Thames Sports Investment

[1871 Royal]

Sign up the hesk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmUW41m93oY

[who are ya?]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi8xih9UnlU&feature=related

[winchester_royal]

I hope this Emile Heskey thing on FB is a load of rollocks.

You don't want him here?

[loyalroyal4life]

Sign up the hesk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmUW41m93oY

Hesk and Roberts Upfront, what a mouth watering combo!

[Barry the bird boggler]

Roberts is reasonably possible. There is next to no chance of getting Heskey, and I doubt even the new regime could afford his wages even if he was willing to drop down to the Championship.

[Bandini]

I understand that he's looking at a player-coach position.

It would certainly suit someone like Heskey who has always been a student of the game.

[FiNeRaIn]

Heskey is 34, its not really an unrealistic possibility at all as he's got NO big contracts left in him at that age. Not sure he's really upto the prem any more, would still be a decent option in the championship without setting the world alight. Lets face it we need goals...is emile heskey going to provide those? The answer is no. I like his all-round game and work ethic but we need the ball in the back of the opposition net.

[winchester_royal]

Might bring out the best in ALF though...

I doubt we're looking at both Roberts and Heskey as they're both similar types of players...

Either would prove very effective in this division though

[Vision]

You don't think Hammond and SJM TOLD McD he HAD to sell them? That's the vibe I got after both sales tbf....

The club accept a bid then its down to the player whether he wants to go. The point is that McD was saying last summer he hoped to persuade him to stay. In the end he couldn't because what was on offer for Long was too good to turn down despite his relationship with McD. Just because the club accept a bid it doesn't mean the player is forced to leave especially when he has such a great relationship with the manager. In the end just as it was too good an offer for the club to say no to, so it was for Long.

As Bandini says if there were Russian billionaires in the mix then it might have persuaded him to stay and give it another go but once again it would be up to the player. This is pretty much what Coppell did with Doyle and Hunt who both signed new deals during 08/09 though and we all know how that ended.

[Friday's Legacy]

i'm glad there isn#t long left of this transfer window. so much speculation, johnny fordham repeating the same quotes every day, as well as quite blatantly pinching rumours off of here. roll on the 31st Jan.

[Platypuss]

I've always felt that the way we didn't chase a European place in '07.

Which bit of that are you struggling with SF?

As a club we didn't ask to be considered for the Inter-Toto (European competition and a route into the UEFA Cup) and Coppell didn't want to qualify for the UEFA Cup through the league position because he was too worried about what the extra demands would do.

How much Coppell's lack of interest effected us over the last few games is hard to tell but I think both he, and certainly Dillion, have admitted that Coppell didn't want to qualify.

Actually I read somewhere on the OS that Coppell said he was actually well up for it but kept a lid on it as he didn't want it to affect the players.

[Hoop Blah]

That's not how Kevin Dillon tells it, he even said he pretty much disagreed with the attitude when he was on the radio a week or so ago.

I take anything on the OS with a massive pinch of salt.

[Ark Royal]

I understand that he's looking at a player-couch position.

It would certainly suit someone like Heskey who has always been a student of the game.

Corrected for you.

[Man Friday]

Sign up the hesk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmUW41m93oY

Hesk and Roberts Upfront, what a mouth watering combo!

FFS, we're like a big pools winner who hasn't the class to know how to spend their winnings properly. Are we really going to p1ss it on has-beens like Heskey. I despair. I've had a mad day at work and now I come home to this bollox!

[Man Friday]

So, all those years that Madejski "invested" in the club turned out to be loans. Anybody can loan money. I'd have more respect had he invested as he implied he was doing. Could it be that the reason he struggled to sell before was that no one was prepared to repay his loans? Very, very disappointing. Typical false messiah stuff I guess.

"investments" are things where you put in money expecting to get it back and then some, so he's done exactly what he's always said he's done and what the accounts have always shown. Normally you'd take interest while you're doing it as well. You won't find many people willing to put £30m of their own money into a football club for 20 years when they could be using it themselves, even if they might get back eventually.

You didn't really think Madejski had just given Reading Football club £30m did you! That's priceless!

Priceless in the real world but that's what happens in football. Owners pump in their own money to inflate their egos (ala Blackburn in the 90s). They don't "loan" money to the clubs that they own. If they did, when the City owners wanted out, the club would be completely and utterly stuffed/fukked/destroyed, you name it.

[Man Friday]

So, all those years that Madejski "invested" in the club turned out to be loans. Anybody can loan money. I'd have more respect had he invested as he implied he was doing. Could it be that the reason he struggled to sell before was that no one was prepared to repay his loans? Very, very disappointing. Typical false messiah stuff I guess.

You obviously don't know much about limited companies. If you put money in you have to do it as a Directors loan with a reasonable interest rate, or buy equity. You can't "gift" it in. The tax man won't allow that.

You sound like you know what you're talking about but I suspect you don't. (Don't worry, I work with quite a few people like that.) What's happening at Man City at the moment then? They're not loans.

[Ian Royal]

So, all those years that Madejski "invested" in the club turned out to be loans. Anybody can loan money. I'd have more respect had he invested as he implied he was doing. Could it be that the reason he struggled to sell before was that no one was prepared to repay his loans? Very, very disappointing. Typical false messiah stuff I guess.

"investments" are things where you put in money expecting to get it back and then some, so he's done exactly what he's always said he's done and what the accounts have always shown. Normally you'd take interest while you're doing it as well. You won't find many people willing to put £30m of their own money into a football club for 20 years when they could be using it themselves, even if they might get back eventually.

You didn't really think Madejski had just given Reading Football club £30m did you! That's priceless!

Priceless in the real world but that's what happens in football. Owners pump in their own money to inflate their egos (ala Blackburn in the 90s). They don't "loan" money to the clubs that they own. If they did, when the City owners wanted out, the club would be completely and utterly stuffed/fukked/destroyed, you name it.

[RoyalBlue]

Possibe Freudian slip by the chairman @ 7 mins into the video of the press conference where he states 'I really condemn (sic) this deal to you all'?!

Hopefully he meant to say 'commend'!

Perhaps it's me but JM seemed to display some considerable disquiet when Chris Samuelson started to talk firm figures of cash in a manner JM has always avoided.

Samuelson appears far more comfortable and accomplished at dealing with the media.

At one point JM tries to stiffle questions about the money being a loan by cracking a joke. Samuelson is not put off and tells the reporter that he can ask whatever questions he likes and then proceeds to answer the one that was posed.

[RoyalBlue]

Boy that bloke Samuelson is a smooth operator and such an accomplished speaker.

Either he had been rehearsing for ages or a lot of what he says has to be genuine. He had a quick but considered response to everything that was thrown at him.

Add a Reading badge and there's some money making opportunities for someone here!

[philM]

So, all those years that Madejski "invested" in the club turned out to be loans. Anybody can loan money. I'd have more respect had he invested as he implied he was doing. Could it be that the reason he struggled to sell before was that no one was prepared to repay his loans? Very, very disappointing. Typical false messiah stuff I guess.

You obviously don't know much about limited companies. If you put money in you have to do it as a Directors loan with a reasonable interest rate, or buy equity. You can't "gift" it in. The tax man won't allow that.

You sound like you know what you're talking about but I suspect you don't. (Don't worry, I work with quite a few people like that.) What's happening at Man City at the moment then? They're not loans.