New Owners - Redwood Watch

[Snowflake Royal]

On the other hand, how much longer would Dai have limped on if we'd been able to make a few more million in player sales.

Break the rules and cheat, and you're going to get punished and face consequences that mke life hard. And the FL have very few levers to pull when all this happens. It's points deductions and spending restrictions... that's it.

[WestYorksRoyal]

The example I remember at the time was not being able to offer a new contract to Richards and losing him for free; that's £5m transfer revenue lost at least.

But it was around the time Dai was blocking sensible sales for Moore, Loader and Swift. Perhaps the result would have just been we'd have been locked into a higher wage contract with him?

[Snowflake Royal]

The example I remember at the time was not being able to offer a new contract to Richards and losing him for free; that's £5m transfer revenue lost at least.

But it was around the time Dai was blocking sensible sales for Moore, Loader and Swift. Perhaps the result would have just been we'd have been locked into a higher wage contract with him?

The issue with Richards wasn't so much that we couldn’t offer him a contract, but that he went from being no better than Blackett or Obita (?) so there was no reason to offer him a multi-year deal, to looking like he could be a PL player within 6 months, by which time he had no reason to sign a contract, because he could just sign a pre-deal with a European side.

[West F]

A player who is entering the last year to eighteen months of his contract is owned by his agent not any club. The agent will start pimping him out to the highest bidder as they make large amounts of money from not only a percentage of their wage, but also in a more lucrative signing on bonus. It often turns out that many of the ‘free transfer’ moves that particularly younger players make, often turn out to be detrimental to their careers in the long term. More and more players will be encouraged to run down their contracts by their agents in the future, simply because it is in the agents interest to move their players around as much as possible unless they have achieved their pay ceiling with one particular club.
Omar Richards is a player who warmed the bench at Bayern, then moved into the Marinakis multiverse and disappeared. Poof!

[Whore Jackie]

Very happy with the academy situation, but noted we lost a lot of players throughout the latter Dai years. Apparently we have the lowest Category One expenditure, but the eighth best productivity (not specified what that meant specifically though).

That is interesting. Would love to know what that lowest expenditure figure actually is. And who has the highest expenditure.

Think this is complete list of Category One Academies:

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham, Blackburn, Brighton, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Derby, Everton, Fulham, Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Southampton, Stoke, Sunderland, Tottenham, West Brom, West Ham, Wolves

So 8/28. Kudos to Gilksey and co.

[Clyde1998]

Very happy with the academy situation, but noted we lost a lot of players throughout the latter Dai years. Apparently we have the lowest Category One expenditure, but the eighth best productivity (not specified what that meant specifically though).

That is interesting. Would love to know what that lowest expenditure figure actually is. And who has the highest expenditure.

Think this is complete list of Category One Academies:

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham, Blackburn, Brighton, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Derby, Everton, Fulham, Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Southampton, Stoke, Sunderland, Tottenham, West Brom, West Ham, Wolves

So 8/28. Kudos to Gilksey and co.

Burnley are also in that list - twenty-nine clubs this season.

I've contacted the club about the calculation about the productivity figures, so hopefully I'll hear something this week. Academy funding is very opaque, but (based on a quick Google search) it seems there's a minimum expenditure of roughly £2.5m per season for Category One.

As a guide based on media reports (year of report noted in brackets), per season, each club seems to spend:
£11m - Liverpool (2025)
£5m - Crystal Palace (2023); Middlesbrough (2024)
£4m - Leeds (2020)
£3m - Blackburn (2025)

Different clubs may include different things as academy costs - such as whether to include player wages within that.

[morganb]

https://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/2025/s ... directors/

Rick Catania joins Board of Directors

Further addition to the Board of Directors.
Reading Football Club is pleased to announce that Rick Catania has been named on the Board of Directors.

Rick Catania is the President of HC Sports Ventures, based in Midland, Texas. The firm has acquired a minority stake in Dogwood Football LLC, the ultimate controlling company of Reading Football Club.

A fifth-generation ranch owner and operator, Rick has been approved by the EFL to serve as a director of the Club. A former collegiate soccer player, he has since built a diverse career as a rancher, investor, and foundation chair. He brings a unique blend of experience, youthful energy, and deep passion for football to the Board.

Royals Chairman, Rob Couhig said:

“We’re thrilled to welcome Rick to the Reading Board. His passion for the game, combined with his energy, vision and business acumen, will add real strength to our leadership team. Rick understands the importance of community and tradition, but he also shares our ambition for the future. Together, we will continue working to build a club that our fans can be proud of for generations to come.”

Rick Catania said:

“Joining the Reading Board alongside Rob, Todd, Ross, and Alec is an absolute honour. Reading holds a special place in my family’s story, as my cousin met her soon-to-be husband while studying at the University of Reading. The community here is remarkable and deserves a club they can be proud of. For a club to exist for more than 150 years is no small achievement, and it is a testament to the unwavering support of its fanbase. My sincere goal is to help ensure that Reading will be a strong and successful football club for the next 150 years.”

[scumbag]

Wow another investor that sounds like he has a hugely sentimental and spiritual connection to Reading. We are not worthy.

[JedMaxwell]

Slight Robbie Keane vibes in his statement.

However I will give him a chance - no one seems to know too much about him so we'll just have to wait and see how his involvement pans out. I hope he doesn't turn up in a pair of cowboy boots with a big belt buckle though.

[blythspartan]

Slight Robbie Keane vibes in his statement.

However I will give him a chance - no one seems to know too much about him so we'll just have to wait and see how his involvement pans out. I hope he doesn't turn up in a pair of cowboy boots with a big belt buckle though.

We could have rodeos during the half time entertainment. The trouble atm is the football isn’t living up to the razzmatazz.

[JedMaxwell]

Slight Robbie Keane vibes in his statement.

However I will give him a chance - no one seems to know too much about him so we'll just have to wait and see how his involvement pans out. I hope he doesn't turn up in a pair of cowboy boots with a big belt buckle though.

We could have rodeos during the half time entertainment. The trouble atm is the football isn’t living up to the razzmatazz.

The football itself will always be the bottom line, so they can do all the naff fireworks they like but unless the 'product' improves they will struggle to get the attendances up.

[Forbury Lion]

Academy funding is very opaque

I believe the academy expenditure (and womens team expenditure) is excluded from Profit & Sustainability calculations, so there is a benefit to allocating a higher share of costs to this than is actually received, be that half the cost of the physio team and facilities such as most of the training ground running costs.

On an episode of the Price of Football podcast, Kieran Maguire, the football finance version of Martin Lewis explained this with confirmation from the secret academy director.

This will undoubtedly be the case for any team which is spending big or looking to sell the club on in the future to new owners as it will give them more flexibility to spend big if the past 3 seasons spend has been under-reported in such a way.

There are also tax breaks available for classing things as research and development, football clubs are doing this for research and development of player related things

[tidus_mi2]

Was a bit squeamish about seeing him citing studying at Reading Uni, just had AZ "I studied at Bearwood College" vibes.

[Snowflake Royal]

Academy funding is very opaque

I believe the academy expenditure (and womens team expenditure) is excluded from Profit & Sustainability calculations, so there is a benefit to allocating a higher share of costs to this than is actually received, be that half the cost of the physio team and facilities such as most of the training ground running costs.

On an episode of the Price of Football podcast, Kieran Maguire, the football finance version of Martin Lewis explained this with confirmation from the secret academy director.

This will undoubtedly be the case for any team which is spending big or looking to sell the club on in the future to new owners as it will give them more flexibility to spend big if the past 3 seasons spend has been under-reported in such a way.

There are also tax breaks available for classing things as research and development, football clubs are doing this for research and development of player related things

The rules vary by level, so what may be true for most Cat one Academies (PL, or a lesser extent Champ) won’t necessarily apply in L1.

For example, Championship had no limit on wage budget in relation to income, just an allowed loss limit across 3 years. Whilst L1 caps wage budget at 60% of income.

We'd never have been able to get into the parlous financial state Dai pushed us in L1, because he could never have built our wage budget up to over 200% of our income.

[Sutekh]

Welcome to Rick Catania

[Mr Angry]

From a brief scouring of t'internet, it would appear that HC Sports Ventures are a vehicle for investing funds in sports and leisure organisations, only created earlier this Year and it would appear we are their first investment.

Someone on X has done a good job of digging stuff up:

https://x.com/Tatum1871/status/1965827290006434009

[Royal Ginger]

Welcome to Rick Catania

Sounds like a made up name.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Rob Couhig hosting fan Q&A next Thursday. Will be interesting to see what he says about the start to the season and Hunt; hard to sugar coat after 9 games.

[Snowflake Royal]

Rob Couhig hosting fan Q&A next Thursday. Will be interesting to see what he says about the start to the season and Hunt; hard to sugar coat after 9 games.

On the other hand, we haven't lost to Stockport yet, and a draw or win against them would have us DDWLWD/W.

Even a defeat is DDWLWL.

Those first three games are big problem, but I think they've really dictated opinions too much.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Rob Couhig hosting fan Q&A next Thursday. Will be interesting to see what he says about the start to the season and Hunt; hard to sugar coat after 9 games.

On the other hand, we haven't lost to Stockport yet, and a draw or win against them would have us DDWLWD/W.

Even a defeat is DDWLWL.

Those first three games are big problem, but I think they've really dictated opinions too much.

He might agree with you, but I expect fan discontent is one of the reasons he's doing this. And it's not just the table and results. There's genuinely not loads of enthusiasm, attendances remain low, the football isn't exciting. There's basically been no honeymoon.