After reading some, if not many, comments about our ‘supposed’ financial state that Reading are particularly in I feel I need to go on the defensive.
This season especially we have seen big earners Kevin Doyle (Wolves for £6.5 million), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolves for free), Leroy Lita (Released, yet to find a club), Michael Duberry (Wycombe Wanderers for free), and Graeme Murty (Released, on trial at Southampton) all leave the club without replacements being brought in.
Dave Kitson (£5.5 million to Stoke City), Ibrahima Sonko (£2.25 million to Stoke City), Nicky Shorey (Around £4 million to Aston Villa) were all sold at the beginning of last season, so on paper it seems that Reading have made significant profit.
However, the price of relegation far exceeds what people expect. Given the demands of sponsorships and TV money in the top flight and it’s completely different compared to the Championship.
TV money is a small fraction from what you do get in the Premier League and the newly constructed media centre as well as stadium expansion plans all cost plenty of money. The club also paid for the upgrade on the Madejski Hotel annoyingly.
Player’s wages increase significantly and although there's a relegation wage decrease, it's still more than they were originally was on. The parachute payments simply help combat all those things.
Not to mention the empty seats that appears more consistently throughout the season. The playoff game against Burnley wasn’t even a sell out - just one game from Wembley. Every empty seat costs money and if we had the attendances that Sheffield United get we would be able to splash out £2 million on a single player on a regular basis.
It is nothing more than extraordinary that a club, like ours, are balanced brilliantly after suffering relegation, we could have easily gambled to the extent of Southampton, Charlton or Norwich (who are all relegated) and find ourselves in a much more complicated situation.
Birmingham City, for instance, spent two season budgets in one and if they failed to win promotion, they would find themselves in dire straits. Therefore, for a team like Reading, still with many talented players on high wages, it would have been foolish to impose our slim budget any further and gambled unnecessarily.
That’s why this supposed ‘huge war chest’ never came around.
This season has a different prospect however, we can’t afford to gamble anymore and the inevitable departure of Doyle and soon to be departed Stephen Hunt was needed to make sure the club stay stable. This is why that transfer money isn’t available for new players; I’m sure there is some but not to the extent some fans are expecting.
Some unfair criticism is currently pointed at Sir John Madejski for this, it’s becoming more of an everyday occurrence, as it appears that he hasn’t handed any of the previous managers’ war chests to improve the squad; however, there is a reason for this.
He gambled £1 million on Leroy Lita and we won promotion, even though the £70,000 spent on Doyle was a more worthwhile expenditure; he must have that in mind.
Financially speaking we lost £1 million on Leroy but gained £6.4 million on Doyle. Hardly need a mathematician to work out what are the better figures?
So he doesn’t see spending big will be beneficial for the club, and as there are not any
Arab billionaires lying around, I think it’s the sensible choice.
The issue SJM has is losing money through his own pocket. The cash he’s invested into the academy has been somewhat pointless ever since its existence but now it is finally paying dividends.
The emergence of players like Jem Karacan, Alex Pearce, Julian Kelly, James Henry, Hal Robson-Kanu, Scott Davies, Shane Long, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Simon Church, Simon Cox, Mikkel Anderson will all, sooner rather than later, make an impact on the first team and his investment is starting to look worthwhile.
Before he saw many of players graduating from the academy, that had potential, being sold off cheaply with other clubs making grand profit.
SJM knows the value of youth and seen his club miss big windfalls as good talent left to make a name for themselves elsewhere.
The fees that some of youth have attracted after leaving have been unforgiving.
Darius Henderson was sold for practically nothing to Gillingham, he moved to Watford for £450,000 and then to Sheffield United for £2 million. Big money lost.
Nathan Tyson moved to Wycombe for a fee believed to be £100,000, and after performing well he soon transferred to Nottingham Forest for £750,000. Still big money lost.
Simon Cox was given to Swind*n Town for £200,000 and not long after he moved to rivals West Brom for £1.5 million. Good enough to lead West Brom’s frontline; surely he would have been a success at Reading?
Jamie Ashdown left on a free to join Portsmouth and we had to settle for a little compensation fee.
All this money nurturing talent was wasted as other clubs benefitted; the ones we trained and introduced into football.
Brendan Rodgers knows this and arguably, it was one of the major reasons for his appointment to get the best out of youth.
Most of the current young players would have been fresh faced 15/16 year olds when our new manager was in charge of the Reading youths back in 2003/2004, now Rodgers have seen them grown in men ready for the next stage of their careers and who would be better to implement them into the first team.
Now it’s time for the management to stop letting these players slip through the club’s fingers, as it’s now time to profit with success and top-flight football.
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