didn't come back until 1999 when I started watching RFC in the 3rd tier. Prices were OK and I have had a ST for many years. But no longer. If fans stop paying then we will see some reaction. At the moment the egoman is merely milking the fans and pleading poverty. Stop going to games and he will be forced to invest or lose shed loads of cash as his Club slumps in value....

It costs more to watch Reading than it does Inter Milan. Why? Its not just us.Its the price of watching English League matches all round. its too much and as Floyd says compounded by paying £8 to park my car for two hours.

[Arch]

I agree with messrs Streete and Herring. Hence I cancelled Sky sports last year and did not renew my ST this season. If we all spit together we can drown the bastards....

I plan on watching RFC away and going to Reading Town otherwise. Back in the mid 80s when prices shot up I quit watching any football and didn't come back until 1999 when I started watching RFC in the 3rd tier. Prices were OK and I have had a ST for many years. But no longer. If fans stop paying then we will see some reaction. At the moment the egoman is merely milking the fans and pleading poverty. Stop going to games and he will be forced to invest or lose shed loads of cash as his Club slumps in value....

Wait. What is it you want here? Is it cheaper football or more expensive players? You can't have both. It's low cost and low-paid players, as in Reading Town or Torquay, or high-paid players and Sky-high costs. I whole-heartedly sympathize with the view that English football costs way more than it's worth, but then I don't see how you can consistently take that down the "Mr. Mad should invest more" avenue.

[Wokingham via Waterloo]

Funny original post, but Arch (in particular) and Pearcey are spot on in their response to it and to the various semi-hysterical posts here and elsewhere from people who want to have their cake and eat it. Proud as I was to see Reading thrive in the top-flight (itself a bizarre concept as apart from some low-level investment in tickets and beer, it was sod all to do with anything I did), well, we are a bit crap. We got lucky in the last 10 years. It's been a roller-coaster with nearly every season exciting in some way or other, some inspired management (throughout the club), a decent, homespun philosophy (like it or not, and at the moment "not" is clearly in vogue), and something to show during that time for the crazy amounts of money spent by dedicated fans and casual followers.

Floyd is right in that money has ruined much about football, and I find it impossible to care (positively) for anyone involved, but it's not necessarily relevant in this instance. There have been 44 teams in the premier league (before which, sadly, no football archives have survived). That's nearly half the total number of clubs in the four divisions. Face the facts, a lot of sport is essentially random in some shape or another, so good and bad things happen to just about everyone. If you haven't done, go read "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre. Hope you enjoyed our turn - you were lucky to be around at the time, though fundamentally the experience never differs all that much (just look at the trophy cabinet over the last 100 years and where we were pre-Madejski era...). Football is basically a lava lamp for the vast majority of teams. How much more fun would it be to support Manchester United or Barcelona than Reading. Really? Probably more than Chester (and maybe still Portsmouth) admittedly, but I'll settle for somewhere in between.

(P.S. I don't think I've ever written anything with so many brackets).

[pea]

oxf*rd me are you for real Mr Pea???

whoosh

[Gordons Cumming]

How's the boiler, Floyd?

[joe999]

Brilliant post Floyd. There just needs to be a way that you can print it out and shove it in Madejskis face!

[frimmers3]

Re: Top ranting from Reading fans
by bangkok shot » Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:52 am

I completely agree with all the Reading fans points, seem to describe quite nicely the state of modern football.

But why prey tell did nobby feel the need to go onto another teams message board just to stir it up, don't most Aldershot fans get pretty annoyed when some glib opposition fan comes on shotstalk and sticks their nose in.

Surely he should be applauded for the conciseness of his views, not have some Aldershot fan piping up where they're not wanted.
bangkok shot

Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:59 pm
Location: bangkok



from "shotsweb" applauding your post

[Terminal Boardom]

Piss off back to AE Frimmers or should that be A&E?

[frimmers3]

Piss off back to AE Frimmers or should that be A&E?

you have a problem with fans of other clubs applauding a well crafted and considered post? perhaps you are the "public image" of your club....i hope not.

[susieroyal]

Its a good post, but don't forget that many of the points made on this thread are moans that will be heard up and down the country, not just at Reading.

I personally think we have been lucky in the last 10 years. And one of the reasons that the success was so sweet was because we had to sit through a lot of shite before we got there. Reading will be good to watch again. The football experience might even get better (and cheaper). Obviously, we might have a while to wait, but that'll make it better when it does. The phrase, "If I hadn't seen such riches I could live with being poor", springs to mind. Some of our fans won't know much different to the current set up (on and off the pitch) so they might actually quite like it.

My brother was at Barcelona v AC Milan laat night. At half time I got the following text "This is just like watching Reading. oxf*rd shite. Hopefully it might break out into a football match in the 2nd half"!!!

[Terminal Boardom]

Bit touchy today eh Frimmers? I suggest you switch on the irony button.

Fact is, until the customers vote with their feet and direct debits, nothing will change.