Failure to buy a striker

[FiNeRaIn]

No, you need to see there is an incredibly large gulf between what they promise and what they deliver and that gulf matches the size in the difference beteen investing sensibly and taking risks. There is a mid way but the apologists for Madejski refuse to recognise that.

Equally, few supporters demand instant results. What they want to see is signs of moving forward and there are very few of those as each year the club's brilliant business managers stumble across another black hole that has to be plugged by the sale of the talent the manager was hoping to build on.

As for no one at the club considering us massive - what short memories you and Howe have. Have you really forgotten all the bull we were fed about the next Arsenal!

actually- the only promises JM made to me were delivered, in full, and then some
LOL at you taking risks with JMs money. risk your own why dont you
i

I don't want him to take risks with JM's money, I want the risks to be taken with the clubs money, especially the 7 mill for sig. Thanks.

[prostak]

and we are getting BETTE

Hopefully this signing will be the wind beneath our wings, then.

Maybe become ruthless people too.

Don't worry - this no frills policy won't be forever. Soon we'll have that old feeling back, once a new owner with outrageous fortune comes in to work some hocus pocus. As an exile, I have to call this from a distance, but perfect isn't easy and we just have to shake the sense of being jinxed!

I'll stop now. Even though this is my favorite waste of time.

[Sarah Star]

I don't want him to take risks with JM's money, I want the risks to be taken with the clubs money, especially the 7 mill for sig. Thanks.

There may be some money left for transfers, but to get what you want, ultimately you'd have to either:

a: make cuts elsewhere
or b: spend beyond your means
?
which would you choose

[Millsy]

I don't want him to take risks with JM's money, I want the risks to be taken with the clubs money, especially the 7 mill for sig. Thanks.

There may be some money left for transfers, but to get what you want, ultimately you'd have to either:

a: make cuts elsewhere
or b: spend beyond your means
?
which would you choose

JM ategorically said he wasn't expecting the sale of Sig, and didn't want it but pretty much had no choice. We may well have had debts (like almost every other club) but he didn't say he was desperate to get money from somewhere to cover those debts. He said it wa unwanted and unexpected.

So we are 7mill + his wages better off, totally unexpectedly, like a lottery windfall. End of.

Bearing in mind our urgent need for a striker, not to spend it (or just some of it for godsakes!) on a striker come January should in my view lead to demonstrations against the chairman's continued role at this club. Apologies in advance to the Rectum Crew.

HOWEVER we have to be reasonable and get the right striker for us, as has been rightly mentioned and not just anyone.

BUT having said that, if we can get a midfielder here for 2 months, I really don't see the harm in getting any half-decent striker here for only 2 months until January when we can actually *buy* someone with our unwanted unexpected lottery windfall of 7million. AND to be fair the striker we're looking for is a different type of player to what we have anyway so it's not a case of looking for the "right" striker who's "a lot better" than what we have, but simply filling an obvious hole of a target man to give us a further option. We have two strikers (Hunt and Church, or as Snowball rightly says possibly three if you include Bignall) who do a similar job and that's good enough. It's the Rasiak hole we need covering and to be fair, if Rasiak would be good enough to fill that hole (and he certainly was!) then it can't be *that* hard to fill it surely.

This is such a no brainer thread but sadly a much needed one.

[Ian Royal]

Before we sold Sig we reported we had something like a £4m deficit in our budget.

After we sold Sig you could consider that we had maybe a £3m credit this year. But we spent some of that bringing in a couple of players and that leaves no account for next year.

Seeing as Sig's wages are rather unlikely to have been £4m a year, I'd suggest that we do need to consider ongoing costs for the future years, otherwise we have to flog another £4m worth of players next season or make additional cost cuttings.

It's not like our income has just increased, that was a one off payment. Or more likely it's a payment staged over several seasons, in which case we didn't actually get £7m yet. Not that I recall an official figure being given.

So in summary, only looking at it in the most fleeting and simplistic way, and by taking one comment and ignoring all others, could you consider that we received a £7m bonus which we could just spend and still be fine financially.

[Terminal Boardom]

:lol: The club often talks about ambition, but that doesn't have to mean it wants to get instant results by taking risks, and certainly doesn't mean anyone at the club considers us massive.

You need to get a sense of perspective and look through your prejudice.

Sadly, and disturbingly, I find myself agreeing with Royalee. The utter clap-trap that SJM peddles is simply laughable. In order to push for honours you need to be competitive. You need to be seen to be a club that wants to move upwards. You ned to be seen to be progressive in order that the good players will want to come to the club. SJM sees his priorities lie elsewhere and is not prepared to invest in the football club anymore. That is his decision. The people who buy the season tickets are the ones that have been duped.

[Ian Royal]

No one has been duped by the club at all. SJM has always been very open about wanting to make RFC self sustainable and it's been quite clear for literally years that he wasn't going to pump more and more of his money into the club to make it more competitive.

So if you've been duped, it's been by yourself.

If you think that talking about an ambition to become a stable Premier League club and get promoted is the same thing as SJM investing more and more of his personal fortune and that we'll be pushing hard to do it now then frankly I think you're an idiot.

We're playing the percentages game. We'll keep working to stay at this level until good solid management and luck combine to give us a good chance at promotion. Hang around the edges of the play offs long enough and you'll have a good season and go up.

It worked before, there's no reason to think it won't work again. But it's the long game.

[Terminal Boardom]

No one has been duped by the club at all. SJM has always been very open about wanting to make RFC self sustainable and it's been quite clear for literally years that he wasn't going to pump more and more of his money into the club to make it more competitive.

So if you've been duped, it's been by yourself.

If you think that talking about an ambition to become a stable Premier League club and get promoted is the same thing as SJM investing more and more of his personal fortune and that we'll be pushing hard to do it now then frankly I think you're an idiot.

We're playing the percentages game. We'll keep working to stay at this level until good solid management and luck combine to give us a good chance at promotion. Hang around the edges of the play offs long enough and you'll have a good season and go up.

It worked before, there's no reason to think it won't work again. But it's the long game.

How many times does SJM open his mouth and talk bullshit? "I am as determined as ever to get into the Premier League" is his usual mantra. This is where customers have been mugged.

Reading to become a stable PL club? Don't insult me with that! All I care for is for the club to be challenging with a realistic chance of promotion and playing fast flowing, attractive football. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

How many times has SJM expressed his desire to sell? I just wish that he would.

[Ian Royal]

Where does he say he wants to do it now, by bankrolling us? Nowhere.

You're mugging yourself.

[Terminal Boardom]

He says it at the start of every season so mugs will part with their money. This increases the level of expectation amongst the customers which results with derision on forums like this when the club struggles.

IF we had a quality striker, then the situation would be a whole lot better. But talk of Gudjohnsson was way off the mark. No way could we afford him.

More of a worry is the process that the manager has to go through to try and get money out of the club. According to SSC, it is a 2-3 month process and by the time the money becomes available, the window has slammed shut.

[Ian Royal]

And if you take it to literally mean we're going to try and buy our way to promotion each season then you are quite frankly stupid. You are mugging yourself.

I have several million US dollars from a Libyan civil servant I need to move around the country. Could you perhaps give me your bank details as mine is being watched by interpol? I'll give you a 50-50 cut.

[Terminal Boardom]

Where have I suggested that we buy promotion every year? In football, and in business generally, if you stand still, you end up going backwards. The business that do not invest in the workforce head in one direction and one direction only. If this is a stupid, ignorant, or blinkered view then sobeit. If you get your kicks out of cloth cutting that is entirely your affair. But the longer that we stand still, the further back that we will slip.

[Ian Royal]

Well I'll take it seeing as our standing still and slipping backward has given us the most successful time of our existance and we are still quite definitely in a position to keep hanging around the play offs waiting for that one really good season to click into place and take us up.

[Terminal Boardom]

You really do talk some complete and utter nonsense! Since we were promoted to this level in 2002, there was a steady improvement in the squad in general. The final pieces in the jigsaw resulted in 2005/06. Since then, there has been a fire sale which shows no sign of abating. Don't believe me? Where will Kebe and MacAnuff be playing next season? I predict more sales and minimal investment to appease the masses but there is no way that we are anywhere near good enough for PL football. If we were to go up with this squad, we would end up with fewer points than Derby did in 07/08.

I expect us to be nearer the bottom than the top for the seasons to come.

[Ian Royal]

And I predict that on average over the next 10 years we'll finish closer to the top than the bottom.

Lets see who's right shall we...

[howser]

Madejski, as he said a couple of years ago is happy at this level for the time being, the Premiership was far too much for what he was prepared to go to. He has achieved his goal, nationally known and he got his Knighthood, he is a man that lauds the fame that taking us into the Prem gave him, just remember the amount of times he would appear on the pitch, Radio and TV during those times, not so often now.

Now the football club has settled all his needs he is happy to rumble along in the top half of the Championship, pre season come out with the usual garb, determined to get us back into the Premiership, there is money available etc.............we go through transfer windows, loan signing windows etc.. and as with this lates loan window, everyone for go sake can see we need someone to put the ball in the net, but yet again nothing is done to solve that problem.

In relation to the £7m we got for Sigs, then thank god we did otherwise, with obviously no funds available to bring in a goalscore, there can be no other reason, can there ?? we would be in dire straights now

[andrew1957]

Money in Sir John's bank account>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>than a goal scoring striker


With a bit of luck he will also sell Kebe for £5M in January and we can all admire his bank account even more in the second half of the season.

[Millsy]

WE

NEED

A

STRIKER

URGENTLY

[Sarah Star]

Just like a lot of other clubs, unfortunately.

[brendywendy]

Before we sold Sig we reported we had something like a £4m deficit in our budget.

After we sold Sig you could consider that we had maybe a £3m credit this year. But we spent some of that bringing in a couple of players and that leaves no account for next year.

Seeing as Sig's wages are rather unlikely to have been £4m a year, I'd suggest that we do need to consider ongoing costs for the future years, otherwise we have to flog another £4m worth of players next season or make additional cost cuttings.

It's not like our income has just increased, that was a one off payment. Or more likely it's a payment staged over several seasons, in which case we didn't actually get £7m yet. Not that I recall an official figure being given.

So in summary, only looking at it in the most fleeting and simplistic way, and by taking one comment and ignoring all others, could you consider that we received a £7m bonus which we could just spend and still be fine financially.

glad someone does their accounts using both columns, not just the incoming one.