Thai owners

[howser]

We have had a disappointing season, in relation to our recent history, and its begining to look like we have several holes in the team to make it even able to compete next season, indeed Charles Watts is already, on twitter, comparing us to Blackpool. I do however prefer to wait and see what the next six weeks or so before making any rash judgements as to our future prospects.

My main concern over this period is what exactly do the new owners, or maybe not so new now, bring to the table, we always were led to believe that the club would be sold to someone with "deep pockets" that could put us back into the Premiership ? so far all we keep reading and hearing about in the media in how we are continually strapped for money, so just what do the Thai's bring ?? if any of my wiser and more knowledgable nobbers can give any insight ??

[Snowball]

Of course we are strapped for cash.

That happens to every club relegated from The Prem.

A FEW get back quickly. Most take 2-3-4-5 years, and a few drop into
League 1 before they can get the balance back (Portsmouth to League 2)

It's pretty much standard, but we are a bit worse off because the mad Russian
went temporarily silly, Pog, Drente, money into F1 etc.

[Ian Royal]

Well they took on about £50m of debt and prevented us going into Administration. That's not bad for Year 1.

[howser]

Ah yes of course Snowball the curse of the bloody Russian is still with us, but hopefully Pog apart a lot of that should start to be eased now with the other "high earners" leaving the building. I don't have too many concerns about Steve Clarke and his ability to pick us up. I think he is very much his own man as for his backroom staff etc..... I wonder how Hamond sits with this as I get the impression that Clarke likes to have a fair big say in who we will go for, possibly an indication of this is the four backroom guys leaving last week.

It might be misguided here, but I fully expect us to have a better squad next season, one that is prepared to roll its sleeves up and fight for the points rather than the "heads down" efforts that we had last season.

[SCIAG]

Charles Watts is already, on twitter, comparing us to Blackpool.

Blackpool had seven professionals a few weeks before the start of the season. We currently have 34 plus however many second year scholars we retain (I believe 7 have agreed terms with four more waiting to be announced either way). Then there's three senior pros still in negotiations.

If Pearce and Karacan go then we'll need to sign a new spine to be confident of avoiding the drop, but until that happens we're a long way from crisis.

[Norfolk Royal]

Crisis? What crisis?

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Well they took on about £50m of debt and prevented us going into Administration. That's not bad for Year 1.

JM prevented us going in to administration, he bankrolled us up to the end of the possible play off season.
Obviously if no one bought the club we would have been up the Creek. But they bought a dead club, and so far have hardly been reactive in football terms.

[Coppelled_Streets]

Well they took on about £50m of debt and prevented us going into Administration. That's not bad for Year 1.

JM prevented us going in to administration, he bankrolled us up to the end of the possible play off season.
Obviously if no one bought the club we would have been up the Creek. But they bought a dead club, and so far have hardly been reactive in football terms.

No he didn't. We survived on loans, and by the time the Thai's arrived we were literally days from entering admin because we couldn't repay them.

[Nameless]

Well they took on about £50m of debt and prevented us going into Administration. That's not bad for Year 1.

JM prevented us going in to administration, he bankrolled us up to the end of the possible play off season.
Obviously if no one bought the club we would have been up the Creek. But they bought a dead club, and so far have hardly been reactive in football terms.

No he didn't. We survived on loans, and by the time the Thai's arrived we were literally days from entering admin because we couldn't repay them.

As I understand it SJM hasn't bankrolled us for quite a while. There was money from the Zingaravich's for quite a while after Anton walked. I certainly heard stories that although it was the old man who pulled the plug he did continue to cover running costs.
I'm like others, expecting to see the Thai's make their mark this summer. They've been very closely involved day to day all season with a senior representative based at the club full time. From what I hear they are in it for the long haul and were never going to go crazy with cash on day 1 ( although we were pretty active after they came in). They seem to be trying to get the foundations sorted, the club financially stable again, the Academy looked after and the training ground in place. All important stuff. Obviously as fans we want some of the more short term priorities taken care of - like having a competitive team. I don't think that will take much to achieve but it does need 3-4 key signings. If they don't deliver this then people will be right to ask questions....

The query re Hammond deserves the usual answer. Not sure how many times this has been said, but Hammond has no involvement in choosing players. The manager identifies the players he wants (or the ones he wants to move out), Hammond then goes out and gets them, or moves them on. We've never had even a whisper of Hammond interfering in the transfer dealings (maybe not true of some of the owners....)

[MoorgateRoyal]

Is FFP not in place to stop owners coming in and putting loads of money into a club, before deciding they're bored and leaving, sending said club up shit creek?

I'd rather they did stuff within the confines of FFP and gradually build, instead of going for it at high risk and potentially leaving when they realise what's happened, a la Anton.

Plus a bit of Feng Shui around the stadium and Hogwood could improve our fortunes.

[Sutekh]

Plus a bit of Feng Shui around the stadium and Hogwood could improve our fortunes.

What position does he play?

[PeterReadingborn59]

On paper the current owners seem a good option.
1 Developers with funds to develop space around the Mad Stad
2 Group of investors to prevent single person changing team name, colours, appoint relations etc.
3 see the investment as a business venture and not indulge themselves as if it is a computer game
4 let the Manager manage
5 not publicity seekers,
6 support team on summer tour to build oversea interest
7 bring in new sponsors
8 building club finances to avoid the risks faced last summer of not paying bills
9 allow Manager time to prove himself, avoid knee jerk reactions to results
10 new approach to run business

[Norfolk Royal]

The decision to sell real ale via the West Berks tent restored my faith in football.

[paddy20]

On paper the current owners seem a good option.
1 Developers with funds to develop space around the Mad Stad
2 Group of investors to prevent single person changing team name, colours, appoint relations etc.
3 see the investment as a business venture and not indulge themselves as if it is a computer game
4 let the Manager manage
5 not publicity seekers,
6 support team on summer tour to build oversea interest
7 bring in new sponsors
8 building club finances to avoid the risks faced last summer of not paying bills
9 allow Manager time to prove himself, avoid knee jerk reactions to results
10 new approach to run business

They seem to have a fantastic knowledge of the fair play rules but not much knowledge about football. Hopefully this is not a convenient excuse for no investment. I wonder if Clarke is as worried as most of us are? The communication between the owners and the fans is awful. Perhaps thats because they would only have bad news for us!

[PieEater]

The decision to sell real ale via the West Berks tent restored my faith in football.

This is pretty well the only reason I decided to renew my season ticket.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Charles Watts is already, on twitter, comparing us to Blackpool.

Charles Watts is a complete bell end. This is the guy who said we were in a relegation dog fight when 10 points clear with 6 games to go. He obviously has a problem with certain people in the club. I wish he'd do one.

[Nameless]

They seem to have a fantastic knowledge of the fair play rules but not much knowledge about football. Hopefully this is not a convenient excuse for no investment. I wonder if Clarke is as worried as most of us are? The communication between the owners and the fans is awful. Perhaps thats because they would only have bad news for us!

There are members of the wider Thai group with very good football knowledge, so no worries there. And in any case we did fairly well under an owner who had zero football knowledge.
What makes you think 'most' people are worried ? And what are they worried about ?

[paddy20]

They seem to have a fantastic knowledge of the fair play rules but not much knowledge about football. Hopefully this is not a convenient excuse for no investment. I wonder if Clarke is as worried as most of us are? The communication between the owners and the fans is awful. Perhaps thats because they would only have bad news for us!

There are members of the wider Thai group with very good football knowledge, so no worries there. And in any case we did fairly well under an owner who had zero football knowledge.
What makes you think 'most' people are worried ? And what are they worried about ?

Why are we worried? Are you serious?? Just avoided relegation,losing our best players, no sign of any new signings. Almost went into administration.Perhaps you have never experienced watching Reading in the old 3rd and 4th divisions. Believe me it aint nice! Still time still to see if the Thai's are serious about getting us back into the premiership but Clarke said he wanted to do all his transfer business early. Only sign of that is trying to sign a goalkeeper that let in 10 or so goals in his last 3 games.

[West Stand Man]

Why are we worried? Are you serious?? Just avoided relegation,losing our best players, no sign of any new signings. Almost went into administration.Perhaps you have never experienced watching Reading in the old 3rd and 4th divisions. Believe me it aint nice! Still time still to see if the Thai's are serious about getting us back into the premiership but Clarke said he wanted to do all his transfer business early. Only sign of that is trying to sign a goalkeeper that let in 10 or so goals in his last 3 games.

And the new season starts tomorrow shortly after that transfer window closes tonight. We are in trouble then .....

(or maybe we should wait a few weeks before making panic statements based on no real background or foundation?)

[tidus_mi2]

While our form towards the tail end of the season was pretty dire, we still finished 10pts clear of relegation, we didn't just avoid relegation, in truth we never got dragged into it.

Plenty of conspiracy theories of the Thais but when they've made public announcements, they've been fairly positive, most notably dedication to the academy and Bearwood plans.