Good bye Sir John

[Forest Gump]

Thank you for many years of fantastic support for our club.
However it is time to admit that the club is now firmly in decline and this is as much of your making as had been our rise up the league.
Frankly, you haven't learned enough about the footballing side and given that you are not prepared or perhaps able to match what some of the more ambitious competitors are doing you are holding this club back.
As a fan I have had enough of the false promises and positive spin; a total lack of support for the manager this season ( especially no loans in during an injury crisis!) tells the truth - you have no passion left for the club.
Please get consultants in to find a new buyer - do not get Nicky Hammond involved.
Good luck

[peterroyal76]

Thank you for many years of fantastic support for our club.
However it is time to admit that the club is now firmly in decline and this is as much of your making as had been our rise up the league.
Frankly, you haven't learned enough about the footballing side and given that you are not prepared or perhaps able to match what some of the more ambitious competitors are doing you are holding this club back.
As a fan I have had enough of the false promises and positive spin; a total lack of support for the manager this season ( especially no loans in during an injury crisis!) tells the truth - you have no passion left for the club.
Please get consultants in to find a new buyer - do not get Nicky Hammond involved.
Good luck

Why we he get Hammond involved?!

[Royal Rother]

Ignorant spamming twat.

[Readingfanman]

Royalblue with a new alias AICMFP.

[SPARTA]

Thank you for many years of fantastic support for our club.
However it is time to admit that the club is now firmly in decline and this is as much of your making as had been our rise up the league.
Frankly, you haven't learned enough about the footballing side and given that you are not prepared or perhaps able to match what some of the more ambitious competitors are doing you are holding this club back.
As a fan I have had enough of the false promises and positive spin; a total lack of support for the manager this season ( especially no loans in during an injury crisis!) tells the truth - you have no passion left for the club.
Please get consultants in to find a new buyer - do not get Nicky Hammond involved.
Good luck

otherwise agreed, but don't assume any new owner will be good for us. seems there are more shit owners who have ulterior motives than there are decent owners who want to succeed in the game.

[ZacNaloen]

The fact football club need benefactors is the reason the game is so broken.

[Royal Rother]

Agreed. It is a stupid, pathetic, illogical and completely unsustainable model.

When you step back and look at it you have to wonder how it was allowed to reach a position where, in order to compete at the top table, you have to spend more than your income. And that you're actually competing with clubs that have been allowed to spend way way more than their income for many years.

Just cut the fcuking wages you muppets!

Bring on FFP.

It's a bit late but I am optimistic it is going to have the desired effect.

[ZacNaloen]

Football Clubs should be a club, owned by it's members and it's day to day paid for out of it's income. Not rich Oligarchs from around the world with no prior connection to the club.

[Dano]

Football Clubs should be a club, owned by it's members and it's day to day paid for out of it's income. Not rich Oligarchs from around the world with no prior connection to the club.

I am jealous of the Dortmund/German model of ownership. Unless there is radical change, it will never happen here though. Such a shame.

[Royal Lady]

I refuse to blame Sir John. He was done over by that Russian idiot - yes, he may have been desperate for his money and maybe didn't draw up a water-tight contract - but he clearly doesn't have enough money of his own to plough into the club for new players etc. He's getting old now, he's done his bit for us and anyone who doesn't realise the fantastic contributions that he has made to this club over the years, needs a good kicking imo.

Sure, we could do with someone with lots of spare money kicking about - but, as many of us said when TSI were first mooted, be careful what you wish for. A Vincent Tan, a Karl Oyston, there's way more people out there like them than the Dave Whelan's and Sir John Madejski's of this world.

[RoyalBlue]

I refuse to blame Sir John. He was done over by that Russian idiot - yes, he may have been desperate for his money and maybe didn't draw up a water-tight contract - but he clearly doesn't have enough money of his own to plough into the club for new players etc. He's getting old now, he's done his bit for us and anyone who doesn't realise the fantastic contributions that he has made to this club over the years, needs a good kicking imo.

Sure, we could do with someone with lots of spare money kicking about - but, as many of us said when TSI were first mooted, be careful what you wish for. A Vincent Tan, a Karl Oyston, there's way more people out there like them than the Dave Whelan's and Sir John Madejski's of this world.

"Didn't draw up a watertight contract"?! What an understatement! It would appear to have been as watertight as a sieve! He clearly isn't (is no longer?) the business genius that his admirers make out. The equivalent of making a massive mortgage advance without a charge on the property so that the house can't be reclaimed and the borrower kicked out when he refuses to pay the mortgage!

Royalblue with a new alias AICMFP.

Fiver not payable. It would appear I am not the only one to spot that the emperor is now somewhat lacking in clothing. The club may or may not be progressing under wantaway Madejski but others are moving forward quicker so in relative terms we are drifting backwards.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Bit of a cock thread title.

Whatever Sir John "isn't" now RB

Imagine that we wouldn't be in the position to whinge and whine like we do now ....if he wasn't for what he "was" then.

Show some respect, grit your teeth and put up with it...its football


Football is just one big cycle, it'll come good, it'll go wrong....look at Pompey, from certain relegation to 4 wins on the spin?? and despite it all

...at least their support aint fookin sh1t

[handbags_harris]

OP being sanctimonious in the extreme. Personally I care little for fans who find themselves unable to back a man who dragged the club to the level we now naturally compete at. The OP gives very little credence to external forces at work, as though the economic decisions taken by the club have been taken on purely selfish, almost spiteful, justification when the fact is that post-2008 Madejski's successful business interests suffered massively. As a direct result Madejski's personal worth has taken a ridiculous tumble from around £400 million at the peak to around £100 million now. Pre-2008 he was able to secure club funding against his name, and he did so to the tune of around £28 million if memory serves me right. He simply isn't able to do that now, hence why major assets have been sold. That is the reality, but at the same time he could also be a right c**t and demand his money back right now as the accounts clearly show he is a major creditor. And let's not ignore the fact that the money owed is in the form of interest free loans. And his goodwill, in trying to find the right buyer for the club, has totally backfired. He's been utterly oxf*rd over by TSI, Zingarevich in particular who was the major benefactor and TSI figurehead, and by all accounts is fairly open with his views on Anton after a drink or three - he is an upset man at the way things have turned out and considers Zingarevich to be weak having decided not to face up to the problems he has caused.

Granted, the spin the club puts on this in a desperate attempt to cover up his own personal situation is pathetic, and it was somewhat naive of Madejski to suggest funding WOULD be available in January. I can see why he said it, he obviously felt he had his new investors in the form of the Omani's who bailed at the last minute, leaving the club with a choice to make - gamble on promotion and keep the high earners or cut the losses and sell at that point because we don't have a pot to piss in. They chose the former, similar decision to 2008/9 when giving Hunt/Doyle etc their improved contracts in January. It failed then, it'll fail now, and we'll be worse off for it. But the spin and secrecy is all a sideshow really, just another stick for people to beat the club up with. It's not welcome, but it's a fact and it's a baseline for forming an opinion on club goings on. Ultimately I wouldn't really want anybody else running the club under the current circumstances because we know Madejski will make hard, but correct decisions, even if it is to the detriment of the playing side. And for that reason I think I have resigned myself to a probable downward spiral over the coming seasons, and have accepted that it needs to happen in order to sort out the financial mess that the disastrous TSI tenure inflicted on the club. THEY are the ones who need to be blamed here, not Madejski.

And anyway, Madejski is actively looking for a way out and has been for 8 years. So OP, cut the bollocks and sanctimony and take a look at the bigger picture. You'll get a bit more respect for it.

[Ian Royal]

Well said both HH & RL.

[tmesis]

I am jealous of the Dortmund/German model of ownership. Unless there is radical change, it will never happen here though. Such a shame.

It's not quite as good as people think, or Dortmund would not have been on the brink of going under with debts of €200 million a few years back.

Clubs do still get themselves in the crap, even in Germany.

If there's one rule I would bring in, it would be to not allow to clubs to run up debt owed to the owner or one of his companies. If an owner wants to bankroll a club, he should have to do it as sponsorship, so the club can't just find themselves £50 million in debt if the owner gets bored.

[peterroyal76]

Well said both HH & RL.

+1

[Royal Rother]

I am jealous of the Dortmund/German model of ownership. Unless there is radical change, it will never happen here though. Such a shame.

It's not quite as good as people think, or Dortmund would not have been on the brink of going under with debts of €200 million a few years back.

Clubs do still get themselves in the crap, even in Germany.

If there's one rule I would bring in, it would be to not allow to clubs to run up debt owed to the owner or one of his companies. If an owner wants to bankroll a club, he should have to do it as sponsorship, so the club can't just find themselves £50 million in debt if the owner gets bored.

Won't FFP will deal with that?

[Kitsondinho]

FFP will do bugger all. It'll be the usual fudge where smaller clubs get shafted and bigger ones escape. The FL, PL and FA have shown this time and again (West Ham, Luton, B.mouth etc). Same thing in Europe. PSG and Man City are likely to fall foul of the FFP regs......can you honestly see UEFA banning them from Europe??

[Royal Rother]

Yes.

[sandman]

FFP will do bugger all. It'll be the usual fudge where smaller clubs get shafted and bigger ones escape. The FL, PL and FA have shown this time and again (West Ham, Luton, B.mouth etc). Same thing in Europe. PSG and Man City are likely to fall foul of the FFP regs......can you honestly see UEFA banning them from Europe??

Exactly this. Voted in by David Gill and the like to preserve their clubs dominance, these big clubs don't vote for something unless they can get it to work for them.