by Y21 »
31 Jan 2008 23:41
Dear John Madejski, Nicky Hammond and Steve Coppell,
What a load of shit. Thats what you've been spinning us since we joined the Premiership. I understand the points about the wage structure to ensure that we don't bankrupt the club by signing silly contracts. I also understand the point that some players don't want to come to 'Little old Reading'. I also understand your claim that we aren't able to spend £££s on players. But come on. Are you sure? Are you really sure? This year, the last placed team in the Premiership will supposedly be getting around £30m, combine that with the contribution from the fans with the approximate 80% hike in ticket prices and you have a club with a fair amount of money. Surely, surely there must be some players in the premiership that have a quality and proven track record that we can sign? Why do we have to baulk at the thought of spending more than £3m on a player? Wigan do. Fulham do. 'Boro do. Add to that Birmingham, Sunderland, even oxf*rd Derby do and they are as good as relegated already. It seems that we are trying to do everything on the cheap and avoid breaking the supposed 'golden rule' that is the wage structure. While we continue to see ourselves as 'Little old Reading', fighting against the established way of doing things, everyone else will see us as 'Little old Reading' and will continue to see us as being set in our ways and unlikely to offer players contracts above tuppence ha'penny a week. I appreciate all the hard work done by the club and I applaud (to a certain degree) the clubs ideas about not bankrupting ourselves for the sake of Premiership survival, but for oxf*rd sake. 2 players brought in, with the club at its current position does not give me much in the way of confidence that we are trying our hardest to survive. Steve Coppell is a legend and I expect he will work wonders with the players we have, but our problem is the fact that if any of our 'established' players miss out through injury, we suddenly look very Championship.
While we may be able to survive this season (only by the skin of our teeth and with a following wind) if we continue to stand still, all that is going to happen is we will go backwards. Our best players will run down their contracts and move on - especially as we won't sell anyone. And thats another thing - players will look at us and think twice about signing a contract with us as they will be expected to honour it and not be able to move on if a bigger club comes in for them offering big bucks.
Something has to give. Either we start acting like a Premiership club or we will no longer be one.
Anyway, I've had too many beers and am rambling like an idiot, but it needed to come off my chest.
Thankyou and goodnight.