Feedback from Structured Dialogue Meeting

[STAR Liaison]

Twice a year STAR holds what’s called a Structured Dialogue Meeting with the most senior officials of the Club to discuss strategic and longer-term issues.

We met on 4 October and much of the discussion naturally revolved around the financial situation. You can read the notes of the meeting here: https://star-reading.org/news/star-stru ... reading-fc

[Lower West]

BS explained that the new owners had come in with a clear vision and a planned process but had
inherited a squad, a manager, a chief executive and naturally changes are going to be made - it takes
time to settle things down. Too much change is not good.

Poor BS being left to explain the complete and utter disaster their plan has had. No doubt the same plan adopted at their other clubs. Sorry but the owners are rapidly losing my respect if they think that I'm going to be shovelled b****** and eat it. What's apparent is that they are clueless. Hiding behind a wall of anonymity. I'm sure in time that we'll learn far more about what really went on behind the scenes.

[blueroyals]

Looking at the attendees I wouldn't be surprised if the club is represented by the ball boys and catering crews at the next meeting. Total lack of respect from the board.

[Hendo]

Looking at the attendees I wouldn't be surprised if the club is represented by the ball boys and catering crews at the next meeting. Total lack of respect from the board.

Director of ops/HR
Chief Comms officer
CEO
FD

Not sure who else you're expecting to turn up?

[muirinho]

Looking at the attendees I wouldn't be surprised if the club is represented by the ball boys and catering crews at the next meeting. Total lack of respect from the board.

Director of ops/HR
Chief Comms officer
CEO
FD

Not sure who else you're expecting to turn up?

Manager
Owner
Head of the FA
God.

[Sutekh]

Looking at the attendees I wouldn't be surprised if the club is represented by the ball boys and catering crews at the next meeting. Total lack of respect from the board.

Director of ops/HR
Chief Comms officer
CEO
FD

Not sure who else you're expecting to turn up?

Manager
Owner
Head of the FA
God.

God is always present

[muirinho]

Director of ops/HR
Chief Comms officer
CEO
FD

Not sure who else you're expecting to turn up?

Manager
Owner
Head of the FA
God.

God is always present

Wasn't taking questions though. Poor.

[Lower West]

Looking at the attendees I wouldn't be surprised if the club is represented by the ball boys and catering crews at the next meeting. Total lack of respect from the board.

Director of ops/HR
Chief Comms officer
CEO
FD

Not sure who else you're expecting to turn up?

CEO is little more a puppet for the owners. How little he contributed when reading the minutes says it all. Probably spends the majority of his time translating. Suspect he was in the background during Nigel's tenure.

[Hendo]

Looking at the attendees I wouldn't be surprised if the club is represented by the ball boys and catering crews at the next meeting. Total lack of respect from the board.

Director of ops/HR
Chief Comms officer
CEO
FD

Not sure who else you're expecting to turn up?

CEO is little more a puppet for the owners. How little he contributed when reading the minutes says it all. Probably spends the majority of his time translating. Suspect he was in the background during Nigel's tenure.

How do you know? Do you work with him personally to know he is a puppet for the owner or have any evidence to confirm this? Maybe he is doing stuff in the background that doesn't get highlighted and that others were in better positions to answer questions which were raised in the meeting.

I'm sure if he wasn't at this meeting, there would've been people saying, "where was the CEO!?"

[Lower West]

Director of ops/HR
Chief Comms officer
CEO
FD

Not sure who else you're expecting to turn up?

Maybe he is doing stuff in the background that doesn't get highlighted and that others were in better positions to answer questions which were raised in the meeting.

What stuff? Linked in profile suggests he's nothing more than a number cruncher. The club seems soulless and directionless. Rapidly losing any identity it once had.

[STAR Liaison]

CEO contributed fully in the meeting. As is usual in these meetings the FD takes the lead role as most of the questions are finance related. CEO's English is fine.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

BS explained that the new owners had come in with a clear vision and a planned process but had
inherited a squad, a manager, a chief executive and naturally changes are going to be made - it takes
time to settle things down. Too much change is not good.

Poor BS being left to explain the complete and utter disaster their plan has had. No doubt the same plan adopted at their other clubs. Sorry but the owners are rapidly losing my respect if they think that I'm going to be shovelled b****** and eat it. What's apparent is that they are clueless. Hiding behind a wall of anonymity. I'm sure in time that we'll learn far more about what really went on behind the scenes.

The CEO bit is absolute nonsense. When they bought the club they had a perfectly capable CEO in Howe and decided to try and be Bertie Big Bollocks by appointing a scam artist from Chelsea.

[Sutekh]

BS explained that the new owners had come in with a clear vision and a planned process but had
inherited a squad, a manager, a chief executive and naturally changes are going to be made - it takes
time to settle things down. Too much change is not good.

Poor BS being left to explain the complete and utter disaster their plan has had. No doubt the same plan adopted at their other clubs. Sorry but the owners are rapidly losing my respect if they think that I'm going to be shovelled b****** and eat it. What's apparent is that they are clueless. Hiding behind a wall of anonymity. I'm sure in time that we'll learn far more about what really went on behind the scenes.

The CEO bit is absolute nonsense. When they bought the club they had a perfectly capable CEO in Howe and decided to try and be Bertie Big Bollocks by appointing a scam artist from Chelsea.

This is correct. The Dai’s takeover at Reading was announced around the time of the play-off second leg v Fulham in May 2017. As I recall at the time I believe Nigel Howe was making a decision to leave his post as CEO of the club at the end of that season to join the FL board so the owners were looking for someone to take his role.

Mr Gourlay was appointed in July 2017 so, presumably, was appointed by the Dai’s rather than being as a result of an earlier decision by the Thai owners. Either way the appointment at the time would have looked a good idea, especially to people new to the English game, given Mr Gourlay’s previous experience in a similar role at two of the biggest clubs in the country.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Poor BS being left to explain the complete and utter disaster their plan has had. No doubt the same plan adopted at their other clubs. Sorry but the owners are rapidly losing my respect if they think that I'm going to be shovelled b****** and eat it. What's apparent is that they are clueless. Hiding behind a wall of anonymity. I'm sure in time that we'll learn far more about what really went on behind the scenes.

The CEO bit is absolute nonsense. When they bought the club they had a perfectly capable CEO in Howe and decided to try and be Bertie Big Bollocks by appointing a scam artist from Chelsea.

This is correct. The Dai’s takeover at Reading was announced around the time of the play-off second leg v Fulham in May 2017. As I recall at the time I believe Nigel Howe was making a decision to leave his post as CEO of the club at the end of that season to join the FL board so the owners were looking for someone to take his role.

Mr Gourlay was appointed in July 2017 so, presumably, was appointed by the Dai’s rather than being as a result of an earlier decision by the Thai owners. Either way the appointment at the time would have looked a good idea, especially to people new to the English game, given Mr Gourlay’s previous experience in a similar role at two of the biggest clubs in the country.

You’re absolutely spot on with the timings, but slightly off on a couple of other points as far as I’m aware.

Howe didn’t have an intention to leave that summer for the EFL role. The board role isn’t something which would have been full time, most members do it as an advisory role alongside their commitments to their club (see Mark Ashton at Ipswich currently).

What I would also say about Gourlay’s experience at the big clubs prior to joining Reading is that there was a huge oversight from the owners - he had no experience in management of the football side of the role. His CEO a tenure at Chelsea was purely to oversee the commercial side, whereas Frank Arnesen (?) was the head honcho for football. Given the importance of that role it seems ridiculous retrospectively that some was given that seniority with little to no experience.