Reading FC

Kevin Doyle left Reading for Wolves in the summer
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Madejski: I am desperate to take Reading FC up

By Jonny Fordham
October 07, 2009

Sir John Madejski has maintained that Reading are still “desperately” trying to get back into the Premier League and are in a solid financial position to do so.

Last week Royals’ chairman released a statement detailing the clubs recent financial history revealing losses of more than £11million since 2006.

However, Sir John believes that the club will weather the global economic crisis and break even as early as next year, an almost complete rarity in world football today.

He told the Post: “We have always been transparent with the supporters and the reason we waited to put out this statement is because of the transfer window.

“We couldn’t do it before that because there are always comings and goings at football clubs and we wanted to give the fans the finances as they are now.

“We are desperately trying to get back into the Premier League and I believe we have a great squad and great manager to do that.

“But during this recession we have seen a 50 per cent drop in hospitality and we are doing the best we can.

“But I do believe we are a very well run club, one of the best in the country in fact.”

Supporters were anxious to know why Royals weren’t splashing the cash this summer following the record £6.5 million sale of Kevin Doyle (pictured right), Stephen Hunt for £3 million and Andre Bikey for £2.8 million, all to top-flight clubs.

The majority of that money was used to pay back bank loans of £7.5million this summer.

A host of senior players on big money were also released on free transfers at the beginning of summer.

Brendan Rodgers has spent just over £3.5million on players since taking over from former boss Steve Coppell.

And Sir John, who has a multi-million business portfolio, kept his cards close to his chest when asked if Rodgers would be handed a transfer warchest this January to bolster his squad to help the new manager mount a serious promotion challenge.

“That’s something we’ll look at in January,” said Sir John.

The club have also been in the spot-light surrounding a take-over from Middle Eastern businessmen, but the chairman wouldn’t divulge into who he had spoken to over any possible deals.

But he reiterated that his door was always open for any billionaire investors who wanted to acquire a top Championship club.

Last month Sir John was allegedly spotted showing potential investors around Madejski Satdium, but he emphasised that he was not close to agreeing a deal for the club with any interested parties.

And he added that he was enjoying his time in charge of the club he took over more than 19 years ago more than ever.

“It’s been hard with the recession,” admitted Sir John.

“But we have so many wonderful people here that help make this club so great.

“Everyone from the manager to the players have given their all for Reading Football Club and it has always been a joint team effort to make this club what it is, and I’m proud of that.”

Some fans had also wondered what the club infrastructure of £7.45million consisted of, which Sir John explained comprised of the new £2million media centre and the new pitch that cost £800,0000, plus other running costs and improvements of the stadium and Hogwood training ground.

John Keen, vice-chair of the Supporters’ Trust at Reading (STAR) welcomed the club’s decision to release the financial information following unrest among some fans who chanted “Where’s the money gone?” at the end of the disappointing 3-1 defeat by Sheffield United at Madejski Stadium on August 22.

Mr Keen said: “The club are under no obligation to release this information, but it’s what the supporters wanted to know.

“So many clubs that have come down from the Premier League are now in financial turmoil and we are pleased that the club is being run properly and not running up massive debts in relation to others in football.”

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Quote "Everyone from the manager to the players have given their all for Reading Football Club".

Is this backed up by performances on the pitch?

Apart from that, quite a good statement from Sir John & despite what people are saying, he ain't daft, maybe poorly advised at times, but Sir John has always done right for us.

Abu Dhabi Dave, Reading
07/10/2009 at 23:48

"Not setting the league alight" is something of an understatement! Madejski trumpets about how well run and solid the business is. Most businesses recognise that existing customers need to be kept happy by an ongoing review of the product or service that they offer, because if that product or service starts falling short of what the customer needs, then the customer is likely to start looking elsewhere.

Retention of the existing customer customer base has a more beneficial effect on the balance sheet than new business because you are not paying a commission to a salesperson, and this is magnified greatly in a recession, when new business is much much harder to come by.

To give an analogy that reflects how a lot of fans feel about the way things are going, imagine if you went to a nice restaurant, and pay a twenty quid or so for a nice bit of grilled sea bass. You enjoy it, so you go back some months later, and say "I'll have the fish again". They charge you the same, but when your plate arrives, the sea bass has been substituted with fish fingers. The restauranteur, and his accountant will be happy, because the profit margin has been increased by using cheaper ingredients, but most customers I know will make a value judgement: do fish fingers justify that sort of price tag? Our very own restauranteur, (pictured at the top), maintains that his food is of the very highest quality, but customers like myself (I dine in the North stand, so to speak), can confirm that the fare on offer is but a pale imitation of what went before. I have been a season ticket holder since the days of the "Network Southeast" enclosure, (the South Bank), and as such, that season ticket entitled me to watch the reserve team games for free, as well as first team games. We are now watching last year's reserves and fringe players who make up the bulk of the team. I put it to you that they were reserves for a reason, and curiously enough, the league table appears to back that sentiment up. Everybody accepts that silly money thrown at the playing staff can only result in administration. However, another way of screwing a business up is by offering a shoddy second rate product. Unless it has a shoddy second rate price tag, customers will make the same value judgement. I note that hospitality package sales are already down by 50%. I wonder how difficult it will be for the club to sell hospitality paskages for a fixture aginst Barnet. You reap what you sow. The only people who can't see that the club is going backwards are those that continually spin the hackneyed "ambitious club" garbage.

ray northstander
07/10/2009 at 18:06

chris cleverley - what happens when we get relegated - do we 'cut our cloth' again, cos there aint a lot of value to this squad and as it stands we would struggle to get promoted from league 1 with this squad, and do the same the following year,sometimes you have to speculate to accumalate, by investing in the squad rather than infrastructure you surely bring in more revenue. ok sometimes you have to sell your best asset to fund other transfers to even out your squad, but you have to identify the replacements 1st. get them in then sell to the highest bidder. but we haven't since the sale of shorey, we never replaced sidwell,kitson,little,doyle,hunt we just bought in the cheapest we could find as make do's and hoped something would come along. the players we have bought in have all been mere squad players and youth players at this level, other wise they would have commanded much higher fees,and you can't win leagues with players who are squad players. imo we would have been better off getting 2 or 3 quality players rather than 7 or 8 really average bodies

ajr111, swindon
07/10/2009 at 14:02

Tom, Tom ... Denile's a river in Egypt.

I would be interested to know what you would do in Sir John's shoes. Bankrupt yourself? Bankrupt the club? The debts that the likes of Portsmouth and Southampton et al have are down to over optimism tempered with poor judgment. Reading may not be setting the league alight at the moment but at least it's solvent.