Is Administration A Bad Thing?

[Schards#2]

If Reading went into administration the majority would lose thier jobs.

"If higher unemployment is the price we have to pay in order to bring success, then it is a price worth paying."

One could just as reasonably, (i.e not very reasonably), argue that the current model ,which is likely to limit any possible success on the field, leads to a smaller squad, smaller gates, less catering/matchday staff and, therefore, higher unemployment.

Furthermore, would success not actually bring higher employment?

[Gordons Cumming]

Lots of people are giving up on "big" clubs to return to non-league - even better to do it with your own club.

I'm afraid my only option would be Bracknell.....................and I just don't think I could bring myself to do it.

[Terminal Boardom]

There are 3 other options open as well as Bracknell. You have Binfield, Ascot and Wokingham & Embrook to choose from. Sandhurst and Camberley are hardly light years away either.

[Svlad Cjelli]

If Reading went into administration the majority would lose thier jobs.

"If higher unemployment is the price we have to pay in order to bring success, then it is a price worth paying."

One could just as reasonably, (i.e not very reasonably), argue that the current model ,which is likely to limit any possible success on the field, leads to a smaller squad, smaller gates, less catering/matchday staff and, therefore, higher unemployment.

Furthermore, would success not actually bring higher employment?

Correct, but the essential problem is that this isn't like any other economic situation, where investment brings success.

In football "investment" (not actually the correct word to use - "gambling" is a better one) only increases the chances of success, but you have to look at what is being spent by the competition, because the number of clubs who can invest is much greater than the fixed number of clubs who can succeed.

Also, the impact of gambling and losing is substantial, of course.

[Platypuss]

If Reading went into administration the majority would lose thier jobs.

"If higher unemployment is the price we have to pay in order to bring success, then it is a price worth paying."

One could just as reasonably, (i.e not very reasonably), argue that the current model ,which is likely to limit any possible success on the field, leads to a smaller squad, smaller gates, less catering/matchday staff and, therefore, higher unemployment.

Furthermore, would success not actually bring higher employment?

Back to Pompey fans - what proportion of them consider the FA Cup success worth what followed? I have to say that personally it's a tough call.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Everyone has their own view on what is and isn't acceptable for a club.

Whilst I personally disagree with the Exeter thing and I would have done it differently, I understand why SJM made that stand and can't criticise the logic.

[southstand67]

I can't help thinking that Portsmouth won the FA Cup by cheating. They spent money that they didn't have. Having gone into administration should they not have been made to give it back?

[manny96]

Back to Pompey fans - what proportion of them consider the FA Cup success worth what followed? I have to say that personally it's a tough call.

I mentioned the 2035 thread to my housemate's friend (who I don't know particularly well) and he commented that it would be Pompey and Reading left by that point. I laughed and told him Pompey were the worst of the lot. Obviously he was a Pompey fan. He seemed content with winning stuff for a while and then descending back into relative obscurity but he was a total fair-weather supporter. Unfortunately, the ones that fill the stadiums when the times are good are not the ones left heartbroken when it all falls apart.

I also pointed out to his girlfriend that Man U were just as bad, if not worse and that coming from Preston is not an excuse to support them.

[ZacNaloen]

What pompey did should be considered "financial doping" and should be as illegal as performance enhancing drugs are in sports.

[Svlad Cjelli]

What pompey did should be considered "financial doping" and should be as illegal as performance enhancing drugs are in sports.

You are Michel Platini AICMFP!

[Gordons Cumming]

There are 3 other options open as well as Bracknell. You have Binfield, Ascot and Wokingham & Embrook to choose from. Sandhurst and Camberley are hardly light years away either.

No, as my home town club, Bracknell would be the only "moral" option I'm afraid.

The trouble is they're really crap!

[Vision]

Some good points on both sides of this and its actually touching on the sort of things I was interested in finding out in the expectations thread.

Personally, I go to watch football as an entertainment and something to, hopefully, get excited about and indulge in being a bit irrational over in a way that you can't be in your day to day life.

As such, if the club I supports priority and mentality becomes to simply be economically stable and viable beyond all else, then it's not really ticking the boxes of why I got to watch them. I may want stability in my normal life but football is about a bit of escapism and living the dream. If I was motivated by sound economics, i'd be cheering on my personal favourite from the FTSE 100 week in week out..

I've said previously that football at its essence is/was an escape from the pretty miserable mundane day to day shit we all have to live. Basically we want 11 blokes on a Saturday at 3pm (ha!) to live our dreams through vicariously for 90 mins and we dont really give a shit where they come from or how much money it costs. Trouble is somebody does have to worry about this stuff.

Which leads me to this and, once again the question of expectation. Not just for our club but football in general. I dont know whether its our jaded eyes or the supposed glimmer/hype of the SKYShip but week in week out league football throughout the land is/was and pretty much always will be made up mainly of pretty ordinary games punctauted by the odd abberation and the odd flashes of inspiration.

Clearly, there is a balance to be struck but I feel Reading have gone too far in the direction of caution and I would like to see them roll the dice occassionally. On balance, I would rather have lived through Portsmouth last four years than ours as, simply, it would have been more exciting and stimulating with wonderful highs and desperate lows. That, to me, is what makes football worth watching and if you lose that factor that sets the adreneline flowing, it becomes just another passtime.

And this the crux for me. We've pretty much had the roller coaster over the last decade but we've had it "on the pitch" rather than off it. We've seen two unbelievable seasons followed by a relagation. Even if you factor in just the last 3 seasons, We've seen false dawns, great recoveries, long winning runs, long losing runs play off wins defeats, notable scalps of top teams on route to cup Q/F's etc etc etc. Yet people still seem to dismiss this all as being somehow (sorry Schards) dull and uninspiring.

Its all opinion of course and thats why I asked the question last week about what could/should we expect from a club of our size,stature & standing because a lot of the current criticism seems to be based on 2 absolutely stellar seasons that are highly unlikely to be repeated.

[Svlad Cjelli]

There are 3 other options open as well as Bracknell. You have Binfield, Ascot and Wokingham & Embrook to choose from. Sandhurst and Camberley are hardly light years away either.

No, as my home town club, Bracknell would be the only "moral" option I'm afraid.

The trouble is they're really crap!

I went there about 15 times last season and will be there that many times this season. Crap can be really entertaining. And you can watch the match over the rim of a pint glass...

[Vision]

As for the question of moral concerns. Where ,if anywhere would you draw the line?

Does JM's Toryboy reputation pose a problem for some?.
Would we be happy with a team made up of Bellamy's,King's Hughes',Barton's etc if it guaranteed success?


Birmingham won a cup, got relegated and are in limbo-land at the moment because there's a chance their owner may well be a money launderer amongst other things.

Does any of this really matter?

[JimmytheJim]

Some good points on both sides of this and its actually touching on the sort of things I was interested in finding out in the expectations thread.

Personally, I go to watch football as an entertainment and something to, hopefully, get excited about and indulge in being a bit irrational over in a way that you can't be in your day to day life.

As such, if the club I supports priority and mentality becomes to simply be economically stable and viable beyond all else, then it's not really ticking the boxes of why I got to watch them. I may want stability in my normal life but football is about a bit of escapism and living the dream. If I was motivated by sound economics, i'd be cheering on my personal favourite from the FTSE 100 week in week out..

I've said previously that football at its essence is/was an escape from the pretty miserable mundane day to day shit we all have to live. Basically we want 11 blokes on a Saturday at 3pm (ha!) to live our dreams through vicariously for 90 mins and we dont really give a shit where they come from or how much money it costs. Trouble is somebody does have to worry about this stuff.

Which leads me to this and, once again the question of expectation. Not just for our club but football in general. I dont know whether its our jaded eyes or the supposed glimmer/hype of the SKYShip but week in week out league football throughout the land is/was and pretty much always will be made up mainly of pretty ordinary games punctauted by the odd abberation and the odd flashes of inspiration.

Clearly, there is a balance to be struck but I feel Reading have gone too far in the direction of caution and I would like to see them roll the dice occassionally. On balance, I would rather have lived through Portsmouth last four years than ours as, simply, it would have been more exciting and stimulating with wonderful highs and desperate lows. That, to me, is what makes football worth watching and if you lose that factor that sets the adreneline flowing, it becomes just another passtime.

And this the crux for me. We've pretty much had the roller coaster over the last decade but we've had it "on the pitch" rather than off it. We've seen two unbelievable seasons followed by a relagation. Even if you factor in just the last 3 seasons, We've seen false dawns, great recoveries, long winning runs, long losing runs play off wins defeats, notable scalps of top teams on route to cup Q/F's etc etc etc. Yet people still seem to dismiss this all as being somehow (sorry Schards) dull and uninspiring.

Its all opinion of course and thats why I asked the question last week about what could/should we expect from a club of our size,stature & standing because a lot of the current criticism seems to be based on 2 absolutely stellar seasons that are highly unlikely to be repeated.

Excellent post.

[Svlad Cjelli]

As for the question of moral concerns. Where ,if anywhere would you draw the line?

Does JM's Toryboy reputation pose a problem for some?.
Would we be happy with a team made up of Bellamy's,King's Hughes',Barton's etc if it guaranteed success?


Birmingham won a cup, got relegated and are in limbo-land at the moment because there's a chance their owner may well be a money launderer amongst other things.

Does any of this really matter?

More to some, less to others. It's a personal thing.

For one, I'd walk away from the club if it came under the control of someone I had major moral issues with.

But although I personally don't agree with SJM's politics and some of his specific views on things I can't really fault his morality.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Administration seems to mean bugger all. Protecting yourself against it is like, I dunno, getting on your knees and begging an imaginary wizard in the sky called Gregory for sh1t while taking a prehistoric fairy story literally and blowing up other dudes who think the wizard’s name isn’t Gregory, just so like, when you die you don’t get burned and stabbed by his evil brother.

And who exactly is mental enough to do that? And where is my f///king Mitre?

[Svlad Cjelli]

Administration seems to mean bugger all. Protecting yourself against it is like, I dunno, getting on your knees and begging an imaginary wizard in the sky called Gregory for sh1t while taking a prehistoric fairy story literally and blowing up other dudes who think the wizard’s name isn’t Gregory, just so like, when you die you don’t get burned and stabbed by his evil brother.

And who exactly is mental enough to do that? And where is my f///king Mitre?

There goes what was previously a very sensible, rational and well-argued thread.

[Focher]

[facaldaqui]

Administration's been disastrous for Plymouth.

The question is whether you think bankruptcy is a worthwhile price to pay for the brief thrill of having a spree on money that doesn't belong to you. We could all max out a load of credit cards and live like kings for a bit, before the grim days of living on a shoestring begin. Some might say it's worth it just to live like someone wealthier for once in your life. That would not suit me and it wouldn't suit me if some wide boys took Reading over and took us into cloud cuckoo land for a couple of seasons before leaving us neutered, like Pompey. Administration is not only a bad thing for the fact that it means the sterile and depressing spectacle of watching a team that's been deducted points, but because the soul of the club is gutted as loyal staff go unpaid and then are sacked.