An interesting blog from my near neighbours
https://theuglygame.wordpress.com/2023/06/22/cheering-on-our-own-ruin/
Reading have been a basket case for years, all cheered on by their supporters desperate to chase the Premier League dragon one more time.
Next season could go very badly for them if they continue to be in such disarray.
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It’s the hope that kills you.
I assume that's Martin Calladine? His book of the same name is well worth a read, especially for any NFL fans.
There's an old David Squires cartoon showing a fan accepting absolutely anything his club does no matter how deranged. But when they lose four games on the trot he burns his season ticket.
Could happen to any of us.
My favourite response to this from last season (by a Derby fan, of all people): "I never had any hope, so at least I'll escape death."
Aren't all our season tickets digital now? Scenes when an incensed fan sets his iPhone on fire in front of Matt Bloomfield.
Theo Walcott apparently among Readings trialists in Spain for pre-season, I'm sure they are taking all possible steps to reduce expenditure and pay back what they borrowed.
At this rate Reading won’t be the biggest club in Berkshire soon.
Remarkably, Maidenhead United have got a 20 per cent sell-on clause on Wolves defender Max Kilman who is interesting Napoli, with a bid of £35m having been turned down already.
Wolves want at least £40m which would equate to a sell on of around £8m for the Magpies, who sold him for about £40k originally.
God knows what a part-time club would do with £8m. Go full-time might be at the top of the list you’d have thought.
If that's all true that is quite astounding stuff.
Those Maidenhead lot will be feeling a really nervous mix of fear and excitement as that's a sort of once in history game changer that.
Could fund a new ground and give a huge go at promotion.
Not sure £8 million will buy you a patch of land big enough to put a football pitch on in Maidenhead let alone an actual ground!
But good luck to them. Would love to see them in the Football League one day
Wow ! That would be amazing.
I hope whoever it was that negotiated the deal when he left is bought a drink
It must be a bit of a challenge planning for the season ahead. If Kilman doesn’t move, you’ve got one of the smallest budgets in the division and a part-time squad which if Alan Devonshire gets it right (once again) will just about stay up or if he does you’ve got eight million quid.
Quite a tax problem as well I’d have thought.
I sincerely hope they do well out of this and profit massively.... hopefully the Wycombe negotiators will learn and take a leaf out of maidenheads books after all the seemingly poor sell ons we have attained in recent years
Brings some bad memories up.
Selling clauses just before a player is sold on for a decent fee.
Putting an international clause in for a certain country, then the player represents another.
Well done Maidenhead, and hope it comes off for them.
Amazed a Wolves defender is being talked about for such a fee though, it has gone utterly barmy.
Maybe we should have Maidenhead negotiate some of our contracts.
To be fair, this is a truly exceptional case isn’t it? A sell-on of £8m quid would be huge for a Premier League club let alone one of the smallest clubs in the National League.
So not sure it’s quite the barometer for whether our own transfer dealings are any good.
Although, I bet the Couhigs are probably now thinking they may have bought the wrong club near to Heathrow Airport.
Ha!!! Yeah.. most definitely a potentially very lucky break. My comments (at least) were tongue in cheek
Rumour swirl around now and then that the deal with Blackpool to waive further sell-ons for Phillips and the almost simultaneously announced deal for Blackpool to buy and loan back Charles Dunne was actually a ruse to get cash into the club instead of all of the sell-on going to a previous owner as part of the Trust's takeover deal. It could be argued that if this were to be true, the WWST board at the time took a hit on their own credibility to keep the show on the road.
All conspiracy theories, as I'm sure those ITK like @marlowchair can confirm...
Think there was something close to this with Chris Smalling and there's echoes of it at our level with Anis and maybe Chris Forino one day. Usually you expect when a Prem club buy a young prospect from lower or non league they will just disappear into their vast systems and maybe come back out on loan or be released in a few years having acted as training filler for those returning from injury or other better prospects but it's a great example that if you work hard , learn as you go and impress during rare chances something can happen. A young English player playing regularly in the Prem won't ever be too far from full or U21 England caps and that combination makes them worth plenty and be seen worldwide.
Ouch:
https://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/chris-smalling/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_conf/8572063.stm
Maidenhead are working closely with Michael Shanley to help them move to Braywick and build a new stadium there. Shanley would then buy York Road and turn that into housing.
There are a number of planning things being worked through but I'm sure this £8M injection may really help to achieve some of that, to be able to pay for the planning etc.
They are one of three part time clubs in the conference. I'm not sure they'd use the cash to go full time.
Aren't they one of four now Oxford City have come up? Wealdstone and Dorking the other two.
It's all very well saying that the fans were cheering every step of the way, but the footballing culture has been steered for decades away from the model of local clubs building year-over-year through the erosion of equal distribution of wealth, access to the the youth talent pool and the media spotlight being so singularly focused not just on the Premier League, but on a handful of clubs in the Premier League . So now having made it pretty much a closed shop that only the seriously rich can get to, the parochial football fan is being asked to cop their share of the blame for welcoming someone in who represents a chance at making it to this recently constructed utopia? How are they to distinguish between an Abramovich who will be welcome for over a decade before being declared persona non grata to a Dai or a Han? Or a Morris even, because the article tells us that at least you know where you are with the local lad made good. In any case, are we to believe that if the masses of Reading had the perspicacity to know how it would all end (whilst simultaneously having zero oversight over financial matters at the club), they would have put their complaints forward and the owner would have said 'it's a fair cop, I'll be on my way then'. I think the most that could be asked of the fans is for them to feel a bit embarrassed about seeing the FFP regulations as a bunch of rules to be ridden roughshod over and to feel some concern over any creditors that they may have - I recall that being quite a challenge for others recently in similar positions and I will save any criticism of the fans for the way they act now that the full horror show is unfolding.
£8M would barely pay for an annual car park pass at Maidenhead Station these days.
End of an era possibly? 😪
A move away from York Rd has been talked about for some time. The money they could get from selling it would be eye-wateringly high.
I think the idea was use the money to build a modern stadium away from the town centre, invest in the squad and have a run at getting up into the league.
That's going back a few years now mind, not sure where they are with it now. And they don't get very big crowds
edit: Just read Commoner's post above which suggests the plan is very much still alive. Must learn to read through threads before commenting on the last contribution
If this isn't retro-fitted to answer criticism, and they did this on purpose in order to protect the clubs interests over Sharkeys, and sat by and took abuse when people thought otherwise they are genuine legends.
Yeah I think you've got a point there
It's the best explanation I've had for those very strange events, albeit the evidence is entirely circumstantial and only backed up with 3rd hand hearsay.
Obviously they'd have a pretty huge fee from selling their current land to boot!
It was late… completely forgot to factor that in…