Reading (A) match thread - Jan 13th

[leedsvaliant]

I was baffled as to why or how they were able to sign those players in the summer....who sanctioned those signings? Knowing that the club had history of not paying people. Surely the EFL should have been saying no.

They've essentially taken a place of a club who played by the book in the past few years by spending more than they have...they were a relatively small club until they moved to the new stadium. Too many clubs have done it and now they're being punished.

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[smithie]

37 minutes ago, bobbymanc said:

Not on the pitch. That's a criminal offence.

There has to be some common sense. Many Vale fans went on after Swindon. The police today were totally disinterested in doing anything.

[Connolly]

1 hour ago, Vale Ball said:

Could you translate that post please ?

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I can try for yer good sir, in the not so distant past, I remember mumours of the wembley of the north, be turned into a supermarket for papa smurf, who saw a club as little more than a vanity project and play toy to which he was entitled too ravage, memories of such events spark a sense of empathy in my small neanderthal brain, the 'owner' appears to have little respect for the roots of reading football club, or for its employees....or for hmrc for that matter. I consider this bad manors on my island...  therefore Im hoping the irritated Vale fans at least understand, if not support our southern monkey friends. Wish them best in rebuilding their football club..  perhaps they will even join our calls  to the football league in awarding us 3 points... Buy hey I'm just living the dream! Perhaps I'll wake up one day

[blackdog]

26 minutes ago, Bimbleabout said:

For sure. I think they gambled on getting back in the prem but stumbled at the last hurdle and now they have this mess.
When did they sign Sam Smith?

 

Don't forget Andy Carroll was there early doors as well so they have spent  he won't have come cheap, but it hasn't worked, there's a hell of a difference between not spending at all and pocketing the money ( Smurthwaite ) or spending and failing.

I don't agree with those applauding Reading supporters, I've said before I support their right to demonstrate, but it should not affect another professional football club, I trust Carol will ensure we get full recompense and that the travelling Valiants do as well.

 

[Jacko51]

5 minutes ago, Connolly said:

I can try for yer good sir, in the not so distant past, I remember mumours of the wembley of the north, be turned into a supermarket for papa smurf, who saw a club as little more than a vanity project and play toy to which he was entitled too ravage, memories of such events spark a sense of empathy in my small neanderthal brain, the 'owner' appears to have little respect for the roots of reading football club, or for its employees....or for hmrc for that matter. I consider this bad manors on my island...  therefore Im hoping the irritated Vale fans at least understand, if not support our southern monkey friends. Wish them best in rebuilding their football club..  perhaps they will even join our calls  to the football league in awarding us 3 points... Buy hey I'm just living the dream! Perhaps I'll wake up one day

So you weren’t there?

[Connolly]

13 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

So you weren’t there?

No Jacko..  I was sat in the comfort of the glebe hearing about it from me other arf. 

To be honest I feel gutted for those who did make the effort, I'd probably be grumbling myself if I had... It shouldn't of been your problem.

I hope those of you who did make the effort, have a better sunday.

My turn to pipe down now 

[Lornelounger]

3 hours ago, Trumpingtonvale said:

Does that mean membership schemes are meaningless eg Vale’s 1876 Members and season ticket holders

From Man Utd season ticket Ts&Cs for last season (taken from internet):

Following the purchase of a Season Ticket, a Ticket Holder shall also be considered to be a “Member” for the purposes of the Club's 'Official Membership' scheme

Honestly don't know Trumpers - perhaps find out if Reading classify as club members on their Ts and Cs, rather than Man Utd? If they do qualify as club members, that obviously changes things.  Man Utd are Premiership, and I don't know if they classify "members" differently, or if this is a supporters club thing, so not Club membership in the sense that the EFL use.  I might be wrong - it wouldn't be the first time.  But it would be a brave club that classifies all fans as "club members" when the wording looks to deduct points or give the opposition the result for "club members" causing a game to be abandoned.  We'll see soon enough.

[Wrex]

That's the Reading squad list. Who signed all those players?

tbf the owner has a £45 million mansion next to Buckingham Palace. He can afford to pay the club's bills. He just doesn't want to.

Don't really get the arguement of "he put millions into the club" at the start. If some billionaire took over your workplace, wasted millions, then your wages weren't being paid as you waited for the place to be shut down, you probably wouldn't say "fair play, he put money in before" as he sits in his mansion and chinwags with King Charles over the garden fence.

[Trumpingtonvale]

‘’

 

[mbycars]

49 minutes ago, Lornelounger said:

Honestly don't know Trumpers - perhaps find out if Reading classify as club members on their Ts and Cs, rather than Man Utd? If they do qualify as club members, that obviously changes things.  Man Utd are Premiership, and I don't know if they classify "members" differently, or if this is a supporters club thing, so not Club membership in the sense that the EFL use.  I might be wrong - it wouldn't be the first time.  But it would be a brave club that classifies all fans as "club members" when the wording looks to deduct points or give the opposition the result for "club members" causing a game to be abandoned.  We'll see soon enough.

I think this rule regarding club members refers to non league clubs and not for teams in the EFL

[newchapel valiant]

I am now Sat in hotel after expensive weekend for 16 mins of football.

Reading FC is a disgrace we paid the higher price as we were told all the cheaper tickets had gone .

In the upper tier the refreshment bar was shut due to no heating or hot water. We were told to go downstairs and we had to regain admission to the lower tier where the refreshment bar was open . We were not allowed back to the upper tier and told to sit in the seats available which surprise surprise there were plenty.

I hope that Vale fight for the supporters today who made the long journey to get some money back.

After a very expensive weekend I would like at least a refund for my tickets.

 

[TJHValiant]

2 hours ago, Powerline said:

Christ! See this is my point. If you’re in that much trouble, why are you paying so much out in wages? Sam smith was being chased by most clubs in the division so I imagine he’s on a pretty sizeable wage. 

Carroll was on 15k per week. I think I’d stop finding the club too. 

[JoeB2]

In 2019, I spoke quite a bit to Mr Norman Smurthwaite. He was fairly clear that under no circumstances would he sell Port Vale. He enjoyed being a football club chairman too much. He was the sole shareholder. He would stay as long as he wanted to - even if that meant PVFC in non-league.

Then, a determined group of fans made things less comfortable for him. National press attention, open hostility at home games - the man started to buckle under the pressure. He didn't like it. He started looking for an out.

At this point, Mr Smurthwaite stated he'd quite happily let the club fold. He'd simply stop funding the club until it failed to repay its debts, then make the selling process extremely difficult, which would have very easily ended in a Bury situation. We were really close to being on the brink.

No Port Vale. Vale Park in the hands of Smurthwaite. AFC Burslem Vale playing Northwest Counties in a groundshare with Leek Town. The 150 year history of Port Vale, the club of our grandparents and hopefully our grandkids, stolen by one bloke.

Thankfully, the group of fans did enough to make him amenable to selling to Carol Shanahan, who we should be thanking God for every single day, whatever her flaws may be.

Reading FC are in that position. Yongge will finish them off. No Saturday pints. No seeing your mates at the game. No family bond. No history. Nowt.

They did what they had to do today. Will it make a difference? No idea. They've got national attention on their fight and, let me tell you, it makes a massive difference. Getting the game abandoned makes a far bigger splash than going back to your seats after the PA tells you to. Everyone in the country knows about this now. It's national news.

The Vale fans on here carping about £29 and one game of football should really think back to 2019. We were lucky enough that we had a saviour waiting in the wings, so didn't need to go as far as match abandonments. Reading are being held hostage - £70m is being demanded. Picture your Saturdays without Vale. That's what Reading fans are facing.

It's not the fans fault they overspent. It's not the fans fault they're in this position. They're doing whatever they can to protect the football club from going bump, as we so very nearly did.

Some stuff is bigger than your day out. You're not the main characters of life, lads. This is thousands of people's football clubs.

Can't believe I'm reading Vale fans moan about it. Some absolutely disgusting comments. I don't think folks clock how lucky they are to even attend professional games of football to moan about.

[Wrex]

Dunno why you're arguing about FA rules. The EFL run League One. FA rules don't enter into it.

Standard operating procedure would be for the match to be re-arranged, even if we were "winning" 0-0 after 16 minutes. The cause of the abandonment is irrelevant.

I do remember some South American game got abandoned on something like 85 minutes and the authorities there ordered that the two teams return a few days later to play the remaining 5 minutes. So really anything could happen, but the standard procedure would be to rearrange the game. Behind closed doors would be prudent. Perhaps only away fans could be permitted entry, though maybe most wouldn't fancy making the trip anyway with it being quite out of the way from a Staffordshire perspective.

[Guppys left peg]

It’s pissing into the wind talking about having the game awarded to us. It had only been on for 16 minutes (less if you include the tennis ball stoppages). There is no circumstance they could reasonably award the game to us and quite frankly I wouldn’t want us to “win” like that. It’s cheap and beneath us.

Saw today a group of fans in Reading doing whatever it takes to try and save their club. Wish them nothing but the best in doing that. It shouldn’t really have taken them to force an abandonment to get eyes on their plight but that’s the world any of us outside the PL live in.