Reading owners is that a warning

[OldNick]

Listening to BBC 606 podcast today, it struck me how new owners can destroy a decent club like Reading by foolish decisions. I have always been suspicious of SR, and worry they are as good as many had us believe. 

Many will say 'SR spent money' well they did, but are we sure they spent their own money or took out loans against the clubs future PL earnings? they certainly quickly recovered them in the summer.

I don't know the in and outs of Readings problems but so far the new people have overseen, a string of poor management appointments, relegation and now what seemed a brighter future a bit of a eye opener.  

To me Gao was a better owner, he left the club to run with Semmens overseeing it, and I thought rather well. We were unlucky that after Gao bought us the Chinese government stopped outgoing funds from China so he couldn't invest as I suspect he was going to.(typical as a Saints fan that when things look up we get cut at the knees)

I often wonder if Semmens regrets his choice of owners when there were others with more money to invest interested. Their talk is always smart but is it a case of the emperors new clothes.

I truly hope my concerns are unfounded but it doesn't look that great at the moment.

 

[hypochondriac]

The only reason for threads like this are due to our short term crap form, relegation and some bad decisions but in truth we have been on a decline for ages that largely predates Sports Republic. Given the money they have invested, they do deserve a chance to show they can rectify some of their early egregious errors. If we beat Ipswich and Boro (unlikely as that may be) then no one is going to be starting threads like this or questioning their motives. 

It will certainly be interesting though if we get hammered in both games this week to see how long SR allow Martin to persist with these tactics without change.

Equally interesting will be what they decide to do next season if we finish mid table this year. Will we double down? Or go for something a bit more realistic and pragmatic (albeit a bit less exciting and "special"?)  

[OldNick]

9 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

The only reason for threads like this are due to our short term crap form, relegation and some bad decisions but in truth we have been on a decline for ages that largely predates Sports Republic. Given the money they have invested, they do deserve a chance to show they can rectify some of their early egregious errors. If we beat Ipswich and Boro (unlikely as that may be) then no one is going to be starting threads like this or questioning their motives. 

It will certainly be interesting though if we get hammered in both games this week to see how long SR allow Martin to persist with these tactics without change.

Equally interesting will be what they decide to do next season if we finish mid table this year. Will we double down? Or go for something a bit more realistic and pragmatic (albeit a bit less exciting and "special"?)  

That is fair, but I haven't seen yet many wonderful decisions by this team yet. It isn't a recent thought about SR as I have been underwhelmed by them all along. Just listening to the Reading situation made it come to the front of my mind

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, OldNick said:

That is fair, but I haven't seen yet many wonderful decisions by this team yet. It isn't a recent thought about SR as I have been underwhelmed by them all along. Just listening to the Reading situation made it come to the front of my mind

I disagree. I think we have made some decent footballing appointments this year, I just think the tactics have been wrong in the last few games and it has meant we have fallen well short. Ultimately Sports Republic are responsible for the footballing philosophy but they've clearly brought people in this year to push that and it doesn't seem like they have had much involvement with it. If the senior management team fail then I'd be blaming them first rather than Sports Republic who look like they've made reaosnable appointments on paper. 

[Sunglasses Ron]

Reading were very lucky to have John Madejski for many years, a devoted (and highly successful) local businessman who wanted to do good for the town by investing in the ground and squad. He was always going to be a tough act to follow, but what's happened to them is shocking.

Things are far from being right at St Mary's, but compared to them we're in a very stable position (at least for now).