CONFRIMATION of the CONFIMRED

[blythspartan]

Until I see Dai removed as the owner on the Companies House website I can’t get too ecstatic about the takeover. Sorry, for my ignorance, but does a deal in principle mean that it’s just a matter of time until it’s done (i.e., legal formalities)?

Without knowing detail its impossible to say. Is it a deal in principle in that everything is agreed, but nothing is signed? Or is it a deal in principle with everything agreed and signed, but the actual legal formalities in process?

We all hope and assume the latter, in which case it can't be withdrawn without serious penalties unless something completely unexpected happens.

If it's the former, Dai can just refuse to sign again and it all falls over.

Thanks for the explanation IR. Let’s hope it’s the latter.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Until I see Dai removed as the owner on the Companies House website I can’t get too ecstatic about the takeover. Sorry, for my ignorance, but does a deal in principle mean that it’s just a matter of time until it’s done (i.e., legal formalities)?

Without knowing detail its impossible to say. Is it a deal in principle in that everything is agreed, but nothing is signed? Or is it a deal in principle with everything agreed and signed, but the actual legal formalities in process?

We all hope and assume the latter, in which case it can't be withdrawn without serious penalties unless something completely unexpected happens.

If it's the former, Dai can just refuse to sign again and it all falls over.

Thanks for the explanation IR. Let’s hope it’s the latter.

If it's not the latter and that statement has been released, everyone involved should have their head rolling if it falls through.

It must surely be signed and the remaining processes just being transfer of funds etc.,

[The Royal Forester]

But will have to pay for its maintenance

cant remember which interview it was but he said the first thing he did when he bought Wycombe was to improve the fan experience by improving all things on match day and generally just making sure every thing was maintained and working well. So yeah i imagine that's going to be right up there on his to do list. Dai spent oxf*rd on on the place during his time here and it's beginning to look really tatty from the outside, toilets in the concourse are in need of repair. I imagine its going to be quite a hefty bill to get the place looking good and working properly again.

Even things like the Dome at the ground need significant investment to get them back to a decent standard.

Don't get your hopes up too much. I seem to remember some Wycombe fans bemoaning the fireworks RC introduced to enhance the match day experience, also the same leaks in the roof were there when he arrived...... and when he left.

[Reading4eva]

Oh absolutely agree - there can't be many levers to pull that other big L1 clubs haven't tried.

Plus there were rumours that SCL fronted up the money on the 10 year stadium deal to help so that's not gonna help...

From the non player wages,
If you strip out the Director remuneration of c£300k/annum and the management team (assuming its separately stated) of £440k - that's £770k.

Not sure there will be Many other big hitters so it's them about volume and that's the rub.

Couhig now owns the SCL, so we wont have to pay Prestige Fortune Asia Limited (dai) £1.5 million a season to lease the stadium. Which equated to 12% of our overall 12.4m losses in 23/24.

But will have to pay for its maintenance

Dai didn't do any maintenance at the ground anyway so it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference.

We need someone with a paintbrush and a pot of paint to start with. It doesn't need loads, nothing a few blokes with a jet wash couldn't do.

[Uke]

it should just be a matter of lawyers formally finishing off.

This is the visual imagery that I didn’t need…

[Crusader Royal]

But will have to pay for its maintenance

cant remember which interview it was but he said the first thing he did when he bought Wycombe was to improve the fan experience by improving all things on match day and generally just making sure every thing was maintained and working well. So yeah i imagine that's going to be right up there on his to do list. Dai spent oxf*rd on on the place during his time here and it's beginning to look really tatty from the outside, toilets in the concourse are in need of repair. I imagine its going to be quite a hefty bill to get the place looking good and working properly again.

Even things like the Dome at the ground need significant investment to get them back to a decent standard.

Hasn’t the Dome at the stadium been replaced by the one at Forest ? The stadium one was second hand when we got it and my understanding was it was end of life. I’m not sure major investment in maintenance would make much sense. It’s also right in the way of the proposed development.

[fred sharpes nose]

You do have to ask though how we have a salary budget that high? I mean, given how many of the players are academy and the lack of any obvious 'big money' players. If we had 24 players earning £4k each a week that would be about £5m in total..... OK, more with NI, pension etc etc, but..... £14m? I know that figure includes non player staff, but still.

Quoting from the accounts.

2024 staff numbers:
total - 288
Players - 51
Football management & coaches - 84
Admin - 52
Govt schemes - 21
Match day staff - 80

I find the first 3 categories the most interesting
> 51 players ( guess 1st team U21s U18s - anyone on a wage to kick a ball ?)
> utilised/assisted/ supported by 84 coaches - ok some of them will be for the kids teams and those who dont count as players, (begs the question when do they stop becoming kids and become players) anyway seems a helluva lot of coaching staff
> admin 52 so same as players ! One admin per player seems a high metric but what do they all do ...? Then again a £14million business may have similar ratios. Supporting Finance , HR, IT, Secretary/EFL rep etc, Marketing, Customers Sales, Commercial & Biz Dev Ground Maintenance

Would be interesting to see the headcount/costs split by Football Club/Stadium/Bearwood & Academy

Oldies can no doubt remember the staffing levels at Elm Park again would be interesting to see those figures by role for historical context, but nowhere near these figures for sure

My guess is the bulk of the coaches etc are Academy and thats where the lack of sustainability lies (unless regular big bucks sales)

I'm sure Rob C has all of this data and more - doubt he will share too much of the inner workings though.

Football Club has to make profit to cover Stadium, Bearwood & Academy have to break even by player sales

[Brogue]

You do have to ask though how we have a salary budget that high? I mean, given how many of the players are academy and the lack of any obvious 'big money' players. If we had 24 players earning £4k each a week that would be about £5m in total..... OK, more with NI, pension etc etc, but..... £14m? I know that figure includes non player staff, but still.

Quoting from the accounts.

2024 staff numbers:
total - 288
Players - 51
Football management & coaches - 84
Admin - 52
Govt schemes - 21
Match day staff - 80

I find the first 3 categories the most interesting
> 51 players ( guess 1st team U21s U18s - anyone on a wage to kick a ball ?)
> utilised/assisted/ supported by 84 coaches - ok some of them will be for the kids teams and those who dont count as players, (begs the question when do they stop becoming kids and become players) anyway seems a helluva lot of coaching staff
> admin 52 so same as players ! One admin per player seems a high metric but what do they all do ...? Then again a £14million business may have similar ratios. Supporting Finance , HR, IT, Secretary/EFL rep etc, Marketing, Customers Sales, Commercial & Biz Dev Ground Maintenance

Would be interesting to see the headcount/costs split by Football Club/Stadium/Bearwood & Academy

Oldies can no doubt remember the staffing levels at Elm Park again would be interesting to see those figures by role for historical context, but nowhere near these figures for sure

My guess is the bulk of the coaches etc are Academy and thats where the lack of sustainability lies (unless regular big bucks sales)

I'm sure Rob C has all of this data and more - doubt he will share too much of the inner workings though.

Football Club has to make profit to cover Stadium, Bearwood & Academy have to break even by player sales

I remember cycling down to sonning cricket club during school summer holidays in the 90’s when I was a kid to watch them train in the then training ground, before hogwood. And there were only about 4 coaches in total. It does seem crazy we have so many coaches these days. No academy only about 25 players in total.

Anyone else ever go down there? You could just walk in no fencing nothing. That was back when footballers were accessible, had time for the fans. Me and my mate had a kick around with Neville roach and he took some penalties against us. Jeff Hopkins signed my shirt and alan pardew sorted me and my friend out some free tickets to an away game.

[Hound]

They’ve just built a very good new astroturf pitch there. It’s still a really good facility overall at Sonning

Re: coaches. The vast majority will be age group coaches in the academy won’t they? We have u8 through to u18 - so say 3-4 per group - that could be as many as 50 altogether. They’d be on a relatively low wage, maybe even minimum wage I’d expect, and probably some of them part time

[Crusader Royal]

Quoting from the accounts.

2024 staff numbers:
total - 288
Players - 51
Football management & coaches - 84
Admin - 52
Govt schemes - 21
Match day staff - 80

I find the first 3 categories the most interesting
> 51 players ( guess 1st team U21s U18s - anyone on a wage to kick a ball ?)
> utilised/assisted/ supported by 84 coaches - ok some of them will be for the kids teams and those who dont count as players, (begs the question when do they stop becoming kids and become players) anyway seems a helluva lot of coaching staff
> admin 52 so same as players ! One admin per player seems a high metric but what do they all do ...? Then again a £14million business may have similar ratios. Supporting Finance , HR, IT, Secretary/EFL rep etc, Marketing, Customers Sales, Commercial & Biz Dev Ground Maintenance

Would be interesting to see the headcount/costs split by Football Club/Stadium/Bearwood & Academy

Oldies can no doubt remember the staffing levels at Elm Park again would be interesting to see those figures by role for historical context, but nowhere near these figures for sure

My guess is the bulk of the coaches etc are Academy and thats where the lack of sustainability lies (unless regular big bucks sales)

I'm sure Rob C has all of this data and more - doubt he will share too much of the inner workings though.

Football Club has to make profit to cover Stadium, Bearwood & Academy have to break even by player sales

I remember cycling down to sonning cricket club during school summer holidays in the 90’s when I was a kid to watch them train in the then training ground, before hogwood. And there were only about 4 coaches in total. It does seem crazy we have so many coaches these days. No academy only about 25 players in total.

Anyone else ever go down there? You could just walk in no fencing nothing. That was back when footballers were accessible, had time for the fans. Me and my mate had a kick around with Neville roach and he took some penalties against us. Jeff Hopkins signed my shirt and alan pardew sorted me and my friend out some free tickets to an away game.

Going to Sonning was always fun. Pards sometimes dragged people in if he needed extra bodies for a session, never actually to play but to stand in a spot and act as a dummy to play round ( we’ve had central defenders who graduated from this scheme). As there the day Martin Butler rocked up before he’d actually signed.

In terms of coaches most of them will be part time/ casual who get paid by the hour. That 84 won’t have been all employed at once or for the whole year.
Match day staff are either agency or zero hours on the whole. You might have 20 people signed up to cover 10 jobs and some may only do a couple of games and you only bring in and pay the number you need (in fact from experience you get told you can have half the number you actually need and then one of them doesn’t turn up at the last minute).
There are minimum staff to player ratios for youth sides and for an away game you might need half a dozen staff (minibus driver, physio plus manager and coaches). Some of those will be interns or people working on badges and with us to gain experience and hands on hours probably paid nothing.
Again with admin staff we won’t have had 52 people working all year. I suspect we have a high turnover in recent years. 52 doesn’t seem high to me and not sure comparing it to players helps.

[Royalwaster]

I don't think anyone can have any illusions that we're going to make an actual profit while in League 1 - I think the aim has to be making an acceptable loss that is sufficiently low to be worth it on the basis that RC can make a profit on selling us onto some other owner once we reach the Champ or even the Prem. The question is what level of 'loss' is acceptable to him?

(This is on the basis that all clubs even in the National League make a loss - so expecting them to make a profit is unrealistic)

[Sanguine]

I normally hate this kind of stuff, but my word Brogue that was one hell of a long con. I'm not sure what the point was, but that's not really the point. I salute you, terrific stuff.

[Royal Rother]

I find the first 3 categories the most interesting
> 51 players ( guess 1st team U21s U18s - anyone on a wage to kick a ball ?)
> utilised/assisted/ supported by 84 coaches - ok some of them will be for the kids teams and those who dont count as players, (begs the question when do they stop becoming kids and become players) anyway seems a helluva lot of coaching staff
> admin 52 so same as players ! One admin per player seems a high metric but what do they all do ...? Then again a £14million business may have similar ratios. Supporting Finance , HR, IT, Secretary/EFL rep etc, Marketing, Customers Sales, Commercial & Biz Dev Ground Maintenance

Would be interesting to see the headcount/costs split by Football Club/Stadium/Bearwood & Academy

Oldies can no doubt remember the staffing levels at Elm Park again would be interesting to see those figures by role for historical context, but nowhere near these figures for sure

My guess is the bulk of the coaches etc are Academy and thats where the lack of sustainability lies (unless regular big bucks sales)

I'm sure Rob C has all of this data and more - doubt he will share too much of the inner workings though.

Football Club has to make profit to cover Stadium, Bearwood & Academy have to break even by player sales

I remember cycling down to sonning cricket club during school summer holidays in the 90’s when I was a kid to watch them train in the then training ground, before hogwood. And there were only about 4 coaches in total. It does seem crazy we have so many coaches these days. No academy only about 25 players in total.

Anyone else ever go down there? You could just walk in no fencing nothing. That was back when footballers were accessible, had time for the fans. Me and my mate had a kick around with Neville roach and he took some penalties against us. Jeff Hopkins signed my shirt and alan pardew sorted me and my friend out some free tickets to an away game.

Going to Sonning was always fun. Pards sometimes dragged people in if he needed extra bodies for a session, never actually to play but to stand in a spot and act as a dummy to play round ( we’ve had central defenders who graduated from this scheme). As there the day Martin Butler rocked up before he’d actually signed.

In terms of coaches most of them will be part time/ casual who get paid by the hour. That 84 won’t have been all employed at once or for the whole year.
Match day staff are either agency or zero hours on the whole. You might have 20 people signed up to cover 10 jobs and some may only do a couple of games and you only bring in and pay the number you need (in fact from experience you get told you can have half the number you actually need and then one of them doesn’t turn up at the last minute).
There are minimum staff to player ratios for youth sides and for an away game you might need half a dozen staff (minibus driver, physio plus manager and coaches). Some of those will be interns or people working on badges and with us to gain experience and hands on hours probably paid nothing.
Again with admin staff we won’t have had 52 people working all year. I suspect we have a high turnover in recent years. 52 doesn’t seem high to me and not sure comparing it to players helps.

Worth pointing out that the disclosure requirement for numbers of staff is the AVERAGE number of staff employed under contracts with entitlements, not the TOTAL.

We know what average means of course, but Companies Act specifically states:

‘The number of employees means the average number of persons employed by the company in the year, determined as follows:

a) find for each month in the financial year the number of persons employed under contracts of service by the company in that month (whether throughout the month or not)

b) add together the monthly totals, and

c) divide by the number of months in the financial year.

For the purpose of this calculation, if an employee leaves during the month you assume that they have worked for the whole of that month.’

Financial Reporting Standards also state that casual and non-contract staff should be excluded.

[Brogue]

I normally hate this kind of stuff, but my word Brogue that was one hell of a long con. I'm not sure what the point was, but that's not really the point. I salute you, terrific stuff.

cheers buddy, i started it when the thai's took over. Twitter was a very different place back then, was just supposed to be a bit of fun. All these itk accounts were popping up, so i thought i'd create a parody account. and it just progressed and i never actually thought anyone would really believe me, i mean the name was vvankered ffs . But i drew a following, people did believed me, then i realised this could be something quite special. The last 6 months was so much fun. i finished with 1500 followers, and literally hundreds and hundreds of DM's, begging for news. And before the big reveal i had 1 million views on my posts in that last 7 days, i couldn't believe how far my reach was. It went absolutely crazy. More people were talking about me than the takeover. It is kinda sad, and i've had a few 'get a life' comments, which is fair, i'm a 42 year old man, i probably should. But the way i saw it was, twitter is cesspit of pcunts the #readingfc hashtag is just full of the worst kinda people, so i absolutely reveled in trolling them. 11 years, just wow. never did i expect to drag it for that long.

[Royal Rother]

[Hound]

I normally hate this kind of stuff, but my word Brogue that was one hell of a long con. I'm not sure what the point was, but that's not really the point. I salute you, terrific stuff.

cheers buddy, i started it when the thai's took over. Twitter was a very different place back then, was just supposed to be a bit of fun. All these itk accounts were popping up, so i thought i'd create a parody account. and it just progressed and i never actually thought anyone would really believe me, i mean the name was vvankered ffs . But i drew a following, people did believed me, then i realised this could be something quite special. The last 6 months was so much fun. i finished with 1500 followers, and literally hundreds and hundreds of DM's, begging for news. And before the big reveal i had 1 million views on my posts in that last 7 days, i couldn't believe how far my reach was. It went absolutely crazy. More people were talking about me than the takeover. It is kinda sad, and i've had a few 'get a life' comments, which is fair, i'm a 42 year old man, i probably should. But the way i saw it was, twitter is cesspit of pcunts the #readingfc hashtag is just full of the worst kinda people, so i absolutely reveled in trolling them. 11 years, just wow. never did i expect to drag it for that long.

One Q - obvs not expecting you to go into detail but do you actually have a source or literally making things up/ reposting other rumours?

[Brogue]

I had all sorts of followers too. James earnshaw from the chronic, the tilehurst end, sell before we dai. News reporters from the sun, the daily Mail, the telegraph. A bbc 5 live breakfast presenter. But ladies and gentlemen the best one by a mile? I give you….

The former First Secretary of State Damien Green

[Brogue]

I normally hate this kind of stuff, but my word Brogue that was one hell of a long con. I'm not sure what the point was, but that's not really the point. I salute you, terrific stuff.

cheers buddy, i started it when the thai's took over. Twitter was a very different place back then, was just supposed to be a bit of fun. All these itk accounts were popping up, so i thought i'd create a parody account. and it just progressed and i never actually thought anyone would really believe me, i mean the name was vvankered ffs . But i drew a following, people did believed me, then i realised this could be something quite special. The last 6 months was so much fun. i finished with 1500 followers, and literally hundreds and hundreds of DM's, begging for news. And before the big reveal i had 1 million views on my posts in that last 7 days, i couldn't believe how far my reach was. It went absolutely crazy. More people were talking about me than the takeover. It is kinda sad, and i've had a few 'get a life' comments, which is fair, i'm a 42 year old man, i probably should. But the way i saw it was, twitter is cesspit of pcunts the #readingfc hashtag is just full of the worst kinda people, so i absolutely reveled in trolling them. 11 years, just wow. never did i expect to drag it for that long.

One Q - obvs not expecting you to go into detail but do you actually have a source or literally making things up/ reposting other rumours?

Yep I have sources, right to the very top.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I had all sorts of followers too. James earnshaw from the chronic, the tilehurst end, sell before we dai. News reporters from the sun, the daily Mail, the telegraph. A bbc 5 live breakfast presenter. But ladies and gentlemen the best one by a mile? I give you….

The former First Secretary of State Damien Green

[WestYorksRoyal]

cheers buddy, i started it when the thai's took over. Twitter was a very different place back then, was just supposed to be a bit of fun. All these itk accounts were popping up, so i thought i'd create a parody account. and it just progressed and i never actually thought anyone would really believe me, i mean the name was vvankered ffs . But i drew a following, people did believed me, then i realised this could be something quite special. The last 6 months was so much fun. i finished with 1500 followers, and literally hundreds and hundreds of DM's, begging for news. And before the big reveal i had 1 million views on my posts in that last 7 days, i couldn't believe how far my reach was. It went absolutely crazy. More people were talking about me than the takeover. It is kinda sad, and i've had a few 'get a life' comments, which is fair, i'm a 42 year old man, i probably should. But the way i saw it was, twitter is cesspit of pcunts the #readingfc hashtag is just full of the worst kinda people, so i absolutely reveled in trolling them. 11 years, just wow. never did i expect to drag it for that long.

One Q - obvs not expecting you to go into detail but do you actually have a source or literally making things up/ reposting other rumours?

Yep I have sources, right to the very top.

Will they still be here next month?