Finances

[Greatwesternline]

Esteves and Semedo and Gibson probably all command high salaries too, Estevez and Semedoe may have had loan fees.

[Millsy]

Average weekly wage of £17k seems terrifying to me.

With so many young ones on presumably not very much, and possibly even Richards and Olise not being on enormous amounts yet, it must mean we have a fair few players on astronomical bunce.

I hope it's mean not median!

[Greatwesternline]

wages

Very high

Moore lots
Swift lots
Aluko lots
Baldock lots

High
Joao signed for large money
Puskas signed for large money with lots of suitors
Ejaria (signed from liverpool, probably comes with high salary demads
Cabral (been here a few years from an era when people got paid a lot
Meite (signed a long time ago from PSG)

Not high
Anyone coming through the academy

[WestYorksRoyal]

Is any player in our squad worth more than £15k p/w? I'd try to make that a ceiling, and if a better resourced club wants to pay them more money then they're welcome to if they can afford a fair transfer fee.

Some websites say the average Championship wage is c. £8.5k, others say £25.5k which is quite a disparity! My guess is the lower figure is the median, with the higher being the mean skewed by recently relegated clubs. On that basis, putting top earners on £15k can definitely make you competitive.

I think we could have attracted the likes of Moore and Swift at the respective stages of their career with those sorts of wages. I guess when players improve while at the club you may occasionally be able to justify bigger wages for them, but this should be the exception to the rule.

[Hendo]

Is any player in our squad worth more than £15k p/w?

I think Joao, Swift and Moore would be worth £15k/week tbh. Especially if they're all playing on the regs and at the top of their game.

[Elm Park Kid]

People can't have it both ways though - you move to a low salary model and the chances that you are competitive in the league fall dramatically. It's certainly not impossible - there are examples of clubs that have done well on a reasonable budget - but it is essentially a gamble. It's like buying cheap shares that could balloon in prices but will more likely than not become worthless. There are no guaranteed 'bargains' - no way of knowing for sure that a team put together of players that haven't been successful at our level before will be in the future. A canny management can improve the odds, but not by that much.

I know there's a few on here that believe that everyone involved in football management are clueless and that there are 'obvious' ways of building a successful team on the cheap. But they're just deluded to how difficult this all is - spending vast amounts of money over a few seasons is a legitimate tactic that has proven success for many clubs, but there's also the chance that you don't get promoted and then end up looking like a basket case. That's not a mistake, it's not being irresponsible or 'stupid' - it's a calculated gamble.

I would rather we balanced the books and avoided signing high-wage players. But I acknowledge that could mean we a Championship - League One yo-yo clubs. In terms of size, Reading should definitely be a Championship team; but when you exist in a league where so many clubs are either receiving parachute payments or rolling the dice with owners money, your size is no longer than relevant.

[tidus_mi2]

I don't think we can ever scale our wages back to even a break even level without getting relegated to League One, what I think we should be doing is scaling back our wage budget, which to be fair I think we're already doing and then selling off high value players if the right bid comes in, this is the part we definitely haven't been doing.

Essentially it's the Brentford model except instead of being 100% moneyball, it would also involve integrated youth players from our academy.

[Orion1871]

https://m.dw.com/en/chinas-communist-party-forcing-investors-to-pull-money-out-of-european-football/a-57171818

Finances could be about to become a whole lot more complicated.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Is it fair to say FFP has failed then, if teams trying to break even are likely to get relegated? Basically there needs to be a way to bring the market for players back under control, and that is nigh on impossible when the resources in the PL are so great that clubs will bet the house trying to get there.

Maybe the answer is fairer distribution of broadcasting revenue through the football pyramid

[Millsy]

Yeah seems like FFP just widens the gap. If you've already ploughed money in and have bought success (think back to us playing Man City at Elm Park - they were shite) then you're sorted. For the rest of us, forget it.

[Stranded]

https://m.dw.com/en/chinas-communist-party-forcing-investors-to-pull-money-out-of-european-football/a-57171818

Finances could be about to become a whole lot more complicated.

Is a lot of the money coming from Dai Xu Lai who is also a British national? Would likely mean we can skirt round any Chinese investment ban.

Stopped caring about football finances a long time ago, they make no sense and we are in the same position as 75% of clubs. Rich owner pulls the financial plug, we're done unless someone buys us.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

PL is to much of a honey pot. It encourages teams to over spend and gamble.
I feel Reading kind of deserve punishment for the circumstances. We haven't learnt from being burned by stupid contracts and the transfer policy of not selling players and spend everything we can on the now and gamble the future on the league.

But FFP is unfit as you can completely ignore the rules and carry on for most of the season knowing you are going to get fined or points deduction. But if you are in autos - who cares FFP dont mean squat in the Prem. And points deduction wont be till next season but if you go up via play offs FFP cant touch you.

[WestYorksRoyal]

https://m.dw.com/en/chinas-communist-party-forcing-investors-to-pull-money-out-of-european-football/a-57171818

Finances could be about to become a whole lot more complicated.

Is a lot of the money coming from Dai Xu Lai who is also a British national? Would likely mean we can skirt round any Chinese investment ban.

Stopped caring about football finances a long time ago, they make no sense and we are in the same position as 75% of clubs. Rich owner pulls the financial plug, we're done unless someone buys us.

If confronted with a choice of watching us go the same way as Bury or buying us back, what do we think SJM would do? He transformed us, surely he wouldn't let us go to the wall?

[Stranded]

https://m.dw.com/en/chinas-communist-party-forcing-investors-to-pull-money-out-of-european-football/a-57171818

Finances could be about to become a whole lot more complicated.

Is a lot of the money coming from Dai Xu Lai who is also a British national? Would likely mean we can skirt round any Chinese investment ban.

Stopped caring about football finances a long time ago, they make no sense and we are in the same position as 75% of clubs. Rich owner pulls the financial plug, we're done unless someone buys us.

If confronted with a choice of watching us go the same way as Bury or buying us back, what do we think SJM would do? He transformed us, surely he wouldn't let us go to the wall?

He couldn't afford it anymore. He's retired and enjoying himself too,that ship has sailed.

[Snowflake Royal]

Esteves and Semedo and Gibson probably all command high salaries too, Estevez and Semedoe may have had loan fees.

I doubt we're paying them a lot in salary even if their wage from their home club is huge.

[Snowflake Royal]

Is any player in our squad worth more than £15k p/w?

I think Joao, Swift and Moore would be worth £15k/week tbh. Especially if they're all playing on the regs and at the top of their game.

If we're talking worth, in terms of valuable contribution I'd put Morrison ahead of at least 2 of those. Laurent and Rino right up there. Meite. Olise.

[Millsy]

What about if we were to merge with Oxford and have a massive Thames Valley team?

[Snowflake Royal]

People can't have it both ways though - you move to a low salary model and the chances that you are competitive in the league fall dramatically. It's certainly not impossible - there are examples of clubs that have done well on a reasonable budget - but it is essentially a gamble. It's like buying cheap shares that could balloon in prices but will more likely than not become worthless. There are no guaranteed 'bargains' - no way of knowing for sure that a team put together of players that haven't been successful at our level before will be in the future. A canny management can improve the odds, but not by that much.

I know there's a few on here that believe that everyone involved in football management are clueless and that there are 'obvious' ways of building a successful team on the cheap. But they're just deluded to how difficult this all is - spending vast amounts of money over a few seasons is a legitimate tactic that has proven success for many clubs, but there's also the chance that you don't get promoted and then end up looking like a basket case. That's not a mistake, it's not being irresponsible or 'stupid' - it's a calculated gamble.

I would rather we balanced the books and avoided signing high-wage players. But I acknowledge that could mean we a Championship - League One yo-yo clubs. In terms of size, Reading should definitely be a Championship team; but when you exist in a league where so many clubs are either receiving parachute payments or rolling the dice with owners money, your size is no longer than relevant.

It's pretty simple not to sign bang average players on £25k a week for three / four years for example.

Or not to refuse to sell a decent player for £8m and then give him a three year contract on £30k a week when your finances are already bolloxed.

You look at the signings of Pogrebnyak, Drenthe, Bacuna, McShane, Baldock, Aluko etc and it's not hard to see they were serial failures, vastly over priced or on a steep decline due to age. And yet all got quite long quite high value contracts out of us.


Then you look at Laurent, McIntyre, Rinomhota, and Morrison and you can see how it should actually be done.

[Westwood52]

Is any player in our squad worth more than £15k p/w?

I think Joao, Swift and Moore would be worth £15k/week tbh. Especially if they're all playing on the regs and at the top of their game.

Somebody posted the players salaries on here a few weeks ago.I have no idea where they obtained the figures from.From memory Moore £35 k a week,Swift £25k a week ,Baldock £20k a week ,Alukho £14 k a week.Jao,Puskas,Ejaria and Rafa were I think on wages somewhere between Baldock and Alukho.
Prior to this I always understood Alukho was on very silly money.But this was fake news.Tom Hughes was on very poor money for a Championship pro footballer.I wouldn’t say he would be better off stacking supermarket shelves but for a short unreliable career it was very poor money.Osho before he left was offered £750 a week;which he said was not enough to pay his mortgage.Seems to be large differences in salary within the first team squad.Not sure how win/league position bonuses are calculated.Anybody think they know ?

[Westwood52]

Is any player in our squad worth more than £15k p/w?

I think Joao, Swift and Moore would be worth £15k/week tbh. Especially if they're all playing on the regs and at the top of their game.

Somebody posted the players salaries on here a few weeks ago.I have no idea where they obtained the figures from.From memory Moore £35 k a week,Swift £25k a week ,Baldock £20k a week ,Alukho £14 k a week.Jao,Puskas,Ejaria and Rafa were I think on wages somewhere between Baldock and Alukho.
Prior to this I always understood Alukho was on very silly money.But this was fake news.Tom Hughes was on very poor money for a Championship pro footballer.I wouldn’t say he would be better off stacking supermarket shelves but for a short unreliable career it was very poor money.Osho before he left was offered £750 a week;which he said was not enough to pay his mortgage.Seems to be large differences in salary within the first team squad.Not sure how win/league position bonuses are calculated.Anybody think they know ?

Holmes aargh !