Do we want promotion?

[Royal Biscuitman]

Get promotion, Get £60m..... get relegated, get parachute payments.... stat afloat.

Interesting thought though - If we go up can/will Zingaravich call in his loans to the club and take all the tv money out, which he may then use to buy the remainder of the club (if Sir JM wants/has to sell it to him) or will that leave the club with no debt and therefore a much more attractive proposition for a buyer?

[SPARTA]

Of course we want promotion, otherwise a lot of these very good players are off this summer just to keep us afloat!

This years parachute payment is £23m, next years is £18m, then £9m for the remaining two years.

That's £5m less than this season plus the £2.5m to run the Cat 1 academy, before any other expenses we're still juggling.

[floyd__streete]

Of course we want to be promoted

The alternative could be years of financial pain.....possibly even oblivion.

[floyd__streete]

Its been sustainable for over a decade.

Have you conveniently forgotten the current ownership debacle

[DaveBanana]

Beating Everton, Drawing with Chelsea, Morrison's header against Man United.

Better than anything I've witnessed this season. If we come back down and have a few moments like that again I'd be happy as fcuk.

This. Although it was low after low for most of the season, the highs were unreal - struggling to think of any that have come close to it in the champ this season. January 2013 <3 I won't be heartbroken if we stay in the champ, but I much prefer the idea of promotion chase, relegation scrap, title chase, etc... it feels like your fighting for something a bit more that way. If we're not going to win the Playoff Final though then can we just pack it in now, I don't think I can handle another Swansea.

[sandman]

I'm being deadly serious. Obita is MUCH cheaper than Pogrebnyak.

So you added an element of truth. Still go your number 118.

If you are being serious, which if you're intelligent enough to do what you do I seriously doubt you are, what about the next question? How do you consistently attract good young players to a league 1 club? If we bring academy players through let's make them good enough for this level and above.

Then there's the issue about whether we could continue the academy to the degree we are at the moment lower down the pyramid.

Why not sign some Hellenic league players? After all they cost less than Pog, Obita and the academy put together.

[maffff]

Skonto's website has now been updated to show Dvali as on loan from Reading

http://skontofc.com/komandas.php?idx2=1&idx=75

[andrew1957]

Of course we want to be promoted

The alternative could be years of financial pain.....possibly even oblivion.

I don't know about oblivion but if we do not get promoted and no new owners are found, then I think next summer will see cloth cutting like we have never seen before and a much weaker squad next season. So I agree that going all out for promotion is very important.

[Extended-Phenotype]

How the f/ck is "being in the mix for promotion" but not actually getting promotion a business model?

Are we to start throwing games now?

[RoyalBlue]

Of course we want to be promoted

The alternative could be years of financial pain.....possibly even oblivion.

I don't know about oblivion but if we do not get promoted and no new owners are found, then I think next summer will see cloth cutting like we have never seen before and a much weaker squad next season. So I agree that going all out for promotion is very important.

Agreed. The cloth cutting we have seen in the past has been bad enough and that was when Madejski had more money and was fully committed in his ownership of the club. This time around it is likely to border on the unbearable and I fear (although others will no doubt celebrate) may also lose us Adkins.

How the f/ck is "being in the mix for promotion" but not actually getting promotion a business model?

Are we to start throwing games now?

I guess with contacts and bets in the right places, it could make us a fair bit of money! Maybe that's why we didn't manage to score another goal v Yeovil!

[Ian Royal]

Everyone of those clubs has been in the top flight before.

The system stinks but most of those fighting it out for promotion have been in the top flight in recent years

I've cut the rest of the dribbling nonsense just to highlight those shifting goalposts

[Ian Royal]

Beating Everton, Drawing with Chelsea, Morrison's header against Man United.

Better than anything I've witnessed this season. If we come back down and have a few moments like that again I'd be happy as fcuk.

Last time was a massive waste. I'd rather be a mid table Prem team than a yo-yo club. The atmosphere is 4times as good in the Premier League.
Only thing is, the proposed plans for safe standing would go up the pooper.

[Silver Fox]

How the f/ck is "being in the mix for promotion" but not actually getting promotion a business model?

Are we to start throwing games now?

The flids on here would have you believe we've done it before

[under the tin]

I'll answer the original question with an analogy.

I'd really like to have a brand new Aston Martin Vantage.
If I really wanted one that much, I'm pretty sure that I could find a way to finance that sort of purchase. (secured loan against the house, extortionate rates of interest, assign pension/insurance funds, etc.)
I'm not prepared to do that, so I make do with my Vauxhall.

It is my belief that football is inherently cyclical. Bigger, better household name clubs than ours have grubbed around in the third tier in recent years, and all too often, the common denominator as to how they wound up there is money.
We've had the best decade in our club's history, but like many on here, I felt the forward momentum of the RFC movement began to falter after our first PL relegation.
Sir John was honest enough to admit that the water there was too deep for him, and I think we all felt that the TSI involvement would help the club kick on.
It hasn't panned out, and the chances of someone with enough money to wade in and chuck that money at a relatively small football brand with an unsustainable wage bill are slim, I would suggest.

I think the club will end up having to take the medicine, whoever owns it. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Southampton came back a lot stronger as a result of a dalliance in the third tier, so did Norwich. Que sera sera.

[Royal Biscuitman]

I'll answer the original question with an analogy.

I'd really like to have a brand new Aston Martin Vantage.
If I really wanted one that much, I'm pretty sure that I could find a way to finance that sort of purchase. (secured loan against the house, extortionate rates of interest, assign pension/insurance funds, etc.)
I'm not prepared to do that, so I make do with my Vauxhall.

I'd say it was more a case of taking out a loan against your house, extortionate rate of interest etc etc and then giving all the money to someone you hardly know and asking them to use it to hire and manage a team of people you don't know to build the Aston Martin for you from scratch, ideally you want someone with experience of this and a proven track record. You also have to take part in a drag race against other car owners and if your not in the top 2 (or win a raceoff), you lose your car and have to start again.

[JIM]

QPR loose Wigan draw if only

[Extended-Phenotype]

QPR loose Wigan draw if only

Well put that smile back on your face, Wigan drew against the mighty Yeovil and QPR got rodgered.

[Mr Angry]

I want the club to be successful therefore I want promotion; but anyone believing all the hype and BS about the Prem being the be all and end all of football, and that not being in it will mean oblivion are talking rubbish.

There are 72 clubs NOT in the Prem, and those that are struggling financially tend to be those that spent way outside their means to either get into the Prem, or to stay in it; the list is long and well known.

There is a fallacy that promotion brings with it massive wealth; no, it brings in additional revenue but it also brings with it massive additional costs - usually in the form of increased salary payments to players. The net result is that even teams who are "long established mid table" in the Prem are running massive debt - Bolton, who most would have said epitomised that "long established mid table" model, being a recent example (and Fulham will soon be another). In order to stay solvent, these teams need to invest more and more money in order to maintain their position in the top division, but at some point, the day of reckoning will come for them.

The reality of football in England today is that unless you have a massive worldwide fan base, it requires a multi billionaire to come in and make a team successful, and this route to success (as travelled by Chelsea and Man City) is being slammed shut by FFP. Ironically, the Prem is more competitive now than it was 5 years ago, with 4 or 5 teams capable of being champions rather than 2, but everyone outside the top 7 only has one goal - and that's to avoid relegation.

If that's what floats your boat, then chew your nails off poring over Wigan v Yeovil and what that means to our chances of promotion.

[HoneyRoastHoax]

good post

[Isaac Hunt]

I want the club to be successful therefore I want promotion; but anyone believing all the hype and BS about the Prem being the be all and end all of football, and that not being in it will mean oblivion are talking rubbish.

There are 72 clubs NOT in the Prem, and those that are struggling financially tend to be those that spent way outside their means to either get into the Prem, or to stay in it; the list is long and well known.

There is a fallacy that promotion brings with it massive wealth; no, it brings in additional revenue but it also brings with it massive additional costs - usually in the form of increased salary payments to players. The net result is that even teams who are "long established mid table" in the Prem are running massive debt - Bolton, who most would have said epitomised that "long established mid table" model, being a recent example (and Fulham will soon be another). In order to stay solvent, these teams need to invest more and more money in order to maintain their position in the top division, but at some point, the day of reckoning will come for them.

The reality of football in England today is that unless you have a massive worldwide fan base, it requires a multi billionaire to come in and make a team successful, and this route to success (as travelled by Chelsea and Man City) is being slammed shut by FFP. Ironically, the Prem is more competitive now than it was 5 years ago, with 4 or 5 teams capable of being champions rather than 2, but everyone outside the top 7 only has one goal - and that's to avoid relegation.

If that's what floats your boat, then chew your nails off poring over Wigan v Yeovil and what that means to our chances of promotion.

This sums up my feelings on promotion. Good post.