TAKEOVER *NOT* CONFIMRED

[Greatwesternline]

Reading FC's annual report is interesting in this regard: Number of players = 39.

Number of "football management and coaching staff" = 74

Clubs needs mulitple coaches and managers for every one of their age groups.
They need scouts for scouting transfer targets.
They need scouts and analysts for who they are playing next week.
They need player liaison personnel.
They need sporting directors. They need guest speakers to entertain the executive boxes.
The FA need coaches and managers for all of their age groups.

A lot of this is also required in the women's game too, at each age group. Yes these jobs pay less well than being a footballer, but there are jobs galore in football, and being a former pro opens the doors to these in ways that is much easier than if you come up the hard way, i.e. through doing your badges without a football CV.

This is before you even factor in all the punditry required, including local journalism, not just MOTD and Sky Sports.

Honestly if you can't make a successful career in football having been a professional footballer, your heart probably isn't in it.

Problem is that there are so many ex-pros and relatively few other football jobs. I assume that 74 covers all age groups. Obviously this and the fact that these jobs are generally pretty enjoyable jobs means that the pay is pretty poor. Doubt the average academy coach is on much more than minimum wage

There are very few jobs in media that pay a decent whack

Whilst it’s probably right that an ex pro can find a football related job if they have other people skills (esp with younger people), it’s going to be a big step down wage wise from being a pro. Dunno about everyone else but if you told me in 4 years time I’m worth about 10% of what I am now I’d find that quite hard to come to terms with

I have faith you'd be ok with going from £500k a year to £50k a year.

It's not like it comes as a surprise...

If you know you will earn £500k for 5 years, then you have £2.5m of earnings with which to make a good fist of your life. Get a financial advisor, make plans. As i said, footballers happily give away 10% of their wages to an agent. They can afford to pay 1% of their managed assets to a financial advisor. They literally pay someone to manage their lives!

[Hound]

Problem is that there are so many ex-pros and relatively few other football jobs. I assume that 74 covers all age groups. Obviously this and the fact that these jobs are generally pretty enjoyable jobs means that the pay is pretty poor. Doubt the average academy coach is on much more than minimum wage

There are very few jobs in media that pay a decent whack

Whilst it’s probably right that an ex pro can find a football related job if they have other people skills (esp with younger people), it’s going to be a big step down wage wise from being a pro. Dunno about everyone else but if you told me in 4 years time I’m worth about 10% of what I am now I’d find that quite hard to come to terms with

I have faith you'd be ok with going from £500k a year to £50k a year.

It's not like it comes as a surprise...

If you know you will earn £500k for 5 years, then you have £2.5m of earnings with which to make a good fist of your life. Get a financial advisor, make plans. As i said, footballers happily give away 10% of their wages to an agent. They can afford to pay 1% of their managed assets to a financial advisor. They literally pay someone to manage their lives!

Yeah granted they should prepare. But also guess there’s so much uncertainty about when that end will come it also makes it difficult. It might be 22 or it might be 38

Don’t think many of them will earn 500k outside of champ and even then half of that is nabbed in tax. Yes still a decent amount but not going to set you up for a comfortable living for life

I don’t feel sorry for them, it’s a cracking lifestyle on the whole and most of us would have loved to have done it. But doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come with a lot of difficulties when you retire. Don’t think there are many careers where your peak earning potential comes so early in life

[Snowball]

It would stress me a bit, but some people on here are saying its worse for footballers than a nurse working in the NHS, which is patent nonsense.

Has anyone literally said the bit in bold? - may have missed it but that is naturally nonsense. But looking at the players we have on our books at the moment, if the club does go pop they will fit in to a number of categories.

Yes, Snowball, top of page 141

Context is everything

(A) I am not talking about ALL footballers but READING footballers, who

Live every day with massive uncertainty

Cannot be 100% sure per month of getting paid

Cannot give notice

Have no redundancy pay

NURSES

Do not expect the NHS to disappear at the stroke if a pen

DO expect to get paid without fail every month

Get redundancy pay

Can give notice and walk away

[jd82]

Won't somebody please think of the footballers!

[Arnie_Pie]

Howe thinks deal may be concluded in May after the season ends - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68626876

Just hope we are still in L1.

[Hound]

Reading FC's annual report is interesting in this regard: Number of players = 39.

Number of "football management and coaching staff" = 74

Clubs needs mulitple coaches and managers for every one of their age groups.
They need scouts for scouting transfer targets.
They need scouts and analysts for who they are playing next week.
They need player liaison personnel.
They need sporting directors. They need guest speakers to entertain the executive boxes.
The FA need coaches and managers for all of their age groups.

A lot of this is also required in the women's game too, at each age group. Yes these jobs pay less well than being a footballer, but there are jobs galore in football, and being a former pro opens the doors to these in ways that is much easier than if you come up the hard way, i.e. through doing your badges without a football CV.

This is before you even factor in all the punditry required, including local journalism, not just MOTD and Sky Sports.

Honestly if you can't make a successful career in football having been a professional footballer, your heart probably isn't in it.

Problem is that there are so many ex-pros and relatively few other football jobs. I assume that 74 covers all age groups. Obviously this and the fact that these jobs are generally pretty enjoyable jobs means that the pay is pretty poor. Doubt the average academy coach is on much more than minimum wage

There are very few jobs in media that pay a decent whack

Whilst it’s probably right that an ex pro can find a football related job if they have other people skills (esp with younger people), it’s going to be a big step down wage wise from being a pro. Dunno about everyone else but if you told me in 4 years time I’m worth about 10% of what I am now I’d find that quite hard to come to terms with

I have faith you'd be ok with going from £500k a year to £50k a year.

150k to 15 less so. And that’s the area we’re talking about with us though

But even 500 to 50 is a huge change in lifestyle and expectation

[Hound]

Howe thinks deal may be concluded in May after the season ends - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68626876

Just hope we are still in L1.

It does kind of feel that we haven’t really gone anywhere much in the last few months despite all the excitement over the weekend

Were still waiting for dai to accept an offer as we have been all season

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Talk Reading advising exclusivity will not happen until end of month but sponsorship deals are in place to cover the March shortfall

[Pepe the Horseman]

From the Telegraph

Reading are aiming to enter exclusivity talks by the end of the month with Dai Yongge considering two serious offers, one of which is Genevra Associates.

Sponsorship deals should cover March’s £1 million shortfall so a points deduction is unlikely.

What do we know about Genevra?

[WestYorksRoyal]

John Percy update. Semi reliable but fell for Storey's bullshit.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... rs-offers/

If true, shortfall issues resolve for March. Exclusivity targeted by the end of the month (i.e., next week). Genevra are back.

Gotta be honest, I couldn't give a shit who owns us next season so long as it's not Dai Yongge. Will happily take Genevra.

[Forbury Lion]

Won't somebody please think of the footballers!

If you put it into context

If one of us earns more than a nurse we are likely to live a more expensive lifestyle than a nurse - have a bigger mortgage, have more kids, have a more expensive car on lease, that sort of thing. This is a natural thing, we are living within our means and all is good, same as footballers.
If our employer starts paying us late and making cut backs, we have the option to look for an alternative role elsewhere which offers more security.

Footballers earn more money than many of us, but they still need to pay the rent/mortgage etc. Yes, arguably they should plan for emergency situations like this but if you are working for an employer, the bare minimum that employer should do is pay you the agreed wages on the agreed date each month. They can't say enough is enough, I'm handing my notice in and will go work for Wycombe, Although I reckon a smart player/agent would build that into their next contract as a early release trigger - Fail to pay me my full wages on time x number of times and I have the option to terminate this contract and leave on a free transfer.

Nurses may be underpaid, but the NHS to the best of my knowledge doesn't pay them late and isn't going to cease to exist, so from that perspective the Nurses have some security. They too have the option to seek employment elsewhere.

[Hound]

Massive well done to the commercial team btw if they’ve made up a 1m shortfall so quickly

Be interesting to see what’s been dreamed up

[Forbury Lion]

Massive well done to the commercial team btw if they’ve made up a 1m shortfall so quickly

Be interesting to see what’s been dreamed up

Might have been a good night at the casino for Dai and he paid it into the wrong bank account?

[WestYorksRoyal]

Massive well done to the commercial team btw if they’ve made up a 1m shortfall so quickly

Be interesting to see what’s been dreamed up

SCL?

[RG30]

Massive well done to the commercial team btw if they’ve made up a 1m shortfall so quickly

Be interesting to see what’s been dreamed up

Heard last weekend a shirt sleeve sponsorship deal is definitely one of those.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Massive well done to the commercial team btw if they’ve made up a 1m shortfall so quickly

Be interesting to see what’s been dreamed up

Heard last weekend a shirt sleeve sponsorship deal is definitely one of those.

Must be a crossover between a commercial and emotional decision. Can't imagine putting your name on Reading FC's shirt sleeve is worth much.

[Stranded]

John Percy update. Semi reliable but fell for Storey's bullshit.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... rs-offers/

If true, shortfall issues resolve for March. Exclusivity targeted by the end of the month (i.e., next week). Genevra are back.

Gotta be honest, I couldn't give a shit who owns us next season so long as it's not Dai Yongge. Will happily take Genevra.

As short term as it may be, I think we are mostly all on the same page - if whatever group comes in passes the low bar tests and then just keeps us ticking over and invests, wisely, in the team/club then fine. The alternative doesn't really bare thinking about.

[WestYorksRoyal]

John Percy update. Semi reliable but fell for Storey's bullshit.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... rs-offers/

If true, shortfall issues resolve for March. Exclusivity targeted by the end of the month (i.e., next week). Genevra are back.

Gotta be honest, I couldn't give a shit who owns us next season so long as it's not Dai Yongge. Will happily take Genevra.

As short term as it may be, I think we are mostly all on the same page - if whatever group comes in passes the low bar tests and then just keeps us ticking over and invests, wisely, in the team/club then fine. The alternative doesn't really bare thinking about.

If you speak to Wigan fans, Al Hammad started well there. Spoke about investing in youth, won promotion, appointed Maloney. Then the guy providing the money turned the tap off. Obviously he shares the blame, he agreed to front their operation and made himself chairman. But it doesn't guarantee he'll fail with us. And at least when it went tits up, they sold up quickly unlike Dai who continues to cling on.

The problem with all these private equity and hedge funds is knowing who is providing the money. I imagine the EFL checks take time compared to someone like Mike Ashley.

[Stranded]

John Percy update. Semi reliable but fell for Storey's bullshit.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... rs-offers/

If true, shortfall issues resolve for March. Exclusivity targeted by the end of the month (i.e., next week). Genevra are back.

Gotta be honest, I couldn't give a shit who owns us next season so long as it's not Dai Yongge. Will happily take Genevra.

As short term as it may be, I think we are mostly all on the same page - if whatever group comes in passes the low bar tests and then just keeps us ticking over and invests, wisely, in the team/club then fine. The alternative doesn't really bare thinking about.

If you speak to Wigan fans, Al Hammad started well there. Spoke about investing in youth, won promotion, appointed Maloney. Then the guy providing the money turned the tap off. Obviously he shares the blame, he agreed to front their operation and made himself chairman. But it doesn't guarantee he'll fail with us. And at least when it went tits up, they sold up quickly unlike Dai who continues to cling on.

The problem with all these private equity and hedge funds is knowing who is providing the money. I imagine the EFL checks take time compared to someone like Mike Ashley.

I think though, Howe has put a step in place that means every bidder has to essentially pass the EFL Checks with him first before he puts them anywhere near the EFL - so we can hope (and it is only hope) that as soon as exclusivity is announced the actual checks may not be much more that reviewing the paperwork from Howe.

This is where having Howe involved is a bonus as he knows the EFL processes inside out.

[WestYorksRoyal]

As short term as it may be, I think we are mostly all on the same page - if whatever group comes in passes the low bar tests and then just keeps us ticking over and invests, wisely, in the team/club then fine. The alternative doesn't really bare thinking about.

If you speak to Wigan fans, Al Hammad started well there. Spoke about investing in youth, won promotion, appointed Maloney. Then the guy providing the money turned the tap off. Obviously he shares the blame, he agreed to front their operation and made himself chairman. But it doesn't guarantee he'll fail with us. And at least when it went tits up, they sold up quickly unlike Dai who continues to cling on.

The problem with all these private equity and hedge funds is knowing who is providing the money. I imagine the EFL checks take time compared to someone like Mike Ashley.

I think though, Howe has put a step in place that means every bidder has to essentially pass the EFL Checks with him first before he puts them anywhere near the EFL - so we can hope (and it is only hope) that as soon as exclusivity is announced the actual checks may not be much more that reviewing the paperwork from Howe.

This is where having Howe involved is a bonus as he knows the EFL processes inside out.

The EFL 2 years' funding requirement which I only learnt through Howe's interview makes me feel better that we'll have a couple of years stability at least. Plus the soft transfer embargo stops them spunking it all up the wall on vanity signings.