Reading's wage bill in perspective

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

AS much as Madjeski has done for the club over the past umpteen years and for the huge success of the past three seasons, it is because of his unrealistic and ludicrous wage restaints that have ultimately cost us our place in the Premiership

how much extra should we have spent per year on transfers in your opinion? If our wage bill really was £30 million, how big should it have been allowed to get?

You only have to look at the wages being talked about to pay their transfer targets by Hull and Stoke to realise that their respectice Chairmen/owners seem more clued up about the realism of life in the Premiership than Madjeski ever will

Or you could maybe look at the fact that teams in next year's premiership have an extra £15 million or so guaranteed tv money compared to what we had.

[Royal Rother]

Okay I think this thread has now come full circle and I for one am buggered if I'm going another round with these people.

Ian and Algie, you have my admiration if you have the stomach for it - but they are really not worth the effort.

[Denver Royal]

Okay I think this thread has now come full circle and I for one am buggered if I'm going another round with these people.

Ian and Algie, you have my admiration.

Yep, you could learn a lot from those two.

See ya...

[Southbank Old Boy]

Quite honestly, im a bit sick of Madejski and his yes men forever saying how he saved the club. You say he has not done it to become a philanthropist’s bloody hell he has never grown tired about talking about the money he has put into the club. Madejski has only lent the club money not given it.

Until he leaves and or dies we'll never really know whats going to happen with those loans though will we. He might never call them in. Unlikely I think, certainly for the majority of the money, but it's all speculation either way.

The bottom line is that without his money and just as importantly, if not more, his commitment, drive and leadership, this club would be lucky to still be playing the likes of Bournemouth, Bristol Rovers and Oxford. And they're all games we used to consider to be BIG!

Very well said. AS much as Madjeski has done for the club over the past umpteen years and for the huge success of the past three seasons, it is because of his unrealistic and ludicrous wage restaints that have ultimately cost us our place in the Premiership and Coppell nearly his job.

What cost us was not using our resources well enough and the management allowing our players to to their eye of the ball. Our total wage bill was sufficient to fund a Premiership squad, we could've got a number of players to join us on the sort of wages we were offering, it might not have been as easy as offering them an extra £10k a week like Middlesbrough do, but it was ultimately the managers decision not to improve his squad.

[Vision]

Very well said. AS much as Madjeski has done for the club over the past umpteen years and for the huge success of the past three seasons, it is because of his unrealistic and ludicrous wage restaints that have ultimately cost us our place in the Premiership and Coppell nearly his job. You only have to look at the wages being talked about to pay their transfer targets by Hull and Stoke to realise that their respectice Chairmen/owners seem more clued up about the realism of life in the Premiership than Madjeski ever will

Madejski is perfectly "clued up about the realism of life in the Premiership" he's just not prepared play the game. You may disagree with him and plenty do but i suspect he's more clued up than most about the financial requirements.

[Thaumagurist*]

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[brendywendy]

Very well said. AS much as Madjeski has done for the club over the past umpteen years and for the huge success of the past three seasons, it is because of his unrealistic and ludicrous wage restaints that have ultimately cost us our place in the Premiership and Coppell nearly his job. You only have to look at the wages being talked about to pay their transfer targets by Hull and Stoke to realise that their respectice Chairmen/owners seem more clued up about the realism of life in the Premiership than Madjeski ever will

Madejski is perfectly "clued up about the realism of life in the Premiership" he's just not prepared play the game. You may disagree with him and plenty do but i suspect he's more clued up than most about the financial requirements.

"unrealistic and ludicrous wage restaints[sic]"? How absurd is this statement? I'd rather lose the Premiership status than lose the club overall.

'greed

the most unrealistic and ludicrous comments ive ever seen

[Denver Royal]

I'd rather lose the Premiership status than lose the club overall.

How would we 'lose the club'?

How many other clubs have been lost? Not that many, really. How do you suppose nearly all of them survive in these treacherous waters (without Mr Mad)?

Remember before our Premiership days when most assumed the riches of Premiership income would secure our future for a long time? Yet now we're talking about not losing the club? Would we have been better off if we had never played in the Premiership? How come all clubs want to get up there?

[Vision]

I'd rather lose the Premiership status than lose the club overall.

Remember before our Premiership days when most assumed the riches of Premiership income would secure our future for a long time? Yet now we're talking about not losing the club? Would we have been better off if we had never played in the Premiership? How come all clubs want to get up there?

In a way it has though. After years of continually running at a loss we are now making a profit which means we can now budget without JM's chequebook to bail us out.

[brendywendy]

yup

we can now run at a very small loss in the championship for a couple of years, our profile has increased massively across the world, and it is now easier to attract players than it was last time we were here,and we can now expect to hold on to more of our stars than at any other relegation point in our history, we have more fans, and more fans who want to pay to see reading every week, and more fans who would like to come and watch reading if there are seats spare, many young people in the area now dont feel embarrassed amongst their manu and arsenal supporting mates, we have a great training ground, a good academy set up,a media centre, and plans and permission to expand the ground, plus a core team with 2 yrs of prem experience to go with that they gained while romping the championship

.unfortunately 59 odd million has gone to the wages of those the club employs over the two years, alot more spent on infrastructure to bring us into line with the top leagues, plus the new players we have bought-some of whom have even been good, and will form the basis of this team going forward.

all of this we didnt have before-all of this would be put in jeopardy if we had blown 40 million on players on the gamble of staying up-im not sure that matty taylor, or the like would have guaranteed us up, and if they failed too we would have X number of higher waged players on our books to get rid of now.

im not sure why after two years at the top fans of RFC now believe we have a right to be there, and more importantly without serving our YOYO apprenticeship just like every other small team that strives to cement a place in the top flight.

[Denver Royal]

All of this we didnt have before-all of this would be put in jeopardy if we had blown 40 million on players on the gamble of staying up-im not sure that matty taylor, or the like would have guaranteed us up.

You honestly think we needed to spend 40 million to stay up? We only went down on goal difference (3 goals). Its a moot point anyway, because there is no way ReadingFC would have spent 40 million on players, and you know it.

[Thaumagurist*]

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[Denver Royal]

I'm not a huge fan of Matty Taylor, but since he was used him as an example...

Sure, there are no guarantees he would have helped. There never are. But we only went down by 3 goals, so how much help would he have needed to be?

But lets suppose he was absolutely no help at all, and we still went down by 3 goals. What do you think the consequences would be of having him on our books right now? Would we be faced with 'losing the club'?

[brendywendy]

All of this we didnt have before-all of this would be put in jeopardy if we had blown 40 million on players on the gamble of staying up-im not sure that matty taylor, or the like would have guaranteed us up.

You honestly think we needed to spend 40 million to stay up? We only went down on goal difference (3 goals). Its a moot point anyway, because there is no way ReadingFC would have spent 40 million on players, and you know it.

what he said^


i never really expected RFC to spend 40 million on players over twenty seasons

[Ian Royal]

I'd rather lose the Premiership status than lose the club overall.

How would we 'lose the club'?

How many other clubs have been lost? Not that many, really. How do you suppose nearly all of them survive in these treacherous waters (without Mr Mad)?

Remember before our Premiership days when most assumed the riches of Premiership income would secure our future for a long time? Yet now we're talking about not losing the club? Would we have been better off if we had never played in the Premiership? How come all clubs want to get up there?

By having much larger attendences and/or chairmen who are willing to piss away masses of their own money?

I'd rather lose the Premiership than compromise the Reading way, or take ANY risk of losing the club.

What's done is done and like Rother I really can't be arsed to argue this same thing on the same thread again.

[Millsy]

So it would never be a good idea to spend a reasonable amount on Prem wages etc because that'd be too much for us eh? Ok fine. So...

1) LOL @ anyone who ever dared to claim we are anywhere near being a big club.

2) LOL at anyone for ever entertaining the idea that we ever belonged or will ever have a right to to belong in the Prem

3) What's the f*cking use of having an ambition to get tothe Premiership if financially it was never going to be viable to stay there??? All this talk of ambition is now to be seen as rather nonsensical and a bit if a joke.

(Little) Reading till I die.

[brendywendy]

So it would never be a good idea to spend a reasonable amount on Prem wages etc because that'd be too much for us eh? Ok fine. So...

1) LOL @ anyone who ever dared to claim we are anywhere near being a big club.

2) LOL at anyone for ever entertaining the idea that we ever belonged or will ever have a right to to belong in the Prem

3) What's the f*cking use of having an ambition to get tothe Premiership if financially it was never going to be viable to stay there??? All this talk of ambition is now to be seen as rather nonsensical and a bit if a joke.

(Little) Reading till I die.

1:anyone who thinks we are , or are close to being a big club wanted shooting anyway
2:we did belong there for a couple of seasons-hopefully now we have turned from a small club, into a yoyo club-a big step up, after a couple of seasons of that, maybe we will progress to a regular midtable prem team, get the ground expansion and be able to fund premiere league wages etc though the extra revenue that generates
3:i think having ambition is a great thing, but it should be realistic.

[Vision]

So it would never be a good idea to spend a reasonable amount on Prem wages etc because that'd be too much for us eh? Ok fine. So...

1) LOL @ anyone who ever dared to claim we are anywhere near being a big club.

2) LOL at anyone for ever entertaining the idea that we ever belonged or will ever have a right to to belong in the Prem

3) What's the f*cking use of having an ambition to get tothe Premiership if financially it was never going to be viable to stay there??? All this talk of ambition is now to be seen as rather nonsensical and a bit if a joke.

(Little) Reading till I die.

We belong in the premier league for as long as our performances warrant it. For 2 seasons we did just that.

I wouldn't say its not viable to stay there just that we are always going to amongst the half dozen strugglers unless we can find someone to massively fund us to get to the next level. Look at the truly massive money spent at Tottenham, Newcastle, Man City and West Ham just to finish in mid table mediocrity.

Of course even 1 more signing might have made the difference but there are no guarantees as Birmingham City can testify.

[Leamington Royal]

I'd rather lose the Premiership status than lose the club overall.

How would we 'lose the club'?

How many other clubs have been lost? Not that many, really. How do you suppose nearly all of them survive in these treacherous waters (without Mr Mad)?

Remember before our Premiership days when most assumed the riches of Premiership income would secure our future for a long time? Yet now we're talking about not losing the club? Would we have been better off if we had never played in the Premiership? How come all clubs want to get up there?

Maybe we would not literally 'lose' our club, but we could easily be left with a club that is 'crippled' to the point of having no hope fulfilling its ambitions. There are lots of examples of clubs who used to enjoy top flight status who have failed to invest in their infrastructure and financial stability properly e.g. Luton, Brighton, Leicester, Sheffield Wednesday etc. and there is no better example than Leeds of a club paying longer term for losing its perspective on wage bills/ transfers in the short term.

For years I aspired to RFC becoming a yo-yo club, and if that is where we spend the next phase of our history then I think it's a step forwards and a step towards appearing in the PL on a more regular basis.

[brendywendy]

For years I aspired to RFC becoming a yo-yo club, and if that is where we spend the next phase of our history then I think it's a step forwards and a step towards appearing in the PL on a more regular basis.

shpot on that man