Real Life!

[Svlad Cjelli]

In real life, as opposed to in Championship Manager, actual people are involved in transfers. People with hopes and aspirations.

The question that no-one from all of those screaming "lack of ambition" seems to have answered is whether it would be fair, possible or sensible to try to prevent Gylfi moving on. Here he is, offered a career changing opportunity with an up and coming, progressive club in what many believe is the best league in the world, with arguably the best coaching and youth development. If you were in that position, would you turn down the opportunity? It's not as if Gylfi is a local lad, brought up as a Reading supporter - Reading was a step on his career ladder and was always going to be.

So what options does the club have when the offer from Hoffenhiem comes in?

- Try and keep the offer from Gylfi? That's not the way Reading FC operates, but even if they did, the news is bound to come out sometime, and when it does both Gylfi and all the other players are massively pissed off that the club could do something like that. It's part of the "moral contract" between the club and the players that any offer above an agreed figure will be put to them.

- Raise his wages to try and keep him? Well, they could, but they'd never match even-Bundisliga wages, and even if they tried the wages of all the other players would inevitably have to rise at the same time, so that's option would undoubtedly result in financial disaster.

- Turn down the offer? - As the football agents say "If you try and keep my player here he'll be an unhappy player, and we all know how unhappy players play, don't you?" We leant when we turned down an offer for Nicky Shorey (even though it was a pathetic, derisory offer, well below the agreed offer figure for him) the effect on a player of not letting them move on.

And it's probably not about money, it's about challenge - Gylfi knows he could break his leg next week and never play again. Just why should a kid with his phenomenal potential possibly turn down such a great offer on the off-chance of promotion with us, and why should we try and stop him? Just how motivated would you be at work if the manager of a much bigger department offered you the job of a lifetime and your current boss said "No, you have to stay here."

So everyone at the club is sad, as no-one wanted him to leave - but under the circumstances the deal done is phenomenal. £6M in cash, up-front, is a superb figure in the current football market, even without all the later add-ons. It has safeguarded the short-term future of the club, more than filled the financial black-hole that resulted from relegation, and it gives the manager flexibility to make other required changes to the squad - just a pity there wasn't time to do it properly before the transfer window shut.

[under the tin]

Not sure how much of the discussions on here you've read, mate, but I think you've missed the point.
99.9% of Reading match attendees knew this lad was a special talent.
Quite frankly, he was too good for this club at this level, and his move away to a big club was as inevitable as night following day.
Most of the furore on here is about how the proceeds of that sale are being used.

[Man Friday]

...sounds good but, as people keep on saying, it all depends on the Club seeing the money and BM being able to use it after accounting for the so-called deficit (which I thought had already been taken care of by now, anyway) rather than it lining JM's pockets.

(written before the post above)

[Svlad Cjelli]

Lining his pockets? Are people seriously suggesting that?

Surely the whole point of the football club being self-sufficient and self-sustaining is that it's a completely separate business that stands on its own two feet. So no investment in also means no profit-taking out. That's an absolute given!

[nev monkey]

Lining his pockets? Are people seriously suggesting that?

Surely the whole point of the football club being self-sufficient and self-sustaining is that it's a completely separate business that stands on its own two feet. So no investment in also means no profit-taking out. That's an absolute given!

Absolutely right. There can surely be no question of any of the money being used to prop up his other failing businesses either. That would be immoral & no businessman with morals would do that.

[sheshnu]

... and there's no evidence of that happening. So no problem!

[rob the royal]

Not sure how much of the discussions on here you've read, mate, but I think you've missed the point.
99.9% of Reading match attendees knew this lad was a special talent.
Quite frankly, he was too good for this club at this level, and his move away to a big club was as inevitable as night following day.
Most of the furore on here is about how the proceeds of that sale are being used.

Yes, I think you'll find most people on here are agreed that:

Madejski no longer has any ambition in spite of whatever he may say.
The Sigurdsson sale was the right thing for the club considering the apparent lack of investment coming into the club.

[Terminal Boardom]

The frustrating element of Gylfi's move is that it was so close to the end of the window. As stated above, there are enough people out there who knew that he was set for bigger and better things. The same was often alluded to Mark McGhee when he was manager. We all knew that in time he would move up the managerial ladder. At least the Gylfi move was very well stage managed unlike the departure of McGhee.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Not sure how much of the discussions on here you've read, mate, but I think you've missed the point.
99.9% of Reading match attendees knew this lad was a special talent.
Quite frankly, he was too good for this club at this level, and his move away to a big club was as inevitable as night following day.
Most of the furore on here is about how the proceeds of that sale are being used.

Yes, I think you'll find most people on here are agreed that:

Madejski no longer has any ambition in spite of whatever he may say.
The Sigurdsson sale was the right thing for the club considering the apparent lack of investment coming into the club.

In which case I apologise.

I must confess I didn't read every page of the threads (I lost the will to live long before page 7) but a couple of common themes that seemed to be coming through were that we'd failed to stop Gylfi staying (because we "lack ambition"!) or that we'd forced him out so we could cash in. Both patently ridiculous, of course.

As it is, the majority of the money will go into keeping the club running this season - filling the projected financial shortfall of about £4 million, I believe. The rest will allow the manager more flexibility with loans etc, increasing the overall budget for the season.

So the answer to the perennial "where's the money gone" question is that same as it always is at every football club - it's gone into the players' pockets and onto car dealers and other purveyors of luxury items. £6 million in cash is, after all, considerably less than the committed expenditure on two players earning £20k a week on a 3-year contract.

[rob the royal]

I must confess I didn't read every page of the threads (I lost the will to live long before page 7) but a couple of common themes that seemed to be coming through were that we'd failed to stop Gylfi staying (because we "lack ambition"!) or that we'd forced him out so we could cash in. Both patently ridiculous, of course.

I think some of that is knee-jerk and venting. Not only has the club got no ambition any more (because it can't afford to) but the star player we loved to watch is gone - that's just rubbing salt in the wound.

As it is, the majority of the money will go into keeping the club running this season - filling the projected financial shortfall of about £4 million, I believe. The rest will allow the manager more flexibility with loans etc, increasing the overall budget for the season.

Some people seem to suggest the £4m was already covered by the other fees already received and reductions to the wage bill prior to Sigurdsson leaving. If that's the case it's more likely that it's going to be put towards whatever next season's shortfall is. Fair enough, but I wonder where we will end up if we constantly have to sell our best assets in order to keep the books balanced (let alone for filling any gaps in the squad). I won't stop supporting the club, but it would be a shame if Madejski had more money he could put in towards running costs and wasn't. I hope he is trying his best to find investment/sell the club.

The problem is there are few to no buyers out there, his valuation IMHO is probably higher than any of those few would want to pay anyway, and finally is it likely that he would be prepared to sell a stake in the club to another investor/investors? I and others think he would probably rather keep the whole thing to himself, also I imagine if he was lucky enough to find a new investor he would probably be asking SJM 'If I'm putting in X amount in to the club what are you going to be doing apart from saying you still 'support' the club and making 'the big decisions?'