Madejski Sold out and failed again

[Vision]

I can't believe how many of you still back SJM he might have set us on the road to where we are now, I can't argue with that, but he has raped the club for years. We have made enough money to be a mid table prem club, but the money was never invested in the team. The money vanished and where did it go? Did the Russian have it? No. Did the players wages take it? No. I see no other place to look than pockets of SJM. He is like the Jimmy Savile of the football world getting away with taking the clubs funds for so long and everyone just let him do it. Disgrace!

[Platypuss]

I don't understand how anyone can criticise SJM. Weren't we on the brink of becoming thames valley royals with oxford utd at one point?

Indeed. But that was 1982/83. SJM didn't take over RFC until 1990, so quite hard to give him the credit for that..

Roger Smee was our saviour at that time - he deserves better knowledge of history from our fans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Valley_Royals_proposal

[Royal Rother]

I can still remember RFC 1-0 York city, new years day about 20 odd years ago. The total attendance was <1000 ....

None of that sounds right to me.

[Royal Rother]

I can't believe how many of you still back SJM he might have set us on the road to where we are now, I can't argue with that, but he has raped the club for years. We have made enough money to be a mid table prem club, but the money was never invested in the team. The money vanished and where did it go? Did the Russian have it? No. Did the players wages take it? No. I see no other place to look than pockets of SJM. He is like the Jimmy Savile of the football world getting away with taking the clubs funds for so long and everyone just let him do it. Disgrace!

I think he's serious.

Jeff's previous post.... (in 2009)

I think its time for JM to try a bit harder to find a buyer for the club.

But people need to know is that when the stadium was built he only paid a £1 for the land from the council, he paid architects to design the stadium and the retail park, then he went to the retailers, B&Q, Comet, Mcdonalds, etc.. and sold the retail outlets to them before anything was built. When he received the money from them he gave it to the builders to build the stadium and the retail park, so he paid for nothing out of his own pocket apart from the architect which would come to only £2 or £3 million tops.

Then he sold Autotrader and went to live in Malaysia for a year to avoid paying £46 million in tax.

I think JM has done a great job in his time but I want to stop the myth that alot of fans still think that he paid for the stadium out of his own pocket when he hasnt, he has put in minimal amounts of money to the club.

[KC Royal]

Interesting then, what you never saw Ian was Elm Park, we oldies talk about it with fondness, but the reality is it was a shit hole. When I started going at six years old, we were on a par with Swindon Bristol C and Ipswich size clubs. Many clubs went on to build nice new stands, we got excited if the supporters club managed to repaint the barriers.
Smee brought new hope, only to go bust himself. The new stadium at rivermead was an amazing ambition at the time. But no we missed out on that one

Then SJM, and by progressing brick by brick look what the club achieved. All I hope is that the new owners can continue with a slow approach, perhaps the soon to come developments at the ground will be done for the club, giving more income. Which is what we need now.

I saw Elm Park for about three years.

Tbf Ian, I thought you'd been a fan since the mid 90s, but as your post said that you'd only seen 2 seasons below the Championship that suggested otherwise as we were in the third tier from 1998-2002.

[West Stand Man]

I can't believe how many of you still back SJM he might have set us on the road to where we are now, I can't argue with that, but he has raped the club for years. We have made enough money to be a mid table prem club, but the money was never invested in the team. The money vanished and where did it go? Did the Russian have it? No. Did the players wages take it? No. I see no other place to look than pockets of SJM. He is like the Jimmy Savile of the football world getting away with taking the clubs funds for so long and everyone just let him do it. Disgrace!

Hello, I am from planet Earth. It is good to meet you, which universe are you from?

[melonhead]

I can't believe how many of you still back SJM he might have set us on the road to where we are now, I can't argue with that, but he has raped the club for years. We have made enough money to be a mid table prem club, but the money was never invested in the team. The money vanished and where did it go? Did the Russian have it? No. Did the players wages take it? No. I see no other place to look than pockets of SJM. He is like the Jimmy Savile of the football world getting away with taking the clubs funds for so long and everyone just let him do it. Disgrace!

[Martin41]

I can't believe how many of you still back SJM he might have set us on the road to where we are now, I can't argue with that, but he has raped the club for years. We have made enough money to be a mid table prem club, but the money was never invested in the team. The money vanished and where did it go? Did the Russian have it? No. Did the players wages take it? No. I see no other place to look than pockets of SJM. He is like the Jimmy Savile of the football world getting away with taking the clubs funds for so long and everyone just let him do it. Disgrace!

If serious........what a twat you are.......

[JC]

I can still remember RFC 1-0 York city, new years day about 20 odd years ago. The total attendance was <1000 and the entire south bank spent the whole game gunning a york city fan for wearing an anorak!

We have never played York on a New Years day.
We beat them 1-0 in Nov 98 but the attendance was nearly 8,000 and in Feb 84 attendance nearly 5.000
The nearest was Apr 78 when the attandance was 2500

[Ian Royal]

Interesting then, what you never saw Ian was Elm Park, we oldies talk about it with fondness, but the reality is it was a shit hole. When I started going at six years old, we were on a par with Swindon Bristol C and Ipswich size clubs. Many clubs went on to build nice new stands, we got excited if the supporters club managed to repaint the barriers.
Smee brought new hope, only to go bust himself. The new stadium at rivermead was an amazing ambition at the time. But no we missed out on that one

Then SJM, and by progressing brick by brick look what the club achieved. All I hope is that the new owners can continue with a slow approach, perhaps the soon to come developments at the ground will be done for the club, giving more income. Which is what we need now.

I saw Elm Park for about three years.

Tbf Ian, I thought you'd been a fan since the mid 90s, but as your post said that you'd only seen 2 seasons below the Championship that suggested otherwise as we were in the third tier from 1998-2002.

You know what, I've been a moron. For some reason I was only thinking of the Burns horror years of being at that level and forgot to think of the years it took us to get promoted once we got shot of him and pulled our finger out.

[Royal Rother]

I can still remember RFC 1-0 York city, new years day about 20 odd years ago. The total attendance was <1000 and the entire south bank spent the whole game gunning a york city fan for wearing an anorak!

We have never played York on a New Years day.
We beat them 1-0 in Nov 98 but the attendance was nearly 8,000 and in Feb 84 attendance nearly 5.000
The nearest was Apr 78 when the attandance was 2500

3rd Jan 1994 looks closest. Don't know the gate though.

[EverHopeful]

all rubbish as the lowest gate was against Preston - can't remember year but was about 1700 gate at Elm Park..........only time i have sat for a whole game on the South bank and been able to see despite being very young!!

[JC]

I can still remember RFC 1-0 York city, new years day about 20 odd years ago. The total attendance was <1000 and the entire south bank spent the whole game gunning a york city fan for wearing an anorak!

We have never played York on a New Years day.
We beat them 1-0 in Nov 98 but the attendance was nearly 8,000 and in Feb 84 attendance nearly 5.000
The nearest was Apr 78 when the attandance was 2500

3rd Jan 1994 looks closest. Don't know the gate though.

7199 score 2-1

[Royal Rother]

Interesting how far off the mark marcusopp appears to have been with that memory...

(He must be my sort of age.)

[From Despair To Where?]

Considering that 2-1 January win was in a promotion season, It's highly unlikely our crowds would have been that shit.

As far as I can remember, we had a couple of attendences at about 1,000 at Elm Park but they were in the Associate Members' Cup and definitely not in the league.

[Tamworth_Royal]

Eh? Have I missed something? In what way are we a bit fcuked?

This was 2 years ago

[Dennis the Butler]

I can't believe how many of you still back SJM he might have set us on the road to where we are now, I can't argue with that, but he has raped the club for years. We have made enough money to be a mid table prem club, but the money was never invested in the team. The money vanished and where did it go? Did the Russian have it? No. Did the players wages take it? No. I see no other place to look than pockets of SJM. He is like the Jimmy Savile of the football world getting away with taking the clubs funds for so long and everyone just let him do it. Disgrace!

If serious........what a twat you are.......

+1

[From Despair To Where?]

IIRC, we made a profit of about £8m in 2006-07 and that was the first time in about 20 years that we hadn't made a loss.