Where we are today!

[Tobyroyals]

Absolutely no one should be surprised at the mire that we find ourself in at this moment, following a sustained period of NON INVESTMENT. And before anyone starts to lay all of the blame on the Zingaravich era, let's be quite sure that it goes back way before then.

I ask you to cast your mind back to the Summer of 2007, when SJM was both owner and Chairman! We had just completed our first season in the Premier League and had finished in 8th place, an unbelievable achievement! Plans had been passed to increase the size of the stadium up to 38,000 capacity, we were on the rise!!! But the catastrophic era of NON INVESTMENT kicked in, or was it our first introduction to what was to be known as 'The Reading way'.

Steve Sidwell left the club being out of contract, and the totally ineffective Greg Halford was sold to Sunderland for £3m. That same sum of money, was used to bring in two completely unknown Africans, neither of whom had any experience in the UK, Emerse Fae and Kaliffa Cisse. In essence the monetary investment was NIL. We were duly relegated, albeit only on goal difference! Totally deserved, and nothing to do with second season syndrome or bad luck, but everything to do with NON INVESTMENT!

Over the next four seasons, and still all pre Zingaravich era we received PL parachute payments, and sold more than £40m pounds worth of players. Doyle, Kitson, Shorey, S Hunt, Sigurdsson, Bikey, Long, Mills etc etc the list goes on. Where did all that money go? Did it all fill the Black Hole?

We are where we are now for the above reasons.

The road back will be long, and extremely difficult. Is that possible under current owners and SJM?

[Y21]

Too many exclamation marks. And for that reason, I'm out.

[WoodleyRoyal]

2009 wants it's rant back

[tidus_mi2]

Go on, who else is posting from this guys IP?

[Platypuss]

Go on, who else is posting from this guys IP?

Looks like he's due a proper "Fcuck off Newbie!" TBF

[From Despair To Where?]

Go on, who else is posting from this guys IP?

It's got a Royalblue tinge to it but I don't think he'd bother with multiple usernames.

[SCIAG]

Over the next four seasons, and still all pre Zingaravich era we received PL parachute payments, and sold more than £40m pounds worth of players. Doyle, Kitson, Shorey, S Hunt, Sigurdsson, Bikey, Long, Mills etc etc the list goes on. Where did all that money go? Did it all fill the Black Hole?

We only received parachute payments in the first two seasons.

Yes, that money went on the costs of running a football club, previously covered by SJM. Some of it even went on signing players - Mills for £2m, Legs for £1m, Gorkss for £900k, McAnuff for £750k, Howard, NHunt, Armstrong...

The road back will be long, and extremely difficult. Is that possible under current owners and SJM?

Well, we already made it there twice under SJM...

The fact is that we know absolutely nothing about how willing the owners are to invest in the club. They have put as much money as they were allowed to in their first year in charge, but that was also more or less the minimum necessary for the club to survive (except Academy funding). The next few summers will show us that.

Frankly, benevolent billionaires looking to throw loads of money at a mediocre football club don't come along very often, so if the Thais aren't going to help us "progress" then there's not much we can do about it - and would we even want to do anything? Personally, I'd be quite happy to finish mid-table in the Championship in perpetuity, as long as we kept putting local lads in the first team.

[UpThePrem]

I'm struggling to see where this mire is!!!

Yes the owners are quieter than we would like but they've effectively saved us from administration which was only a few weeks away, They've paid off our debt so we are financially stable again. They haven't been able to spend because of FFP and are now starting to get rid of a few higher earners so they can then re-invest which is at the moment the only thing we don't know about. They have committed to Bearwood which is the future of the club. How does anyone know that we're not looking to buy a number of players? Deals may be in the process of being done. Just because it isn't on the back page of every paper advertising the fact that we have money available doesn't mean its not happening. Why would they advertise it anyway, the price would be pushed up because it would be common knowledge we have money to spend. As far as I'm concerned, i'm more than happy with the current position, if its still like this at the start of August, I'll then be concerned but at the moment there's plenty of time.

[Ravel]

I ask you to cast your mind back to the Summer of 2007

To when the global financial crisis began. Not one to jump to conclusions, but something tells me that any perceived lack of investment may be linked to that.

[Sutekh]

Absolutely no one should be surprised at the mire that we find ourself in at this moment, following a sustained period of NON INVESTMENT. And before anyone starts to lay all of the blame on the Zingaravich era, let's be quite sure that it goes back way before then.

I ask you to cast your mind back to the Summer of 2007, when SJM was both owner and Chairman! We had just completed our first season in the Premier League and had finished in 8th place, an unbelievable achievement! Plans had been passed to increase the size of the stadium up to 38,000 capacity, we were on the rise!!! But the catastrophic era of NON INVESTMENT kicked in, or was it our first introduction to what was to be known as 'The Reading way'.

Steve Sidwell left the club being out of contract, and the totally ineffective Greg Halford was sold to Sunderland for £3m. That same sum of money, was used to bring in two completely unknown Africans, neither of whom had any experience in the UK, Emerse Fae and Kaliffa Cisse. In essence the monetary investment was NIL. We were duly relegated, albeit only on goal difference! Totally deserved, and nothing to do with second season syndrome or bad luck, but everything to do with NON INVESTMENT!

Over the next four seasons, and still all pre Zingaravich era we received PL parachute payments, and sold more than £40m pounds worth of players. Doyle, Kitson, Shorey, S Hunt, Sigurdsson, Bikey, Long, Mills etc etc the list goes on. Where did all that money go? Did it all fill the Black Hole?

We are where we are now for the above reasons.

The road back will be long, and extremely difficult. Is that possible under current owners and SJM?

**** off newbie

[handbags_harris]

This argument was done to death at the time. Put simply, increased wage bill + Madejski haemorrhaging money as a direct result of the financial crash = owner investment was no longer possible (Madejski was covering annual losses hence why he was owed around £28m). Therefore the club had to sustain itself while Madejski sought a buyer, the way to do that was to sell best assets while still maintaining a competitive squad. At the same time, in 2009 the bank called in the overdraft (note this was the first pre=-season after the financial crash and where the supposed "lack of investment" started), and prior to that we had uncharacteristically gambled on gaining promotion by offering Doyle and Hunt lucrative contracts. Promotion attempt failed, and so high value sellable assets were sold. Bikey, Doyle, S Hunt all sold. Harper let go on a free, Hahnemann let go on a free. Relegation would have been utterly catastrophic and with Rodgers the increasing threat of relegation (despite improved performances later on) saw the club gamble on paying off his contract for a better managerial fit. It was essential that we stayed at least at Championship level, McDermott kept us up with ease until TSI entered the equation, where my opinion is Madejski was so desperate to sell he sold to the first seemingly legitimate bidder.

So really the sounds coming from the club back in 2009 were right, and the annual statement of accounts backs it up. But to call it a lack of investment is a bit laughable given we forked out not insignificant transfer fees for numerous players despite the likes of Sigurdsson and Long being sold.

[floyd__streete]

^ RFC Supporter Stockholm Syndrome in evidence right there.

OP is right to query why we have sold basically everyone worth selling over the last 6 years, many/mostly for a tidy profit in order to fill a never-ending black hole. Our supporters have been fed enough sh*t over the years about the need for frugality, then the apparently dreadful state TSI left us in (we were within hours of going out of business? Yeah, might take that with a pinch of salt) and now the Thais have their excuses ready-made for them.

If anyone dares question this party line they get - at best - a passive agressive response from the many who insist that the club's (non-existent) sums cannot be questioned

[PeterReadingborn59]

Reading FC are in a stronger position today than compared to last year.
Current owners
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

Current Manager
1 Knows what a task is faced to create a competitive team
2 Has desire to succeed and prove himself as a Manager,
3 Has knowledge to gear approach to available players, rather than try to enforce an approach that does not work with existing players
4 Has contacts with proven football teams, coaches, etc.
5 Says it as is it is, but avoids slagging players off in public
6 fights his corner and misquotes or put downs in media

Current squad
1 Mixture of experienced players and youth potential
2 In progress status as players wrapped up and protected by Reading FC face reality check

Current club infrastructure
1 decent stadium
2 training ground to be improved with new facilities
3 still in Championship
4 Core of loyal supporters

[Duke the Dog2]

Jeez, whilst not a fan of SJM as a person, I do appreciate what he's done for RFC so I don't get this antipathy towards bloke as chairman and main investor.

Don't forget he's openly admitted he can't afford to play the big bucks game that the premiership requires for survival.

Sure we didn't have the investment back in 2008, that's a fair criticism, but SJM never said he would/could do it, and no else stepped forward to do it.

Blame the managers and DoF for the crap purchases, although we also have to thank them for finding those players we could sell on a profit. Swings and roundabouts eh?

[Delboy]

Madjeski a legend

[LUX]

must admit I do not remember Duke the Dog1.
No offence.

[Ian Royal]

This argument was done to death at the time. Put simply, increased wage bill + Madejski haemorrhaging money as a direct result of the financial crash = owner investment was no longer possible (Madejski was covering annual losses hence why he was owed around £28m). Therefore the club had to sustain itself while Madejski sought a buyer, the way to do that was to sell best assets while still maintaining a competitive squad. At the same time, in 2009 the bank called in the overdraft (note this was the first pre=-season after the financial crash and where the supposed "lack of investment" started), and prior to that we had uncharacteristically gambled on gaining promotion by offering Doyle and Hunt lucrative contracts. Promotion attempt failed, and so high value sellable assets were sold. Bikey, Doyle, S Hunt all sold. Harper let go on a free, Hahnemann let go on a free. Relegation would have been utterly catastrophic and with Rodgers the increasing threat of relegation (despite improved performances later on) saw the club gamble on paying off his contract for a better managerial fit. It was essential that we stayed at least at Championship level, McDermott kept us up with ease until TSI entered the equation, where my opinion is Madejski was so desperate to sell he sold to the first seemingly legitimate bidder.

So really the sounds coming from the club back in 2009 were right, and the annual statement of accounts backs it up. But to call it a lack of investment is a bit laughable given we forked out not insignificant transfer fees for numerous players despite the likes of Sigurdsson and Long being sold.

This is a thread about finances. Facts and knowledge of our accounts are not welcome.

[parky]

Can I be the one to point out that both the teams we got promoted with in 2012 are playing in next seasons Europa League.

[PeterReadingborn59]

Can I be the one to point out that both the teams we got promoted with in 2012 are playing in next seasons Europa League.

Interesting and well spotted, gets a silver star.
But apart from going up at the same time the three clubs' history and financing are quite different, both the other teams having a longer history of being in the top flight and greater financial resources to maintain their status.

It is clear the club finances will be a major factor as high Premiership salaries paid are no longer doable and those players who benefited most seem to be leaving when their contracts expire. Hopefully Clarke is one who can shape a competitive squad with existing resources.

[melonhead]

Absolutely no one should be surprised at the mire that we find ourself in at this moment, following a sustained period of NON INVESTMENT. And before anyone starts to lay all of the blame on the Zingaravich era, let's be quite sure that it goes back way before then.

I ask you to cast your mind back to the Summer of 2007, when SJM was both owner and Chairman! We had just completed our first season in the Premier League and had finished in 8th place, an unbelievable achievement! Plans had been passed to increase the size of the stadium up to 38,000 capacity, we were on the rise!!! But the catastrophic era of NON INVESTMENT kicked in, or was it our first introduction to what was to be known as 'The Reading way'.

Steve Sidwell left the club being out of contract, and the totally ineffective Greg Halford was sold to Sunderland for £3m. That same sum of money, was used to bring in two completely unknown Africans, neither of whom had any experience in the UK, Emerse Fae and Kaliffa Cisse. In essence the monetary investment was NIL. We were duly relegated, albeit only on goal difference! Totally deserved, and nothing to do with second season syndrome or bad luck, but everything to do with NON INVESTMENT!

Over the next four seasons, and still all pre Zingaravich era we received PL parachute payments, and sold more than £40m pounds worth of players. Doyle, Kitson, Shorey, S Hunt, Sigurdsson, Bikey, Long, Mills etc etc the list goes on. Where did all that money go? Did it all fill the Black Hole?

We are where we are now for the above reasons.

The road back will be long, and extremely difficult. Is that possible under current owners and SJM?