traff http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3765517/Reading-1-Barnsley-2.html
LOLZ! I'm guessing he heard them then
by The Prisoner » 22 Aug 2011 09:22
traff http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3765517/Reading-1-Barnsley-2.html
by Ferris » 22 Aug 2011 09:22
Reading chairman Sir John Madejski spoke candidly to the press after his side’s dismal performance on Saturday in which they went down 2-1 to Barnsley at home.
Responding to fans’ chants urging the Royals supremo to put his hand in his pocket and give manager Brian McDermott a cash windfall to boost his squad after another summer of sales, the full transcript has been printed for the fans by getreading.
You obviously heard the fans’ chants, can you understand their frustrations?
I’m p****d off. Everyone is frustrated, none more than the players, the manager, me, the board and the fans. Everybody is frustrated. Sadly two penalties were taken, but saved very well.
It’s difficult to come back from, we got the third penalty, but it could have been different if we got one of those penalties and I think we would have seen a different game.
It’s the wonderful world of football. I think we were the better team on the day, but the gods just weren’t with us and Barnsley managed to win 2-1.
We should have won and I’m sure everybody will tell you that.
Clearly you have to sell players, but does the club need the money? Or are the offers too good to turn down?
It’s not a question about the offers being too good to turn down. The people that have gone from here, and Shane Long, bless him, well done to him for scoring the goal against Manchester United, but the reason he left was that he was a Premier League player.
He we had gone to the Premier League then he would be playing for Reading. However, we didn’t, that’s the fact of the matter.
And all this talk about how much money we got for him is a load of baloney. We didn’t get anything quite like that at the end of the day.
But when push comes to shove I’m not allowed to say how much we got because of contractual reasons. But it’s nowhere near the figures being banded about in the newspapers and the media.
Football is that sort of whirly gig and sometimes you are disappointed and Saturday was a great occasion for disappointment. As far as I remember, I’ve never seen us lose at home against Barnsley before.
We will come back and get over this. We have a good team and good spirit in the camp.
Will there be money to spend?
I don’t know where you’re going to find this money from? We have budgets that we work to and there is a bit of scope to do some more deals before August 31.
Do you think the manager will be able to bring somebody in?
I’m sure something will happen. I have no doubt about that. But these things are rather clandestine in this day and age due to the fact that as soon as you mention anything you put yourself at a disadvantage.
You don’t want people to know what you are getting up to frankly and that’s the way it is.
Some of the fans writing on message boards ask “Where has the money gone?”
Well I just explained these sums of money that are cast in the media are nothing like the sums of money that we get.
Matt Mills went for £4.5million though?
You don’t know that. You don’t know what the net figure was after bits and pieces were paid out and commission.
But it was quite a lot of money?
Well it’s not a lot. If you look at our wage bill, which I wish somebody would. And work it all out to how it computes then you would realise that I’ve never taken money out of the club, EVER. No one is taking money out of the club, football is a very expensive game.
We have quite a lot of players and some fantastic young players coming through and we cut the coat according to the cloth.
I’ve been asked the question to whether or not we will strengthen the team and the answer to that is possibly. I don’t know, that’s the bottom line.
I’m sure we are plotting, scheming and so on before August 31, but that’s all I can tell you. The point is, there isn’t a great big caldron of money. There isn’t, there just isn’t.
It’s a very expensive business to be in and you only have to look at the figures properly and they can.
Then they would see that keeping the show on the road, with all the expenses of football, including every single thing you could imagine, you will find out that there isn’t a great big heap of cash there waiting to be spent.
But we’re doing our best and we’re doing our best under the circumstances – as always. That’s all for the fans and everybody at Reading football club.
I guess last season would have given you a boost though with the FA Cup run and play-off final?
We do need things like that to boost the coffers, there is no doubt about it. But there isn’t some hoard of money that we are keeping secret or anything like that.
It isn’t there I’m afraid, but every year we struggle like mad to keep the show on the road and do out best.
Is the club breaking even at the moment?
It’s difficult to say right now because we’re in the middle of things, so I can’t say whether it is or not. I would be very surprised if it is quite honestly.
Does this all go back to wages being too high?
Everyone knows that footballers are paid an extraordinary amount of money, which is not composite with what we have got. That’s why football is struggling.
Not just in this division, but in the Premier League and everywhere else. It’s a fact of life now and I’m sure that is going to change.
We can’t wait until they bring in the football fair-play rules as we decided on in the last conference. We just try to do the best we can and that is what we do.
We have some very good people here struggling to make it work and square the rubican, but there is no fat on the bone.
by bigmike » 22 Aug 2011 09:26
by muddyfeet » 22 Aug 2011 09:28
by madstadblues » 22 Aug 2011 09:42
by The Goat was fed » 22 Aug 2011 09:52
by Royal Lady » 22 Aug 2011 09:56
by Silver Fox » 22 Aug 2011 09:57
muddyfeet understand what he's saying and have never been anti Madejski as such. but how can nearly every other championship club afford to bring new players in and we cant. I dont want to be in financial sh1t like Pompey etc but what about the others?
from that article we dont sound very well run, we sound like we are struggling to keep afloat
by marcusopp » 22 Aug 2011 09:57
by southbank1871 » 22 Aug 2011 09:59
Big Ern I think the painful truth is SJM ain't as rich as he once was so can't cover any deficits at the moment with the ease he once could. He has been falling steadily in the Times Rich List year after year, and although he is still a very wealthy man, he has seen he fortune halved in the last 10 years or so to about £175 Million. He is selling off one of his Hotels, shares in companies at the moment and it appears has been hit hard by the economic downturn, so I hardly feel he is in the mood to pump more money into the football club. It is not exactly a hard luck story, but £175million doesn't go a long way in football these days, which is more or a sad reflection on football than SJM.
The sooner a new buyer comes along the better, but we just don't know when that will be. Until then, we will stand still. Madejski can't just step aside if there is nobody to take over.
I have a feeling he may put this across in a more heartfelt way than before when his interview is published tomorrow.
by friday fan » 22 Aug 2011 10:00
by Schards#2 » 22 Aug 2011 10:02
by Row Z Royal » 22 Aug 2011 10:03
bigmike I am not reading that because I know that all it will say is I have never taken money out of the club We have to cut the coat according to the cloth.
Same as Last year the year before and the year before
by southbank1871 » 22 Aug 2011 10:05
friday fan Nobody wants to mortgage the club but fans do desrve a decent standard of football and evidence on the pitch that the club will be competative.
by Row Z Royal » 22 Aug 2011 10:06
southbank1871friday fan Nobody wants to mortgage the club but fans do desrve a decent standard of football and evidence on the pitch that the club will be competative.
An FA Cup quarter-final and a play-off final not competitive enough for you?
There's some (seemingly) fairly intelligent people on here who struggle to grasp pretty simple concepts.
by southbank1871 » 22 Aug 2011 10:06
Schards#2 So we sold Gylfi to cover the black hole at the end of 2010/2011.
We've subsequently sold our best forward and best defender.
Yet there's no pot of money avaialble for replacements
World class business model at work.
by Terminal Boardom » 22 Aug 2011 10:07
by Silver Fox » 22 Aug 2011 10:09
by Ups and Downs » 22 Aug 2011 10:09
by Terminal Boardom » 22 Aug 2011 10:11
Silver Fox You really should take your own advice
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