What On Earth Is Going On At Reading?
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- Опубликовано: 9 мар 2023
- The best team the Championship has ever seen in the 2005-06 season, when they won promotion to the Premier League with a record breaking 106 points, Reading were regarded for more than two decades under John Madejski as one of the best run clubs in English football.
Since Madejski's departure in 2012 though, Reading have had three owners, 15 different managers, been put under a transfer embargo, and deducted six points for breaching EFL profit and sustainability rules.
In light of the news that the Royals are in line for another six point deduction this season, HITC Sevens takes at the chaos and mismanagement of Reading Football Club, the background of their Chinese ownership regime, and what the future might hold for the troubled Championship outfit. 
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I think Coventry City deserve a video, played at 4 different stadiums in the last 10 years, multiple administrations, falling to league 2, still receiving threats to be kicked out the ground as recently as December, but now fighting for the playoffs
It's been some ride 😅
huh, didn't know one of my favorite team in LMA Manager 2001 having difficulties like this
upvoted
Please do this, Alfie.
Swear alfie already has done a cov city video no?
Definitely, I’m a Hull fan and gone to most away days this season. Enjoyed going to Coventry, home support was great. We took a lot of fans and was good to have the banter. Outsiders for the play offs this season, would be better than Norwich going back up. 😂
With the way things are going for Reading FC atm looks like HITC Sevens need to do a Part 2!
Bottom of League One, received a HMRC winding up order this week, had the attention seeking former F1 'sponsor' William Storey trying to buy them and him now saying he's bowing out of the race... they've had better seasons
'Funny old life, isn't it?' - I just love that. It read, to me at least, very much as 'yeah, that prick's dead, what a shame, oh well, moving on'. I always considered Madejski the classic benevolent chairman, and one of the few examples I could think of where a person actually deserved a stadium being named in his honour.
His story reminds me of Tony Bloom
I kept Reading about it and wondered the same thing!
Without much Freddy Adu, Alfie will now enlighten us! 🥳
Watched my first match at Elm Park back in 1954 and been through the ebb and flow of my beloved club ever since. Very good video, heartbreaking though it is.
Profoundly depressing but very well made video Alfie. As someone who has lived through all of this it's easy to lose perspective. We've become a joke of a club, with dwindling attendences, and wildly inconsistent performances on the pitch. And that was before the expected points deduction. As ever, it's us, the fans, who suffer. I'll still be there even if we end up in the National League, just as long as the club survives. Just how many more clubs need to go through what we and others have before someone finally takes control of English football and returns it to us? Still, as we like to say around here, Cmn URZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.
come on u royals
There are other fanbases that have organised to at least try and fight back against dodgy owners (worked for Charlton) but I don't know if our fan base has it in them. The club has become the football equivalent of one of the empty investment flats in the town centre and the entire thing just depresses me as a lifelong fan and former Y26 season ticket holder
@@OpreRoma We are broken as a fanbase. All I've ever seen in the last few years around Reading are Chelsea (who are just down the M4) and ManU shirts.
UTD
It is very worrying. I will continue to support them no matter the division we are in. Hopefully we can survive but the club appears to be slowly dying.
I was signed to Reading as a youth from 84-89... You think it's bad nowadays?!! 😂👍
Ayyy! A Vito Mannone reference! That man is a Minnesota United legend for what he did for us in 2019. That was a year that was crazy, exhilarating, and almost perfect. What I would give to bring it back.
Alfie, any chance of a video on how Mark Robins has taken Coventry from League 2 to chasing promotion to the Premier League? All on a shoe string budget and having to play outside of the city etc
As a Reading Fan I have been waiting for this video and thank you for putting your eyes over our club. It's difficult to describe the fall of our club and how it has been so badly run by many different owners since Madjeski moved on.
While we broke the rules, and we needed to be reigned in and my hope is that we can move on from this and become a club that again has a structure to build. a sustainable team. I do feel that these owners need to move on though for that to be achieved. I guess what I want from this is a club to support and care for. We are a club that has lost it's way but seeing the examples of other clubs like Coventry, Bolton and others it can be done. Plus I prefer a good scouting and young players with something to prove is best.
However we are living in the age of people with large amounts of money but seemingly have no clue as to how to us that money in a way that is structured and wise. We need another owner in the style of Madjeski, someone who understands business and who is wise in their investments. However when Madjeski came along they were few and far between then and the same is true now.
I am also glad that you put this in context. The EFL have enabled these owners and the owners at Birmingham to take control of the club and as an organisation I do not trust them. As you said the EFL have had a close eye on our finances, and they know our situation, so until the EFL actually say why they felt it necessary to dock us the 6 points this season, I will not comment but what I find interesting is the timing of this. Could this be due to the financial year but that does not make sense as the original ruling was mid season.
It is a mess that will take time to unravel and I fear that it will take a long time to do so. We are in such a mess.
Honestly the thing that sets Madejski apart from other owners isn't his business sense. The others know how to run a business too. The difference is that Madejski is an actual fan of the club who understands why it is important to the town. This is a recurring factor with dodgy owners is that they don't give a fuck about the team or understand the community aspect of their club. Madejski, growing up in the same bit of Reading I did, near to our old ground, understood that
If anything, this is yet another example of treating football clubs like any other business fails. You can't expect to let clubs be the playthings of capitalists and still have the clubs to be run as they should. It's difficult to make money in the Championship, often the ony way for an owner to make a profit out of their investment is either to be one of the 3 clubs out of 24 to get promoted, or asset strip. Of course businessmen whose entire life has been lived in pursuit of profit will sell shit off when their 8/1 gamble on promotion fails
Germany and Argentina have both proven that clubs at the highest levels of the game can maintain success with a fan ownership model, and are often more stable as a result as they are reliant not on the whims or luck of a few investors for funding, but lifelong committed fans. We need to move to a fan ownership model. We can't rely on there always being a wealthy fan like Madejski to buy the club, or that same wealthy fan living forever or never making a bad business decision. We need to treat clubs as what they are, community assets that aren't really able to consistently function as profit first entities unless they are at the very highest levels of the game
I'm not a Reading fan but live near Reading and It is a shame to see they are going through hard times. It has always been a great club from a community point of view and have always had that feeling whenever I've been to the stadium.
As an Oxford Utd fan I can say the Robert Maxwell era could be a 30 minute video on its own. Interesting due to the Thames Valley royals saga most older Oxford fans dislike Reading however this has cooled for younger fans as we haven’t played in the same division for more than 30 years.
Yeah, Reading fan here, I'm glad the much more bitter rivalry existed back then, as that pushback let us keep both teams we have today.
The man seriously thought "Nothing short of the end of the earth will prevent this from going through" whilst both teams and fans literally despised eachother xD
Don't worry - Reading will be playing Oxford United soon, with Swindon unlikely to leave League 2 for the next few years, the rivalry will heat back up 100%.
I'd love to see a video on Vitesse over here in the Netherlands. After being succesful for a few years as a Chelsea "satellite club" they've been in a rollercoaster the last few years with multiple owners and are now at the point where they basically can't exist without external funding and are possibly losing their stadium (and license) soon.
Als KNVB eenmaal groen licht geeft aan de overname zal het hopelijk wel goed komen ik heb er vertrouwen in 💛🖤🦅💛🖤🦅 blijft de mooiste club van NL 💛🖤🦅
Nah kump goe ik hou de hoop er in en als dit wordt opgelost mag van mij wel een bezem door het bestuur heen
What do you mean by Chelsea satellite club
@@moxictasculinity Chelsea loaned a lot of players to them and if I'm correct Abramovich was the real owner controling all
@@adrianburlacu8988 ja maar Oyf regelde veel bij Vitesse
Very good reading on the Reading situation 👏
Otis Redding used to read music in Reading.
As an Irish Reading fan, I've found your last two videos even more interesting than normal
Thanks for putting this all together. As a Reading fan I appreciate seeing the information all linked together in one place, helps make sense of the current shit show.
Under Madejski, we always had the confidence that the club would be well run financially (post Tommy Burns anyway)
Been waiting for this one for ages. Reading are my team and it’s heartbreaking how they used to be such a well run club to where they are now
Still hoping for a documentary about Gretna or the Nigerian Premier League too. Thanks for all the quality content though Alfie :)
Oh god don’t get me started on the Nigerian League, we are easily one of the worst run leagues in the world
I read that as Greta and the Nigerian Prince... maybe I should go back to bed or something.
Gretna are quite closed to me, even though I live in England
@@bababababababa6124 Exactly. making it a perfect topic for this channel :)
@@soundscape26 that sounds like a fairytale!
Speaking as a Reading fan, I'm just glad he spared us the pop song.
Prefer Sing for the Royals.
As someone used to following North American sports leagues, what's going on over there is mind-blowing. 🤯
This video is a real eye-opener. Great job!
I want to look up a few of those names you mentioned, but I don't know how to spell them. I'll take a look around the webs to try to find out. Ooh, I think I got one of the more obscure ones!28:09 Kia Joorabchian? I guessed at the spelling of the surname, and this popped up and the picture confirmed it.
I had no idea UEFA had spending rules for clubs.
This video must've taken many, many hours to put together. A lot of your photo selections were absolutely fantastic. Wonderful job, thank you! I'm forwarding this to my soon-to-be-equally-astonished friends! Subscribed to this and to your alternate channel 2 (look, a pun!). 😄
Hey Alfie, I have been a subscriber for a long time and love a deep dive on a club like this. If you ever get time, the downward spiral of Birmingham City since winning the league cup 10 years ago would be a great topic. There's dodgy finances, failed takeovers, points deductions, protests and even an ongoing suspected arson case.
I support them and have no idea what's happening or how we got here, so if you could help me out that would be great!
My favourite thing about Reading in general is how Americans pronounce it 💀
I also read reading as reading now, thanks to you!
Keep Reading's name out of IShowSpeed's mouth
@@eyarebisong2152 oh god I don’t ever wanna hear him say it 😭😂
come on you can't blame America for this one!
As someone from one of the British commonwealth nations (New Zealand) I think this one's on you guys England you can't have a place spelt the exact same way as a common word and expect people from elsewhere in the world to not pronounce it how the common word is pronounced 😆
Thanks Alfie, brilliant summary. I am sure there was not space for it, but you also missed out the role of Chris Samuelson, who may be worth a video in his own right given his involvements elsewhere.
Thanks for the compilation/up date, we just don’t have access to that type of info here in Colorado USA
The Maxwell part creeped me the hell out. I didn’t know that family was even part of football history.
I had the same reaction!
There's a good video by Tifo on the same subject, worth a watch
Owned Derby County for a while did well at first we got promoted and finished 5th in the league but missed out on UEFA Cup football due to the English ban after Heysel. After that he lost interest and the fans quickly turned on him, he was also a fraudster that stole pensions from his employees but I'm not clued up on the details.
Reading fan here and the biggest thing that drives me crazy is how we went from one extreme to another spending-wise, from being very very tight on finances but finding some gems, to throwing cash around aimlessly over and over.
Consider that back in the Summer of '07 our biggest EVER Transfer was for Emerse Faé for £2.5m and he played 6 games for us... THAT WAS HOW TIGHT ON FINANCES THEY WERE, our first season in the Premier League and THAT was our biggest transfer! We got Kevin Doyle and Shane Long together from Cork City for less than £100,000.
A decade ago I wondered what would happen if we spent more, we must do so much better right?
2015 onwards? We're blowing that kind of cash to LOAN Matěj Vydra and some of the other signings featured in this video.
I feel like we've been cursed, yes, finally, Reading will pay out some more for players, that's great news, but dropping £7.5m for Aluko... a forward that scored 6 goals for us in 93 appearances was NOT what I meant.
Compare that to our past:
Dave Kitson cost us £150,000 and got 54 goals in 135 appearances
Kevin Doyle cost us £78,000 and got 55 goals in 157 appearances
Heck, Gylfi Sigurdsson was part of our Youth Academy (so basically free) and they scored more goals in less appearances than Aluko and they were an attacking midfielder!
The list goes on in recent years of failures and loaned signing. More recently the likes of Puscas, I'll argue João because of one decent season but that's it, Meite is on huge mo ey but flatters to decieve, then we come to Ejaria, again flatters to decieve, then we come to captain chaos himself....Liam Moore...we turned down 15mill from Brighton and offered him 35k a week and he stabs us in the back. No wonder he was booed the other night on his return. The list of duffers we have signed is endless. Forgot to even mention the striker we paid 5mill for and never played...forgotten his name...absolutely useless. Then what talent we have walk out the door (Swift). Then we come to the managers we appoint and pay off....newbies, failures and never heard of s...You couldn't make the shit up we have put up with. Still I'm off to the Millwall game now to watch us head towards the relegation zone again after another 6 point deduction.
Preston, Hull, Reading, Stoke, Bristol City, Cardiff, Etc. Have no chance of going down, it will stay how it is
Not if Reading get a 6 points deduction
@@WOOOPdoctorFROGhere even if they do, I can’t see them getting relegated. Blackpool Could potentially make it out the Relegation zone, But Huddersfield and Wigan are almost definitely getting relegated.
Cardiff, Rotherham and QPR are Horrendous, but I don’t see them going down, Maybe QPR.
Birmingham, Swansea and Reading Surely won’t go down, And Hull, Stoke and Preston are definitely not going down. Stoke have finally found consistency, Hull have a good squad and Bristol should pass 50 points soon
Very good Alfie...top nootch! 👍🖖✊️
Another cracking vid Alfie 👏🏻 given this is becoming a bit of a series I’d love to her your thoughts on my beloved Birmingham City - another basket case of a championship club 😂
Me too . Reading fan in solidarity!.
Great video. You already know what's coming next...Best XI from clubs in sub-Saharan Africa, please!!
I remember when Reading used to be in the Premier League 10 years ago.
I went to The Newcastle home game against Reading, Newcastle lost 2-1 Adam Lafondra scored both goals
@@paulguise698 Wow I can’t imagine Newcastle losing to Reading these days lol. I’m glad things have gotten a lot better for them.
We were. Stuffed the likes of Liverpool Spurs and West Ham and finished 8th and missed Europe by 1 point.
@@Clem_Fandango11 Wow imagine Reading playing in the Conference League. I hope you guys could get promoted back to the Premier League soon.
🎶6 points down, who gives a f***, we are Reading and we're staying up! 🎶
Great video! Really hope we can stay afloat. It's frustrating to be landlocked in the Championship for so long, but I'd take another 10 years of 2nd tier football over relegation any day. Urrrzzzzzzzz
Great video. Birmingham city also deserve a ‘what on earth is going on at’ video.. although it would probably be 2 hours long!
You know your in serious trouble when you appear on here ☹️
a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now.
The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore.
How they were very close to moving to ireland
How they went up the English football leagues.
It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel
MK Dons won’t like this one
@@bababababababa6124 they are getting relegated to League two now 😊
@@BALHAM69 yeah they are a terrible club 😂
@@bababababababa6124 they should be removed from football league 😊
Yea, it is up to Alfie
Wimbledon fc isn’t my team
It is local to me though
@@bababababababa6124 all 8 of their fans will be fuming
Great video - are you planning to do one on what’s going on at Crawley town??
Can’t believe you released a video about Reading. That’s home ❤
Happy to say as a fan of this club since 1991, I have seen us go up to where we are now, which is the best moments of the clubs history, while things behind the scenes might not be too rosy right now, a lot of us know first hand, it could be worse. Up The Royals!
Nice video 👍
Now do: What the hell is going on with Birmingham City.
QPR deseve a mention
Last year they were in a playoff spot MOST OF THE YEAR but collapsed in the final weeks of the season to finish only mid table
A year later they seem like never recovered feom it they are having an abysmal season and are in danger of going down to league 1!!!
Here is the bottom standings
18. Rotherham 40 points
19. Birmingham 39 points
20. QPR 39 points
21. Cardiff 38 points
22. Blackpool 32 points
23. Huddersfield 32 points
24. Wigan 32 points
Cardiff are in a better form than QPR#Birmingham and will likely pass them in standings this week
QPR are defenetley a sad story this year what happened to this team who at this point last year were close at a premier league return
31:48 Hearing Alfie laugh at his own joke made me very happy
It was there for the taking
Unfortunately over spending, mismanagement and bankruptcy has been a hallmark of numerous teams within the pyramid and don't forget that once established EPL clubs like Bolton and Portsmouth have at one stage falling all the way to the basement of the football league and Bury who were one of the original founders of the football league were dissolved entirely so Reading are far from the only team struggling with this issue
Bury weren't a founder but I get ur point
Would be interested to hear about Huddersfield and why they went the Prem to looking like League 1 with Neil Warrnock coming out of retirement!
Crazy that they were in the play offs last season under Corberan and now likely to go down. The same happened to Barnsley the season before. We seem to get a play off contender capitulate the next season. Luton best be careful
blues fan here, really hope you get around to doing a video like this around Birmingham city since they find themselves in a similar situation to reading over recent years.
NGL I'm a Reading fan and I'm probably in the minority here, but I hate that we replaced the Biscuitmen with the Royals. Sure, we're in the Royal County of Berkshire, but that's mostly because of Windsor having Windsor castle. We've named ourselves after something another town with their own football club is responsible for. Meanwhile, the Biscuitmen was named after something the town of Reading was genuinely notable for. Huntley & Palmer's were a huge biscuit company, based in Reading, and the factory was a large part of the town's life. We invented Nice biscuits, dammit!
I'd much rather we were named after something the town was actually responsible for as opposed to a different nearby town, ya know? Us being called the Royals would be like Tranmere Rovers being called The Beatles or a team from Sevenoaks calling themselves the Bishops
I was just rewatching this, depressed as all hell after Thursday night and saw this comment. Cheered me up because I've always thought this too! It makes so much more sense and I think it's just another example of the club's history being lost in the past couple decades. I'm a young fan and I hear a lot of people saying 106 is our only history but it's really not. Sure we've never won the FA cup but we do have lower league history which we should reclaim and be proud of. Anyway, can't help but be optimistic about reawakening some stronger derbies next year, might bring some life back into the club...
Cheers Alfie, glad to see my club get the publicity it needs. Even if it's not necessarily in the best circumstances haha
Alfie, I understand it might not be as troubling or deep as many of the situations going on at the clubs in most of your other doc style videos but could you please make a video on the years since the champions league final and what's gone wrong since at spurs, i'd love to hear your in depth perspective
What on earth is going on in the Midlands? Derby, West brom, blues, Walsall, Coventry all seem to be on the brink of sinking as a club despite all 5 looking completely stable 8-10 years ago
Make a video on that Brazillian con footballer Carlos Kaiser. It's a remarkably absurd tale. Schedule it for April 1st. 😄
I like the timing suggestion! 😄😄
The best footballer never to play the game ⚽
I think he's talked about him before in a video on this channel
@@chlcrk Yes, he made it into a top 7 players who barely played any football list or something like that. It was only a brief recount of his ridiculous exploits.
@@soundscape26 So basically you're treating it as a snippet when you want to hear the full song... tbf there's enough in such a ludicrous story to make a full-length video
I knew for around a week ago,I was thinking when good friend Alfie would be uploading a video about what is going on at Reading and finally,he has done his task in an awesome manner,good friends!!!Reading are one of my favourite respective footballing clubs in my ancestrial nation and they have been a crisis club for more than thirty years because of mainly,some of the dodgy owners who have been treating the club just like a business entity and have made the club as a sorry based club much to their respective supporters' agony to recently hearing that Reading are going to be deducted six points by the English Football League,good friends!!!I just want to see the club progressing well by the end of the season's English Championship and get a new owner who knows how to manage the club fairly to end the ongoing crisis that have been going on at the club,good friends!!!LONG LIVE READING!!!🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️
Well done paul ince for knowing when this video was going to come out
Great watch 👍
Omg yes finally a video about my team!!
Awaiting one of these on my club WBA next season
Love a video about where I live! My dads from Hull btw 😂😂
Please do Birmingham City, don’t even know who the owners are
You could do a video on Sheffield Wednesday as well they were a mainstay of the EPL until their relegation in 2000 and have suffered so much upheaval since and further relegation to the 3rd tier on a few occasions I'm honestly suprised they have struggled for so so long and have been outside the top flight for 23 years now because a club as big as that really should be playing in the EPL on a regular basis
They had a similar trajectory to that of Nottingham Forest. Until last season that is.
@@soundscape26 just means we’re gonna be where they are a bit later
@@soundscape26 They had seemingly been bouncing between low mid table mediocrity and threatening the playoffs and then ending up dead mid table for what seemed like almost a decade. Then for two years the wheels fell off and they were relegated.
Plenty of "once upon a time" so called big clubs (that really aren't anymore) littering the whole league...Orient, Charlton, Preston etc all "huge" once...
@@phightinphil25 They seem to be well on their way back to the Championship again. Where they can stay for a further decade of course.
That Dai Yongge pun had me unintentionally booing at the screen
Rise and Fall of Bradford City would be a great documentary
It could be a #short, with just 58 seconds of Alfie repeating the name "Benito Carbone".
That was a very considered video 👍
Still hoping for that Austrian Wunderteam video 😇✌.
btw, 8:18 that is not the Premier League tho, is it?
Every time you do a What On Earth... video, it always baffles me that you didn't cover the mess at Bury and Bolton in 2019
We're gonna need your take on the 'Match of the day' drama and a exciting journey in to the depth of government etc... !!
Please Alfie, only you can bring light to the madness !!
I miss Sir John
31:52 i'm glad i stayed the entirety of the video for this joke alone. well done alfie
As an American you should do an MLS club for your next "What On Earth is Going On" video the SJ Earthquakes. When it comes to the Earthquakes, they were one of the most successful clubs in the first decade of MLS having won 2 MLS Cups in 2001 & 2003 with players such as Landon Donovan & Dwayne De Rosario. Then after the 2005 season, the original franchise was moved to Houston (and became the Dynamo) & MLS rebooted the Earthquakes in 2008. Apart from a brief run in the early 2010's with players like Chris Wondolowski & Alan Gordon, the rebooted Earthquakes have struggled massively having not made the playoffs since 2012 even though they have one of the nicer stadiums in MLS in PayPal Park.
As a Reading fan thanks for leaving no stone unturned. Any football fan should also watch the Al Jazeera Investigations (here on RUclips) called “The Men Who Sell Football”. Chris Samuelson caught on camera trying to sell clubs to overseas Money Launderers and admitting to selling Reading to Zingaravch on behalf of his father who failed the EFL test.
When charlton were relegated from the championship, many reading fans were out gloating as they felt we celebrated too much when we won away against them that season. I for one hope they plummet down the leagues and go out of business. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch!
live fast......dai yong, thats made my day
Reading appears to be one of those neutral clubs that it seems hard to get emotional about. I appreciate your efforts on the subject 🙏🏼😁
Huge Reading fan here... and it's even tricky for us to get emotional about them too xD We are in a constant state of are we coming or going? Great or miserable? Play-off contenders or regelation survivors? It can get exhausting haha
Please do a video on Birmingham city. Ever since David gold and David Sullivan sold us our ownership has gone through controversy after controversy. Would be great for someone like yourself to dive into it and get more details than what the club are actually giving the fans
Pls come back to the prem, I need that Birmingham-derby to happen more often
Did not expect to see a video on my club, but yeah, it's been obvious for years now that we're heading towards disaster with a string of dodgy owners who give zero shits about the club. Madejski, for all his flaws, still gave a shit about the club being a genuine fan. Being asset stripped by subsequent owners has taken a club with a solid financial base and plunged it into a precarious situation
Why else would Thai and Chinese business people be interested in a small football club in the Thames Valley. The Thai owners were assets strippers. Keeping and selling the land and hotel around the stadium before selling off the club they had little interest in. I expect the club for Dai Younge is somewhere to park his money in a safe country. If baffles me why so many football clubs are owned by Chinese owners.
@@matthewcoombs3282 yeah, this concerns me, doubly so seeing as one of the members of the Thai consortium now owns Oxford United just as the club are trying to get their stadium back off of their old owner. Chance for him to get his hands on more prime Thames Valley real estate
This channel did a video on Chinese buyers of British clubs iirc, and it's often the same reason as why the Thai owners bought Reading. It's a way of getting in on property bubbles in Britain as they can cheaply sell off land owned by the club to themselves. This is what the often delayed Royal Elm Park development in Reading is proposed to be built on, land owned by a Singapore based company (which is part owned by the same Thai owners) that bought the land for a third of the market value or to promote other business interests (as we saw with the owner of Carabao having a stake in Reading and using the town and the club to launch his drink in the UK. Not actually complaining about that one, I like the drink and it got the club money)
I could have bought Zingarevich maybe being a fan given he went to a local school and apparently attended games as a kid, but he was an oligarch's failson looking for a playtoy with daddy's cash
@@matthewcoombs3282 it's worth noting how the Dai siblings made their money as well. They were (still are) well connected among central government and military generals in China. They bought old military bases at way below the market rate and turned them into shopping malls. I've heard rumours they have triad connections too but obviously can't confirm that (although what billionaire isn't connected to gangsters?)
But yeah, they got their wealth doing the same thing the Thais did to the club: utilising connections to cheaply buy land for property development
I wonder how connected Nigel Howe is to these sorts of deals given he is a property developer who has helped sell the club twice to property developers
That’s why 50+1 Bundesliga rule would be beneficial everywhere, would guarantee no dubious characters having complete control and destroying clubs. Oldham, Bury, Coventry, Derby and countless more fell because of these shady owners.
Well, looks like you need to make a part 2 with everything happening (only know about the HMRC problem, and typed this after the cancelled game against Port Vale)
This video feels very appropriate for me personally, as it was a cold, wet, grey sky's and just generally amiserable day in Reading. Me and my mate were just shooting the shit, complaining about how shit and depressing Reading is as a place and how fed up we are of it after being born and bred here, with our football club doing no favours in making that better. I've never moaned and complained so much in day, all because of this town we call home and to get this video at the end of the day just to recitfy our misery. Thank's for making me feel more shit about my town.
Try living in Henley
@@iamliamt mate I went to college in Henley it’s really nowhere as miserable as Reading is
As a Reading fan it is very depressing and worrying.
Can you do a part two?
As a Watford fan I laugh at your pitiful 15 different managers.
Ahh, Select Car Leasing Stadium... the vibe is hard to miss. The stadium is pretty neat though.
It's one of the many modern cookie cutter soulless bowls, made worse by the fact Reading don't get many fans going to games at the moment. Not the worst of them but still awful.
@@S050683 I like this one more than Leicester or Southampton for instance. A double-tiered main stand whilst not revolutionary, breaks the monotony. The seats colour scheme could be improved though. They could make a good use of their crest for the pattern.
I like the exterior of the stadium as well.
Hiya Alfie, interesting video, just shows you what can happen if you suffer relegation, all the best players go, the owner pulls his money out, this would be a good club for Mike Ashley or The Glazers to own,I wonder if Mike Ashley would try to coax Steve Bruce out of retirement if Ashley bought the club, this is Choppy in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England
What On Earth Is Going On At Crawley Town / Or Birmingham City is needed
By the way, the phrase you were looking for was "change of TACK", and not "change of tact". Tack is, in this instance, used as in the nautical term of tacking when sailing
I work in Reading
Massachusetts U.S.A. 😀
I dont know if Autotrader in South Africa is linked or what but Ive brought two cars after seeing them on the website. Crazy
When I was 16 we spent 3 weeks in Kent for an internship. We were working in a recording studio and the boss asked us what we would like to do. I suggested the Reading Festival but pronounced it with a w. He looked quite taken aback as to why we would like to attend a wedding Festival...
If you think reading is a circus Alfie I highly recommend digging into Birmingham City and doing a video on that.
Would love to see a similar video on Huddersfield Town, seems like we're the definition of a yo yo club
How are we a yo-yo club? We haven't changed divisions in two successive seasons since the early 80s. Ever since we got out of Lg1 in 2012 we've basically been Championship relegation fodder in all but four seasons (two of which we were in the PL).
A "yo-yo club" is one that constantly flips between two divisions such as Norwich or Rotherham.
The Sundays - feat sweetest voice & girl Harriet Wheeler were apparently from Reading hence the clever title of their 1990 album Reading Writing & Arithmetic ( their drummer was actually from the New Forest ) but 3 out of 4 isn’t bad. Wade Elliot scored a fantastic solo goal against Reading at Dean Ct back when Reading would routinely turn the Cherries over home & away ….
What about 7 teams who have only appeared in one major cup final? Not researched this but maybe Alaves in 2001 might qualify (Sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong)
Good idea what about Swansea as one of teams or Gretna up here in Scotland
Can some explain 9:12 to me? Why did 10th get an Intertoto Cup place? Why not 8th or 9th?
From Wikipedia:
The highest-placed team who applied for the Intertoto Cup and not in an automatic UEFA Cup spot was awarded with a place in that competition. Blackburn Rovers occupied the Intertoto place, because Portsmouth and Reading did not apply.
Can you make a video on skuthend. We literally nearly went under last week. And one of our best player left because they wasn't getting paid
I personally think if owners want to spend money then they should be able to; however it has to be on the basis that none of the finances can be put as debt against the club including when clubs opt to spend more on wages then income. This all has to be paid by the owner without ever asking for the money back. I think this would benefit football because it would allow smaller clubs in and outside of the premier a chance to compete and stop owners who don't actually have any more or don't want to spend it buying clubs and loading them with debt.
Maybe you should make a video about Robert Maxwell & his various interests in Football. Which also included an attempt to buy Tottenham Hotspur as well.
One solution to the Financial Issues in the Championship should be to expand the Premier League to 24 Teams. That way the bigger Championship Sides (i.e. the ones that want promotion) would find it easier to actually get promoted to the PL & remain in said PL.
Admittedly it would make the Championship itself a lot less competitive, however unless the Government is willing to start subsidising Broadcast Deals, it's pretty much the only realistic way to improve the Financial State of the Championship.
Would love an episode on Everton
Please do What On Earth Is Going on at the Indonesia National Team?
1st day of asking, pre-empting purely hypothetical trouble ahead.
Any possibilities of a video on Rayo Vallecano?
There rise and fall over the years, to where they are now ⭐
Thank God Alfie posted, legit cured my boredom
Hiya Miles, alfie done a vlog on Whats happened to Portsmouth, its a real good one
Really think you should do Cardiff city the last 10-15 years have been mental
I honestly don’t think any other club compares to Birmingham city fc and there’s few that had it worse from training ground fires to having half a stadium open for over 3 years some video