Chairman Backing

[RoyalBlue]

Has anyone stopped to consider the £25 odd million that we lost from 1990-2006?

Reading fans have been spoilt rotten under JM and as a whole we are totally ungrateful for the ride we've had. much of our support are now acting like spolit kids whose mum's decided not to let them have sweets anymore.

Where does that figure come from? And are you suggesting Madejski paid all of that off from his own money?

Why are some people so happy to live purely on past deeds/glories whilst watching the club slide backwards due to a lack of reasonable investment and the flogging off of the family silver to be replaced with cheap, poor quality plate?

Meanwhile, whilst the Chairman is being exceedingly careful about putting his own money into a club branded with his name, supporters are still expected to cough up very significant sums of their own disposable income and this year even earlier than before.

Finally, let's forget all the goodness of his heart stuff. Despite the claims that naming the stadium was not his idea, I would suggest he very much enjoys having his name and face in the public domain. Make no mistake, but for his involvement with RFC he could easily have appeared on 'The Secret Millionaire'.

[Bucks Dave]

RoyalBlue. You can find some of the figures on http://www.footballeconomy. Taking into account the last few years of profit the cumulative losses are now down to just under £7M. The funniest thing is that the large majority of clubs in the Football League feel we are extremely lucky to have someone like SJM in charge who is willing to pass the baton on as soon as someone with more moolah comes along.

On a separate note, did you know that when you spoil children they just demand more?

[Tony Le Mesmer]

That figure was the rough combined trading losses for the period. Might have been more. Money that obviously grew on trees.

I just have problem with many fans attitude to JM, which is "Thanks for the ride, thanks for the money, now fck off"

I think maybe it is time for JM to move on, but right now we are totally ungrateful for what we have had, which was nothing short of a fairytale and way beyond anything we could have expected 20 years ago. We should count ourselves very very lucky.

[Hoop Blah]

Where does that figure come from? And are you suggesting Madejski paid all of that off from his own money?

RoyalBlue, have you looked at the accounts? Have you seen the level of debt we've owed to Madejski over the years? You do realise how much of a loss we've made pretty much every season for the last 20+ years.

Who do you think has been picking up the tab?

[Gordons Cumming]

That figure was the rough combined trading losses for the period. Might have been more. Money that obviously grew on trees.

I just have problem with many fans attitude to JM, which is "Thanks for the ride, thanks for the money, now fck off"

I think maybe it is time for JM to move on, but right now we are totally ungrateful for what we have had, which was nothing short of a fairytale and way beyond anything we could have expected 20 years ago. We should count ourselves very very lucky.

Spot on.

[Terminal Boardom]

Where does that figure come from? And are you suggesting Madejski paid all of that off from his own money?

RoyalBlue, have you looked at the accounts? Have you seen the level of debt we've owed to Madejski over the years? You do realise how much of a loss we've made pretty much every season for the last 20+ years.

Who do you think has been picking up the tab?

The person who picks up the tab will be the individual / consortium that buy RFC from SJM.

[Arch]

In the meantime...

[Hoop Blah]

The person who picks up the tab will be the individual / consortium that buy RFC from SJM.

So are you saying we'd have had access to that financial backing, including it's affordable terms, without Madejski? That we didn't actually need his loans to cover the clubs running costs for the best part of 20 years?

[facaldaqui]

The thing is, every business, regardless of the industry, needs continual investiment. Not just to keep up with the opposition, but to be more successful. Yet, what we see with RFC plc is a perceived lack of investment from the custodians of the club. As I see it, what investment there is comes from the media, supporters, corporate and LI.

Would, or indeed does, SJM run his other businesses in this manner? I would think not. What I would like to see is for the club to be seen to be competitive. I just can't see this happening in the near future.

Well, I should think his other businesses would be more profit-driven than this one, because that's how all normal businesses have to be run.

I don't agree with you that there's a perceived lack of investment; the investment at Reading is as it's always been, modest and prudent. By my reckoning, we just brought five players in during January, all of them investments for the future. What did you want, that we splash out a million or two on a proven striker such as Austin? That's gambling. What would happen when we didn't go up? We'd be saddled with reduced capacity to buy in the future and with an overhigh wage earner on the books. The only time we "invested" like that in this division was on Mills, who is no better than our other centre backs.

[facaldaqui]

That figure was the rough combined trading losses for the period. Might have been more. Money that obviously grew on trees.

I just have problem with many fans attitude to JM, which is "Thanks for the ride, thanks for the money, now fck off"

I think maybe it is time for JM to move on, but right now we are totally ungrateful for what we have had, which was nothing short of a fairytale and way beyond anything we could have expected 20 years ago. We should count ourselves very very lucky.

But are we "totally ungrateful"? Look at this poll.

[Terminal Boardom]

The person who picks up the tab will be the individual / consortium that buy RFC from SJM.

So are you saying we'd have had access to that financial backing, including it's affordable terms, without Madejski? That we didn't actually need his loans to cover the clubs running costs for the best part of 20 years?

SJM was effectively tricked into buying the club. he was told that if he didn't step in the club would fold as there was no-one else willing to step in. It is common knowledge that this was not the case. I think that my statement is still valid.

[Terminal Boardom]

The thing is, every business, regardless of the industry, needs continual investiment. Not just to keep up with the opposition, but to be more successful. Yet, what we see with RFC plc is a perceived lack of investment from the custodians of the club. As I see it, what investment there is comes from the media, supporters, corporate and LI.

Would, or indeed does, SJM run his other businesses in this manner? I would think not. What I would like to see is for the club to be seen to be competitive. I just can't see this happening in the near future.

Well, I should think his other businesses would be more profit-driven than this one, because that's how all normal businesses have to be run.

I don't agree with you that there's a perceived lack of investment; the investment at Reading is as it's always been, modest and prudent. By my reckoning, we just brought five players in during January, all of them investments for the future. What did you want, that we splash out a million or two on a proven striker such as Austin? That's gambling. What would happen when we didn't go up? We'd be saddled with reduced capacity to buy in the future and with an overhigh wage earner on the books. The only time we "invested" like that in this division was on Mills, who is no better than our other centre backs.

Have the 5 January signings made us any more competitive in the Championship? Sure, they are prospects for the future but why isn't the Academy generating high quality youngsters? Take Gylfi out of the equation and just who have we produced that could walk into any other Championship side let alone attract the attention of the Premier League? How come Southampton can regularly turn out high calibre youngsters and we can't?

Your memory must be slipping. Leroy Lita was the £1m signing in 2005 which helped spearhead THAT season.

The problem with remaining uncompetitive is that it reduces our ability to keep the decent players that we have. Every player will want to perform at the highest level possible - and who can blame them. And if our decent players go, who do we have to backfill? Plus, very few proven quality players will want to join if they perceive RFC to be lacking in ambition. You only have to look back at the reasons we were relegated from this division in the 80s and 90s. Who was sold and what were the replacements like?

[Hoop Blah]

What did you want, that we splash out a million or two on a proven striker such as Austin? That's gambling. What would happen when we didn't go up? We'd be saddled with reduced capacity to buy in the future and with an overhigh wage earner on the books. The only time we "invested" like that in this division was on Mills, who is no better than our other centre backs.

What was Lita then? What about McAnuff, or Howard, or Sidwell, or Convey, or even Harper and Murty before them?

As for being saddled with a massive wage etc etc, we do need to be competitive in this league in order to stay in it and I think you might be over egging the financial risk of taking a gamble on the wages needed for someone like Austin.

[Hoop Blah]

SJM was effectively tricked into buying the club. he was told that if he didn't step in the club would fold as there was no-one else willing to step in. It is common knowledge that this was not the case. I think that my statement is still valid.

Even if that wasn't a bit of a warped way of looking at it, there's no doubting that Madejski has bank rolled us over the last 20 years. Without him underwriting the losses and investing in turning the club around we'd be a million miles from where we are now, even if where we are now is heading back to the League we came from.

If there were so many other options for the club, why was it necessary to trick Madejski into buying the club? Surely it would've been better for all involved to to get the other (supposedly better) options to follow through in their interest?

[Terminal Boardom]

SJM was effectively tricked into buying the club. he was told that if he didn't step in the club would fold as there was no-one else willing to step in. It is common knowledge that this was not the case. I think that my statement is still valid.

Even if that wasn't a bit of a warped way of looking at it, there's no doubting that Madejski has bank rolled us over the last 20 years. Without him underwriting the losses and investing in turning the club around we'd be a million miles from where we are now, even if where we are now is heading back to the League we came from.

If there were so many other options for the club, why was it necessary to trick Madejski into buying the club? Surely it would've been better for all involved to to get the other (supposedly better) options to follow through in their interest?

Yes, he has funded the club but only in the form of loans. He has not "given" the club any money at all. As to tricking SJM, his ego was massaged and he bit. Whose fault is that?

[facaldaqui]

Have the 5 January signings made us any more competitive in the Championship? Sure, they are prospects for the future but why isn't the Academy generating high quality youngsters? Take Gylfi out of the equation and just who have we produced that could walk into any other Championship side let alone attract the attention of the Premier League? How come Southampton can regularly turn out high calibre youngsters and we can't?

Well, everyone keeps saying that Shane will go to the premier or Celtic. He wasn't academy, but he was an investment. Gylfi one year, Long the next--in terms of profit on investment they would be exemplary. Along with previous examples of profit on investment, such as Shorey, Sonko, Hunt, Kitson, and Doyle.

Your memory must be slipping. Leroy Lita was the £1m signing in 2005 which helped spearhead THAT season.

I'm sure Austin would have cost more than a million. I don't want Reading to sign primadonnas like Lita, who was a pain in the neck, frankly, and did not spearhead that season, though it was the only season he was any good for us.

[Hoop Blah]

You say he's not given the club anything, but tell me where else we would've been able to borrow that amount of money on such good terms to fund our opex let alone capex during the last 20 years?

Simple answer is we wouldn't. I can't remember any other alternatives at the time, let alone ones with such deep pockets and the drive and imagination to push us onto another level as a club.

Feel free to fill me in on those my memory has blocked out though.

[loyalroyaldaz]

Prostak, its just my opinionm, but lets not forget that i am not the one who is always stating our ambition to compete in the top flight so bring a friend with you to the next game am i ? nor am i the one trying to yet again take the piss out of the season ticket holders with this latest renewel bollox under the banner of "Showing your Allegience". Come on Sir John, do us a favour, move on and enjoy your no doubt free korma from one of the many Reading FC endorsed curry houses around the town now.

what a total bastard, knocking 20 quid off the price.money grabbing tosser..........

ST last year £375, this year £375, where is the £20 off ???????
Oh yes, if you dont renew it riddiculously early so we can bank the dosh and then sell a few then we will charge you £20 more !
Take yer rose tinted specs off

You seem to have forgotten to reply to this Wendy !
I guess because you have a billion odd posts we have to just accept you are right?

[Xavier Onassis]

Yes, he has funded the club but only in the form of loans. He has not "given" the club any money at all.

This is almost certainly false.

[facaldaqui]

Yes, he has funded the club but only in the form of loans. He has not "given" the club any money at all.

This is almost certainly false.

Yes, he bought Lita out of his pocket for a start.