Fans forum

[SCIAG]

Or perhaps in this economic state of gloom and doom, Mr Mad has to realise that no-one wanted to buy us last year and no one seems interested this year, so maybe he should forget about selling for another year or two and put his energy into sorting the club out and allowing us to purchase/loan a couple more important signings. What are the club's ambitions? Do we really know? I don't. Perhaps he wouldn't mind telling us.

It could also be that in the doom & gloom we are saving for a harsh winter...agreed no-one knows but the stated goal is that we want to get back to the top flight and it would appear we are looking to do it in a smiliar way to last time, by not spending shedloads and trying to engender a superb team ethic - something missing last year.

Not totally true as we were not flogging off our better players three years ago. Having said that after what Coppell has said about 8/9 wanting to leave anyway.... let them go....it does really grate though that such underperformance during the second half of last season has been rewarded with Premiership deals for some of them. If we go up and Stoke go down I will be feeling pretty smug.

We let our second and third top scorers go

[Stranded]

Didn't Coppell say in his Fan's Forum interview that getting back to the Prem would mean we'd need to find £100 million or something? That says to me that Mr Mad doesn't want us to get back up there because he can't afford it. Therefore, our ambition if you can call it that, is to consolidate in the Championship until someone more willing to spend lots of money buys us. I truly haven't seen anything this season where the Chairman or the Board or the Management have declared outright that we will be going all out to get back to the Prem this season. I might have missed it. So, please someone point me in the direction of these comments.

I think he said that it may well cost that to keep us there if/when we got there? Although it was clearly a tounge in cheek comment.

[working class hero]

Didn't Coppell say in his Fan's Forum interview that getting back to the Prem would mean we'd need to find £100 million or something? That says to me that Mr Mad doesn't want us to get back up there because he can't afford it. Therefore, our ambition if you can call it that, is to consolidate in the Championship until someone more willing to spend lots of money buys us. I truly haven't seen anything this season where the Chairman or the Board or the Management have declared outright that we will be going all out to get back to the Prem this season. I might have missed it. So, please someone point me in the direction of these comments.

I think he said that it may well cost that to keep us there if/when we got there? Although it was clearly a tounge in cheek comment.

Coppell mentioned the need for massive investment on 2 occasions. He quantified it as being in the region of £100 million once. I am not sure it was tongue in cheek. He also said our best chance of bouncing straight back would have been to keep the players wages at last seasons level with massive bonuses for promotion but said 'we are not that sort of club'.

For me he was close to being critical of Mr M's policies....

[brendywendy]

no, i think hes just stating facts
he loves the club, and continues to want to manage us,but is aware of how we are run
and its precisely because we arent that sort of club
IMO

[Gordons Cumming]

Does anyone think Graeme Murty looks like Jack Dee?

[Arch]

Didn't Coppell say in his Fan's Forum interview that getting back to the Prem would mean we'd need to find £100 million or something? That says to me that Mr Mad doesn't want us to get back up there because he can't afford it. Therefore, our ambition if you can call it that, is to consolidate in the Championship until someone more willing to spend lots of money buys us. I truly haven't seen anything this season where the Chairman or the Board or the Management have declared outright that we will be going all out to get back to the Prem this season. I might have missed it. So, please someone point me in the direction of these comments.

I think he said that it may well cost that to keep us there if/when we got there? Although it was clearly a tounge in cheek comment.

Coppell mentioned the need for massive investment on 2 occasions. He quantified it as being in the region of £100 million once. I am not sure it was tongue in cheek. He also said our best chance of bouncing straight back would have been to keep the players wages at last seasons level with massive bonuses for promotion but said 'we are not that sort of club'.

For me he was close to being critical of Mr M's policies....

He also reminisced nostalgically about watching games with Ron Noades when they didn't have a penny to spend trying to find rough diamonds. I don't think it was necessarily critical. i don't thin SC likes big money football any more than JM does, and I think he's uncomfortable with Prem attitude footballers. He seems much happier with enthusiastic unknowns. He was happy at Brighton. That's not an argument that either he or JM are a good fit for RFC in its current position, but I don't see any criticism of JM from Steve.

[Royal Lady]

Would you criticise your boss publicly and expect to be in your job the next day?

[Arch]

Would you criticise your boss publicly and expect to be in your job the next day?

I meant, given the evidence about SC, it's unlikely that there was any veiled criticism. Anyway, he like many managers do, could openly complain there isn't enough money and I doubt he'd lose his job.

[Royalee]

Would you criticise your boss publicly and expect to be in your job the next day?

Ultimatums carry quite a lot of weight when you have the full backing of your main stakeholder in the fans as Coppell did at the beginning of last season, Madejski wouldn't have had a leg to stand on if Coppell had spoken up.

[Dirk Gently]

Didn't Coppell say in his Fan's Forum interview that getting back to the Prem would mean we'd need to find £100 million or something? That says to me that Mr Mad doesn't want us to get back up there because he can't afford it. Therefore, our ambition if you can call it that, is to consolidate in the Championship until someone more willing to spend lots of money buys us. I truly haven't seen anything this season where the Chairman or the Board or the Management have declared outright that we will be going all out to get back to the Prem this season. I might have missed it. So, please someone point me in the direction of these comments.

I think he said that it may well cost that to keep us there if/when we got there? Although it was clearly a tounge in cheek comment.

Coppell mentioned the need for massive investment on 2 occasions. He quantified it as being in the region of £100 million once. I am not sure it was tongue in cheek. He also said our best chance of bouncing straight back would have been to keep the players wages at last seasons level with massive bonuses for promotion but said 'we are not that sort of club'.

For me he was close to being critical of Mr M's policies....

I didn't take it as being critical of Mr M - I took it more as being a recognition of the difference in scale and finances between the CCC and the PL. And I think it was £100 to compete in the PL, rather than survive there, which is a quite different thing.

I also interpreted it that SC now realises that the gap between leagues is now so big that a team who can easily get promotion still won't be string enough to survive in the PL - it will need virtually a complete change of personnel rather than the progression that we tried. This was further backed up (to me) when he talked about centre-backs and said that although we worked well as a defensive unit we were really weak with the sort of one-on-ones you get in the PL - and so perhaps we should have done what some teams did and spend heavily on centre-backs first thing.

[kwik-silva]

I don't think thats true, I mean an 8th place finish isn't bad, I think its the second season we needed to completely change, seeing as we had lost our momentum

[Dirk Gently]

Perhaps - we were an exceptional team with an exceptional attitude - but the underlying message is the same, if the timing is slightly different. Massive gap between divisions requires massive investment to overcome.

But I still don't think Sc was criticising JM - especially when , at the very start he talked about joining other CCC clubs and said how little he thought of other chairmen compared to JM. SC has said many times that he respects JM's integrity and way of doing things.

[Henleyensian]

I think you will findthat SC said that Palace wuld not do business with HIM. I think it has been mentioned many times that he and Simon Jordan do not get on, so it is not surprising.

I am afraid that there are so many cynics on this board that it might be a good idea if they came along to hear what is said in the flesh and to hear tone of voice etc. What's more, SC has a dry sense of humuor and quite often the precis of his answers misses out on it.

[The 17 Bus]

Sadly Henleyensian some on here dont care to hear what is said or how it is said, they prefer to remain the sad pessimists that they come across as, SC has explained very well what has been happening at RFC, yet they still look to blame SC or JM.

Now there is no doubt that both have made errors, and SC has admitted many of his, however on relegation salaries fell, and rightly so, paying excessive salaries is one way to unbalance the books, as is paying excessive transfer fees.

Despite all the evidence from the past some still believe you can buy your way to promotion, or safety.

[Whore Jackie]

A full report of the evening is now available on the STAR website:

http://www.star-reading.org/index.php?o ... &Itemid=26

Absolutely fascinating read. Thanks STAR.

[readingbedding]

Would you criticise your boss publicly and expect to be in your job the next day?

Ultimatums carry quite a lot of weight when you have the full backing of your main stakeholder in the fans as Coppell did at the beginning of last season, Madejski wouldn't have had a leg to stand on if Coppell had spoken up.

Derby are great!

[Northern Git]

Sadly Henleyensian some on here dont care to hear what is said or how it is said, they prefer to remain the sad pessimists that they come across as, SC has explained very well what has been happening at RFC, yet they still look to blame SC or JM.

Now there is no doubt that both have made errors, and SC has admitted many of his, however on relegation salaries fell, and rightly so, paying excessive salaries is one way to unbalance the books, as is paying excessive transfer fees.

Despite all the evidence from the past some still believe you can buy your way to promotion, or safety.

Seems to have worked quite well for Chelski

[RoyalBlue]

Sadly Henleyensian some on here dont care to hear what is said or how it is said, they prefer to remain the sad pessimists that they come across as, SC has explained very well what has been happening at RFC, yet they still look to blame SC or JM.

Now there is no doubt that both have made errors, and SC has admitted many of his, however on relegation salaries fell, and rightly so, paying excessive salaries is one way to unbalance the books, as is paying excessive transfer fees.

Despite all the evidence from the past some still believe you can buy your way to promotion, or safety.

Presumably for the simple reason that other clubs have proved you can do just that!!

[The 17 Bus]

That I assume would include Derby, who bought loads in Jan this year, tho I do accept that it was a hopeless case already, please remind me what Chelsea won last season for their spending??

Worked well for Leicester too, £2m plus spent that saved their place in the Championship.

[Platypuss]

That I assume would include Derby, who bought loads in Jan this year, tho I do accept that it was a hopeless case already, please remind me what Chelsea won last season for their spending??

Worked well for Leicester too, £2m plus spent that saved their place in the Championship.

If you'd said that spending money will not ensure success/safety then no one would disagree.

However saying money can't buy it is palpably untrue.