Taking Stock : Fans [A first in a series]

[superreadingfan]

Hello welcome to Taking Stock, the official superreadingfan series of threads to hold super reading fans over this off season. Over the series we will look at various parts of the club, players, management, ownership, etc of Reading FC. This is to help hold us rabid fans until the start of the new season, feel free to critique, add, review, comment on any issue regarding fans.

My personal belief is that there are two sets of Reading FC fans.



First set of fans are the true fans of reading fc everywhere. They go to as many matches as they can, they have reading fc memorabilia in the attic. At the end of the match against Swansea they were noticeably upset. These fans do not have 30 chants lined up for each match and prefer to belt out the classics of "who are you", "urzz" and "tom hark". They are not cheerleaders, they are fans and they make us proud to bleed Reading FC. If they are not able to make it to the match, they will do anything in their power to watch the game, hear the game, or just read twitteresque text updates from the game. Installing 10 jap programs on their computer just to get some dodgy stream in Arabic just to watch Reading v Burnley in December.. it takes dedication.



Speaking of which it is these fans that attract the international market.. many members have joined the site without stepping foot in Reading, or even possibly the UK. They are not glory hunters, they just see a nice middle class football team, the proverbial underdogs of football. Fans like Seahawk21 and Libertine need to be congratulated for their blind dedication. All in all true reading fans are nothing special.. or unique.. they have no wacky antics that separates them from the rest.. but maybe that will suit them just fine.



However with the glory of true reading fans come the fans with multiple teams and little interest beyond a trip to Wembley and searching for glory. Fans who bring the attitude of victimisation and paranoia.



These are also the fans that at the end of the match at Wembley, shrug their shoulders and go to the pub to celebrate their other teams success. While they will spend all season blaming their other teams owners or managers for their shortcomings, they dare not question the powers to be at Reading. Apparently everything is fine to them. Since they outnumber the true reading fans 10:1, many true reading fans are feeling disenfranchised and leaving the madejski to go down to scours lane.



True reading fans are getting frustrated with the club. While it's easy to get fans to agree with every decision Madejski makes, it takes someone with a bit of education on the subject to say "wait a minute, I disagree." The minute you post something on this forum that is against the Reading FC multifan zeitgeist.. prepare for abuse.



I think it's time for a summer revolution of Reading.. to make these fans pick.. you are either "Reading til i die" or not. It's time to make a stand here or forever fall into obscurity. It's time to burn the Chelsea tops, ebay those Man U jester hats, and trash the Liverpool dvd set. It's time to get involved. Involved in Reading FC politics, questioning the establishment, and attacking the bourgeois of Reading FC.

end the heartache reading fans..



like a phoenix rising from the ashes.. we will return

[Agent Balti]

Oops, sorry...I've wandered onto the wrong forum. Something weird just happened.

[Red]

Which kind are you superreadingfan?

Don't take this the wrong way but I have you down as a jester hat owner.

[superreadingfan]

I do own a jester hat, but what is currently happening at the club is no laughing matter, so it will continue to collect dust next to my signed Convey boots

[Kitsondinho]

Baldrick, have you been at the diesel oil again?

[Hampshire Royal]

So what exactly is wrong with the way the club is run? I'm not a better fan than anyone else, but I consider myself to be no worse than any fan (i've been a fan since 1967 and this season is the first time I haven't seen a live game all season). I happen to believe that this club is being run in exactly the right way - trying to be self-sufficient and not being held hostage by the madness of football finance. OK, we will sell players now we didn't go up but it's nothing to do with JM wanting to 'cream cash out of the club' more to do with individual players who are good enough wanting to play at the highest level they can.

Against all the odds and contrary to what a number of fans who seem to take pleasure out of running the club down think, we are now a pretty much established Championship team with a reasonable chance of promotion. Of course, for those fans who haven't seen the real crap times they don't truly understand what this means.

[Red]

I do own a jester hat, but what is currently happening at the club is no laughing matter, so it will continue to collect dust next to my signed Convey boots

Yes it's a difficult time, but I'd hate to think we have lost our sense of fun and humour along with the football match on Monday.

I say it's time to dust off the hat.

[Red]

When are we due the second installment in the series superreadingfan

[Snowball]

BBC says that Football League clubs now owe £700,000,000 with "over 80%" owed by Championship clubs

So that's 560,000,000 minimum owed by 24 clubs, an AVERAGE of £23,333,333 owed by every club


an AVERAGE of £23,333,333 owed by every club


Gates were down 6% overall last season

TV money is lower next season

[Red]

Could it be that the bubble is on the verge of bursting?

I suspect superreadingfan's next article will go at least part of the way to answering this.

[Arnie_Pie]

an AVERAGE of £23,333,333 owed by every club

Thank god we have an honest and sensible chairman. We may well owe some money, but nowhere near this much. We are in safe hands.

[nailseabiscuitman]

I am with Hampshire Royal on this.OK so Long, Kebe et al may move on. Same as it ever was. Until a club is as big as Chelsea etc all other clubs are selling clubs.Do you relly think Aston Villa fans like seeing Ashley Young and Stuart Downing touted among the bigger clubs.Of course not, but money talks and if they do move on Villa themseves will become the aggressors, moving for the better players of smallers clubs . The only difference from when I started watching Reading in1961 was that the players who left hardly ever went upwards so I look on with a sense of pride in the part we have had in nurturing a talent for a "bigger" club.

[percy_freeman]

Could of sworn this thread was titled Fans! I am neither of the above type of fan.

[royal madrid]

BBC says that Football League clubs now owe £700,000,000 with "over 80%" owed by Championship clubs

So that's 560,000,000 minimum owed by 24 clubs, an AVERAGE of £23,333,333 owed by every club


an AVERAGE of £23,333,333 owed by every club


Gates were down 6% overall last season

TV money is lower next season

Excellent, if we all keep this up the IMF will come and bail us out. Like Greece. But without the Tavernas.

[under the tin]

BBC says that Football League clubs now owe £700,000,000 with "over 80%" owed by Championship clubs

So that's 560,000,000 minimum owed by 24 clubs, an AVERAGE of £23,333,333 owed by every club


an AVERAGE of £23,333,333 owed by every club

Gates were down 6% overall last season

TV money is lower next season

I have no reason to doubt these figures, mate.
However, as I understand the term, all it amounts to is football clubs maxxing out their notional credit cards, fulsome in the knowledge that they can circumnavigate oblivion by using accountancy smartspeak: "restructuring" "refinancing" etc.
And then when things become completely untenable, they know that they can walk away from this debt by playing on the heartstrings of their creditors, and the wider community of the fan base. "Accept .001pence in the pound, or lose 100 years of professional football in Barchester"
They are adided and abetted in this by a taxman who is reluctant to be seen as the bad guy in the affected community.

Reading might well be "well run", with manageable/negligible debts, but in the current football climate, it doesn't add up to a hill of beans, because those clubs who do not run on a business footing are not being punished for their misdemeanours.

[Snowball]

an AVERAGE of £23,333,333 owed by every club

Gates were down 6% overall last season TV money is lower next season

I have no reason to doubt these figures, mate.
However, as I understand the term, all it amounts to is football clubs maxxing out their notional credit cards, fulsome in the knowledge that they can circumnavigate oblivion by using accountancy smartspeak: "restructuring" "refinancing" etc.
And then when things become completely untenable, they know that they can walk away from this debt by playing on the heartstrings of their creditors, and the wider community of the fan base. "Accept .001pence in the pound, or lose 100 years of professional football in Barchester"
They are adided and abetted in this by a taxman who is reluctant to be seen as the bad guy in the affected community.

Reading might well be "well run", with manageable/negligible debts, but in the current football climate, it doesn't add up to a hill of beans, because those clubs who do not run on a business footing are not being punished for their misdemeanours.

Not sure you're right, bud. I think, in the new financial climate, banks will be less kind.
I also think that, very soon, an example is going to be made, possibly two or three, and
I predict a couple of relatively huge names could be starting again in non-league.

I have a strong sense of bubbles waiting to burst and that clubs like Reading and Arsenal
will be very strong when the poo hits the fan (pardon the mixed metaphors).

The article I read was about a major meeting (in Cyprus I think) of Championship
chairmen looking to bring in caps and fair-play rules. I don't think they are talking
like this because everything is rosy or can be fixed with good will.

We've seen the relative demise of two monster clubs Sheffield United and Wednesday
and the first of those had a massive payout from West Ham to make their live better.
They still have ended up in League 1 with serious debts and rumours of financial
irregularities that could yet make their plight even worse.