RUMOUR - Sidwell to return to Reading

[comeonthebiscuitmen]

and as he was a bosman we get oxf*rd all.

lets hope marek recovers and becomes a box to box legend a la sidwell

[brendywendy]

The other annoying thing is fans who think they know EVERYTHING about their club, WR

No doubt he got a decent signing on fee and was on a good wage, for Chelsea the wage would have almost certainly been one of if not the lowest wage to anyone in their senior, and they are selling him for £5.5million.

Chelsea had a decent player for next to nothing, they've sold him for a very large fee. Happy Days.

Poor old Reading.

why poor old reading-we got to pay him shit wages for a couple of years extra-he played out his contract gave 100% and gave us an 8th place finish
at no point would anyone have offered us 5.5 million for him

[Alan Partridge]

The other annoying thing is fans who think they know EVERYTHING about their club, WR

No doubt he got a decent signing on fee and was on a good wage, for Chelsea the wage would have almost certainly been one of if not the lowest wage to anyone in their senior, and they are selling him for £5.5million.

Chelsea had a decent player for next to nothing, they've sold him for a very large fee. Happy Days.

Poor old Reading.

why poor old reading-we got to pay him shit wages for a couple of years extra-he played out his contract gave 100% and gave us an 8th place finish
at no point would anyone have offered us 5.5 million for him

Haven't Villa just done that? Even though he's hardly played in a year? IF Sidwell had been under contract and had a decent season here last term, why wouldn't they have bid the same amount?

[brendywendy]

no

[Wycombe Royal]

The other annoying thing is fans who think they know EVERYTHING about their club, WR

It might have been a sarcastic comment there AP, but I have never claimed to be in ITK about anything at RFC. But having a ex-professional footballer in the family does mean I know a little about how transfers, contracts, etc work.

Even on £25k per week at Chelsea that works out to £1.3m, lets say a signing on fee of £1m and a payoff of half his remaining contract of £2m, that totals up to £4.3m. Those figures I have used are conservative as I think he was on over £25k per week but it soon adds up doesn't it?

[Arch]

The other annoying thing is fans who think they know EVERYTHING about their club, WR

No doubt he got a decent signing on fee and was on a good wage, for Chelsea the wage would have almost certainly been one of if not the lowest wage to anyone in their senior, and they are selling him for £5.5million.

Chelsea had a decent player for next to nothing, they've sold him for a very large fee. Happy Days.

Poor old Reading.

You're beginning to sound more and more like Harold. Where were REading murked? Sidwell was never going to stay, he played out his contract with full commitment and moved on. That was the club's choice. They could have sold him six months earlier for maybe a couple of million, but chose not to. He was never, ever going to be a Reading player last season. I'd like to see a list of the clubs that haven;t lost at least one of their best players who chose to go on to bigger and better things. Real maybe?

If you want to become a Reading-hating prick who gets a kick out of downing the club, there's nothing any of us can do about it, but do yourself a favour and get back out of Harold-world.

[Alan Partridge]

The other annoying thing is fans who think they know EVERYTHING about their club, WR

It might have been a sarcastic comment there AP, but I have never claimed to be in ITK about anything at RFC. But having a ex-professional footballer in the family does mean I know a little about how transfers, contracts, etc work.

Even on £25k per week at Chelsea that works out to £1.3m, lets say a signing on fee of £1m and a payoff of half his remaining contract of £2m, that totals up to £4.3m. Those figures I have used are conservative as I think he was on over £25k per week but it soon adds up doesn't it?

Why on earth would Chelsea have to 'pay off half his contract'?

Arch - Reading hating prick, not quite, I put a lot of my money into this club every year. Was more a dig at some of our IDIOT fans thinking Sidwell going was a good thing and 'good riddance'. Reading got the absolute worst of that deal by a million miles, culminating in relegation last season. If Steve Sidwell had played 30 games Reading wouldn't have even been close to going down IMO.

[Wycombe Royal]

The other annoying thing is fans who think they know EVERYTHING about their club, WR

It might have been a sarcastic comment there AP, but I have never claimed to be in ITK about anything at RFC. But having a ex-professional footballer in the family does mean I know a little about how transfers, contracts, etc work.

Even on £25k per week at Chelsea that works out to £1.3m, lets say a signing on fee of £1m and a payoff of half his remaining contract of £2m, that totals up to £4.3m. Those figures I have used are conservative as I think he was on over £25k per week but it soon adds up doesn't it?

Why on earth would Chelsea have to 'pay off half his contract'?

Because that is what happens. If he asks for a transfer he waives any right to a payoff, but if they accept a bid for him without him asking for a transfer he is entitled to a payoff as he still has 3 years of a fixed term contract remaining (and a very lucrative contract as well). Basicallly a portion of the fee that Chelsea receive will go straight in to Sidwell's back pocket for his wife to spend. Quite often a player will accept a smaller payoff or none at all if they are moving to another club where they will be on a higher wage, but Sidwell will be getting less at Villa.

[Alan Partridge]

You should have put 'he might recieve a payoff' then neither me or you know what the situation is with that one or what Villa will offer him.

[Wycombe Royal]

You should have put 'he might recieve a payoff' then neither me or you know what the situation is with that one or what Villa will offer him.

He will receive a payoff. He knows Chelsea are rich, he knows they paid nothing for him, he knows he can sit out his lucrative contract, he knows he is entitled to something and it has been all over the media that no club will pay him what he is on at Chelsea.

So you are correct that I do not know it as a fact, but it is 99.9% that Chelsea will have to pay him a fair bit of that transfer fee.

[Arch]

I don't see what any of this has to do with Reading. Reading had two optons: sell Sidwell for about 2.5m in January 07 or have him play out his contract. There is no reasonable scenario where we could have done any better, and definitely not one in which he stayed with us. So in June 07, that was that. I believe the club made the right choice as it happens. What passes between Chelsea and Villa or Chelsea and Sidwell is entirely their business, and reflects in no way whatever on Reading's "deal". Writing stuff like "Reading=murked" (twice) and "poor old Reading" just rings of someone who wants a stick to beat the club with, and that pisses me off.

[Stranded]

I don't see what any of this has to do with Reading. Reading had two optons: sell Sidwell for about 2.5m in January 07 or have him play out his contract. There is no reasonable scenario where we could have done any better, and definitely not one in which he stayed with us. So in June 07, that was that. I believe the club made the right choice as it happens. What passes between Chelsea and Villa or Chelsea and Sidwell is entirely their business, and reflects in no way whatever on Reading's "deal". Writing stuff like "Reading=murked" (twice) and "poor old Reading" just rings of someone who wants a stick to beat the club with, and that pisses me off.

Plus even if we'd matched Chelsea's wage offer he would have still been off.

[Hoop Blah]

You should have put 'he might recieve a payoff' then neither me or you know what the situation is with that one or what Villa will offer him.

He will receive a payoff. He knows Chelsea are rich, he knows they paid nothing for him, he knows he can sit out his lucrative contract, he knows he is entitled to something and it has been all over the media that no club will pay him what he is on at Chelsea.

So you are correct that I do not know it as a fact, but it is 99.9% that Chelsea will have to pay him a fair bit of that transfer fee.

From what I've heard of these things Wycombe is spot on in the sense that Sidwell will get a big hefty wedge for leaving.

However, I still agree with AP that this still represents a 'profit' for Chelsea as when you bring any player into a club you accept that your going to have to pay them. They needed, or at least wanted, that extra player in their squad and so they've been willing to spend the money on his wages. If they don't sell Sidwell they still have to pay him and then let him go at the end of the contract, so in real terms, the fee their going to receieve is profit.

Wycombe is right in terms of all the money flying around and pointing out that it's not as simple as £5m - free transfer = £5m profit, but if your going to be that pedantic about all transfers you'd go insane. Did we break even, make a loss or make a profit on Halford? Depends if you count his signing on fee's, his 'loyalty bonus' when he left and his wages. Generally, we say we made a profit or broke even, depending on which figures you believe. Nobody ever takes into account the other monies that changes hands in the real world.

[Wycombe Royal]

You should have put 'he might recieve a payoff' then neither me or you know what the situation is with that one or what Villa will offer him.

He will receive a payoff. He knows Chelsea are rich, he knows they paid nothing for him, he knows he can sit out his lucrative contract, he knows he is entitled to something and it has been all over the media that no club will pay him what he is on at Chelsea.

So you are correct that I do not know it as a fact, but it is 99.9% that Chelsea will have to pay him a fair bit of that transfer fee.

From what I've heard of these things Wycombe is spot on in the sense that Sidwell will get a big hefty wedge for leaving.

However, I still agree with AP that this still represents a 'profit' for Chelsea as when you bring any player into a club you accept that your going to have to pay them. They needed, or at least wanted, that extra player in their squad and so they've been willing to spend the money on his wages. If they don't sell Sidwell they still have to pay him and then let him go at the end of the contract, so in real terms, the fee their going to receieve is profit.

Wycombe is right in terms of all the money flying around and pointing out that it's not as simple as £5m - free transfer = £5m profit, but if your going to be that pedantic about all transfers you'd go insane. Did we break even, make a loss or make a profit on Halford? Depends if you count his signing on fee's, his 'loyalty bonus' when he left and his wages. Generally, we say we made a profit or broke even, depending on which figures you believe. Nobody ever takes into account the other monies that changes hands in the real world.

My point was solely that free transfers are not free, and a transfer fee is basically paid to the player instead (although that fee is obviously not as high as they would have paid to his club if he were under contract).

[Hoop Blah]

My point was solely that free transfers are not free, and a transfer fee is basically paid to the player instead (although that fee is obviously not as high as they would have paid to his club if he were under contract).

I agree, but even in transfers where there is a fee the player will receive a nice little signing on fee too.

[The 17 Bus]

One report recently said he was on £38k a week at Chelsea, I can see Villa matching that easily, overall I can see Chelsea coming out with a paper profit of about £2million max. All academic now though, it was always going to pan out like this, as I said when he left.

As a club we were not willing to take a risk on how good he was, we COULD have offered him a longer deal on better wages, but we chose not to, when you build brick by brick you cant really take chances, Mr Madejski never has and I cant see he will do so in the future, similar when we had Upson on loan, Pardew was given a sum to offer that was alwyas going to be refused, even though on paper we could have afforded him, and it would have been a good investment. With hindsight.

[DaveM]

Even if Reading had received 5.5m in fee's - that money would have gone into Mr Mads pockets.

[Royalee]

Even if Reading had received 5.5m in fee's - that money would have gone into Mr Mads pockets.

Yes, because a short withdrawal of cash is of far more value to the man than selling the club in the Premiership to a billionaire investor if we are to return to the Premiership and prosper. I see you have some strong business acumen there with your clever shortsighted analysis of the situation.

[Arch]

Nah, i don't want him.

We already have too many gingers.

Finally, a quality post from K4E. I knew you'd settle down eventually.

[Stranded]

One report recently said he was on £38k a week at Chelsea, I can see Villa matching that easily, overall I can see Chelsea coming out with a paper profit of about £2million max. All academic now though, it was always going to pan out like this, as I said when he left.

As a club we were not willing to take a risk on how good he was, we COULD have offered him a longer deal on better wages, but we chose not to, when you build brick by brick you cant really take chances, Mr Madejski never has and I cant see he will do so in the future, similar when we had Upson on loan, Pardew was given a sum to offer that was alwyas going to be refused, even though on paper we could have afforded him, and it would have been a good investment. With hindsight.

We did offer him a new contract on what would have been the highest wage at this club.

As I said above even if we offered £38k, he would have still waited to weigh up his options, Chelsea would have offered the same, or more likely a few grand more and he would have gone there.

He was never going to stay beyond the end of his contract and I can't believe we are over a year down the line and we are still discussing how we could have made him stay....