Madejski comments on club ownership

[Reading4eva]

How can anyone say "maybe the boom years are over I wouldn't mind being relegated to League One". Are you having a Fcuking laugh! Crawley away, Fleetwood at Home, AFC Wimbledon on Boxing Day... Oh that sounds great!

I would support Reading whatever, but we want to move forwards. Personally I think our real position in football is around where we are now. If we are above, we are doing well. But we shouldn't be scraping our pound coins together at the bottom of this league

[floyd__streete]

Not much new in there.

Fans divided: One bunch clapping away at hero JM back in the chair. Other bunch thinking a bit more about it, realising we aren't really going to go anywhere but backwards until someone else comes in.

And of course, the return of Madge means we have lots more complete silence to look forward to.

One minute we were on the verge of being bought by 3 different parties, fighting over each other. Next minute... let me consult John's update here... yup, we... don't.

It's great being kept abreast.

Yep, absolute silence from the club and riddles spoken by Madejski, a man who sounds increasingly like he can't get through a single day without consulting his good friend Jack Daniels.

[Uke]

How can anyone say "maybe the boom years are over I wouldn't mind being relegated to League One". Are you having a Fcuking laugh! Crawley away, Fleetwood at Home, AFC Wimbledon on Boxing Day... Oh that sounds great!

I would support Reading whatever, but we want to move forwards. Personally I think our real position in football is around where we are now. If we are above, we are doing well. But we shouldn't be scraping our pound coins together at the bottom of this league

I've enjoyed the boom years, and would love thinks to stay as they are, but the cash ain't there. As usual fans want to have success on the back of someone else's pockets.

Also note I didn't say a reset to the D1/D2 which is where we used to be - so we have still moved on!

[Victor Meldrew]

Adie doing an interview with Adkins on South Today tomorrow evening and from the trailer it gave the impression that Anton is still involved.

[Royal Rother]

better than the alternative

personally i have no great problem with living within our means, going up occasionally, and selling our best players to fill gaps. thats what little clubs must do.and its what we've always done.

bovvered

Agreed, but this is a very different SJM to that of a few years ago. He can't afford to run the club long-term, and he can't afford to loan us money at generous interest repayment rates, so the club has to pay for itself - and that is near impossible, let alone maintaining Championship status. They'll have to be massive changes this summer, and then for every summer thereafter we'll have to sell at least two players; more if not for big fees, just to survive. Whilst the clubs future is what matters most, if we have to live like that under SJM for more than a couple of seasons, we will be fighting off relegation to League One. The importance of finding a new owner with deeper pockets than SJM really can't be underestimated.

Why does a club HAVE to spend more money than it has, thus getting itself into more debt, in order to be successful?

Oh sure, there'll be one or two clubs along the way who make it work but basically that's the game of long-term losers.

£20m to £30m debt is quite enough for a club the size of Reading to carry. Why crave something that only financial madness could fund?

If the Academy produces more and more good players (we're on a good run in that arena at the moment) there is no reason for the club to ever go broke, which is far more important than satisfying the cravings of a bunch of impatient supporters I'd have thought.

When we see the likes of Obita and Taylor force their way into the 1st team, they are probably taking the place of more senior pros who earn 5 to 10 times as much in wages. That's a model that has a long term future which is why the £10m investment in the Academy over a number of years is a far far better decision than buying a couple of players (supposedly) with the pedigree and experience to help the promotion push. Just look at basket case club QPR...