PURE SPECULATION - Nicola Cortese

[Cypry]

I've got absolutely no evidence for this, but the thought did cross my mind this morning that perhaps Cortese leaving Southampton could have something to do with us....?

He's not been happy at Southampton for a while, and is said to have tendered his resignation 3 months ago, but something has obviously caused things to reach a tipping point, and I just wonder if he got offered a new project to get his teeth into...?

I'd imagine that, if Anton and SJM both sell up to the Omanis (or anyone else for that matter) there'd be significant change in the management structure at the club, especially at the top. If I were buying a going concern and clearing out the existing management, I'd probably want somebody with a "safe pair of hands" at the top, and let's face it, Cortese has overseen the rise of Southampton to exactly where we aspire to be. He could be seen as the ideal CEO....

Cortese uprooted his family and settled them in Hampshire when he took the Southampton job, we're local enough for him to not have to uproot them again....


I'm not convinced Adkins would be too happy if this transpired, but the timings do seem a bit coincidental.....

[phil in cornwall]

Then he can sack Adkins again ....

[Super Kevin Bremner!]

But would he come to Reading for £75 a week?

[Isaac Hunt]

He's been linked with a move to one of the top Italian clubs.

Never coming here.

[Wycombe Royal]

Topics like this are why I love Hob Nob (I also like Hob Nobs, but we need a biscuit thread for that....)

[Cypry]

He's been linked with a move to one of the top Italian clubs.

Never coming here.

That was three or four years ago in 2009/10......he admitted he'd been approached.
Not heard anything more on Italian interest recently...

[maffff]

He's been linked with a move to one of the top Italian clubs.

Never coming here.

Top Clubs? AC Milan are 11th, the equivalent of Aston Villa....

[Hoop Blah]

He's been linked with a move to one of the top Italian clubs.

Never coming here.

Top Clubs? AC Milan are 11th, the equivalent of Aston Villa....

Are they bigger than Huddersfield though?

[YateleyRoyal]

Fergie left United a few months back, surely it's only a matter of time before he comes here

[BR2]

Good one Cypry-a nice change from the so-called ITK stuff that gets put on Hobnob which is no such thing.
As fans we dream that our club will make that big signing or develop the ground or take a League Cup or FA Cup seriously.
That is what fans do ,so why not conject as Cypry has without the dross and piss-take that inevitably follows?

I dreamed that Reading might, just might, one day reach the Premier League but having done so the club decided to make no serious attempt to stay there .The enormous effort has turned out to be rather pointless.
If however new owners did come in and were prepared to back an MD like Cortese we might see our club in the Premier League again.

Unfortunately I (and most of us I guess) can't see that happening because that is the professional way of going about things whereas our club (for better or for worse) has always been run in a very amateurish way and IMHO just got lucky twice with the temporary right mix of manager and players.
The same thing happened with other smaller clubs like Bradford and Swindon where, in both cases, it was that temporary mix of manager and players but Swansea have shown that it can happen again and be sustained with the right type of owner so let us hope that our new owners will have the foresight and will to appoint a Cortese, somebody with real ambition rather than just using the word "ambition" as a soundbite which has been the case with our club.

[loyalroyal4life]

another HNA classic

[Isaac Hunt]

He's been linked with a move to one of the top Italian clubs.

Never coming here.

Top Clubs? AC Milan are 11th, the equivalent of Aston Villa....

[peterroyal76]

He's been linked with a move to one of the top Italian clubs.

Never coming here.

Top Clubs? AC Milan are 11th, the equivalent of Aston Villa....

Are you seriously comparing Milan with Villa?

[Royal Rother]

Unfortunately....our club (for better or for worse) has always been run in a very amateurish way and IMHO just got lucky twice with the temporary right mix of manager and players.

That really is quite a classic even by your standards!

[Cypry]

Good one Cypry-a nice change from the so-called ITK stuff that gets put on Hobnob which is no such thing.
As fans we dream that our club will make that big signing or develop the ground or take a League Cup or FA Cup seriously.
That is what fans do ,so why not conject as Cypry has without the dross and piss-take that inevitably follows?

I dreamed that Reading might, just might, one day reach the Premier League but having done so the club decided to make no serious attempt to stay there .The enormous effort has turned out to be rather pointless.
If however new owners did come in and were prepared to back an MD like Cortese we might see our club in the Premier League again.

Unfortunately I (and most of us I guess) can't see that happening because that is the professional way of going about things whereas our club (for better or for worse) has always been run in a very amateurish way and IMHO just got lucky twice with the temporary right mix of manager and players.
The same thing happened with other smaller clubs like Bradford and Swindon where, in both cases, it was that temporary mix of manager and players but Swansea have shown that it can happen again and be sustained with the right type of owner so let us hope that our new owners will have the foresight and will to appoint a Cortese, somebody with real ambition rather than just using the word "ambition" as a soundbite which has been the case with our club.

Thanks, just think a few are underestimating the upheaval that's likely to take place with this takeover. Just because we've operated in a certain way in the past, in no way means that we'll continue to do so. A 100% buyout will see the back of the stabilising (tempered ambition) influence of SJM and probably the likes of Howe and the other directors. It's almost a certainty that the new owner himself will not be "hands on" in running the club, so somebody will need to come in, and the whole ethos of the club is likely to change....

One imagines that the new owners will harbour ambitions, they're hardly likely to make a multi million pound investment with the intention of floating around in the Championship for ever, and if it were me, I'd want a proven pair of hands looking after things for me. If someone like Cortese, with a track record of taking a club and establishing them in the Premier League, were available, it's an option that I'd certainly consider. CEO's with his experience, and success, aren't exactly commonplace....


I'm not saying for a minute that I think this is going to happen, but it does seem coincidental that he should leave Saints at this particular moment......I for one wouldn't be surprised if it did....

[Terminal Boardom]

I like the way that Swansea are being lauded as a good example of how a small town club can survive in the top flight. They were there back in the early 80s and it oxf*rd them back then. Look at the state that Bolton are in. Wigan won't be far behind either. The number of clubs that get to the top then drop down is awash with financial difficulties. Is getting to the Prem really that great? Why not stay as a solvent Championship club and flirt occasionally with promotion. Failing that, get promoted and don't break the bank which is what Blackpool did a couple of years back. Don't delude yourselves thinking that small town clubs can be successful at the top level. They may have a few good seasons but when relegation comes calling, you had better have a very sound and solid infrastructure in place to cope with it.

I would much prefer to see the club with a top class infrastructure from top to bottom. A youth system which churns out top quality youngsters not just for us but also to sell on to a big club for mega bucks.

[Cypry]

I like the way that Swansea are being lauded as a good example of how a small town club can survive in the top flight. They were there back in the early 80s and it oxf*rd them back then. Look at the state that Bolton are in. Wigan won't be far behind either. The number of clubs that get to the top then drop down is awash with financial difficulties. Is getting to the Prem really that great? Why not stay as a solvent Championship club and flirt occasionally with promotion. Failing that, get promoted and don't break the bank which is what Blackpool did a couple of years back. Don't delude yourselves thinking that small town clubs can be successful at the top level. They may have a few good seasons but when relegation comes calling, you had better have a very sound and solid infrastructure in place to cope with it.

I would much prefer to see the club with a top class infrastructure from top to bottom. A youth system which churns out top quality youngsters not just for us but also to sell on to a big club for mega bucks.

And I don't disagree, but there's no guarantee our new owners will think like that - they've almost certainly been sold the PL dream....

[MeMeMe]

This thread is a prime example of what we all want and the club needs... a oxf*rd good clearout at the top !

[BR2]

Unfortunately....our club (for better or for worse) has always been run in a very amateurish way and IMHO just got lucky twice with the temporary right mix of manager and players.

That really is quite a classic even by your standards!

It's what I feel.
So many things over the years have been done on an ad hoc basis with such little planning and only within the last 5 years or so has the club realised that the future had to be with a successful youth set-up. something that most clubs ,with the glaringly obvious example of Southampton, have done for so many years.

We also did not build a squad to stay in the Premier League, we cobbled a side together that was good enough to get promoted and then bad enough to get relegated.
I call that old-style true-blue amateurism with an owner deciding whether to buy or sell on a whim.

[phil in cornwall]

New owners will probably want Reading to play in red and change the name to Reading Lions.

You know it makes sense .....