Mcdermott Signs New Contract

[Snowball]

Have people not considered the dilemma?


Imagine McD was on 200K and a new deal for AFTER TSI took over was going to be 1.2 Million...


Now along comes a Premiership club, a 2.5 year deal at (say as much as 1.5M)

If TSI had already taken over, not so much of a problem, but McD would have had a number of issues (Sunday-Monday)


1. Are TSI really keen on him? (Or might they consider a new broom?)

2. Is the deal definitely going through?

3. How do I get a solid long contract NOW, weeks before the take-over?

4. What does the contract say about what happens if the take-over fails?


If you think about it, SJM would be crazy to sign McD up with out a TSI-take-over-failure clause


Maybe McD needed some financial guarantee like a pay-out if TSI didn't take over?

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

So the hope is that we shall be able to keep players like Long an Siggy etc, presumably we would have valuable assets, but we are losing money so could lose millions more had they stayed. Both would havehad to been offered new high value contracts, expensivecontracts do not guarantee promotion.

[Hoop Blah]

....you cant respond to every rumour that crops up on the internet, and id prefer they waited till things were concrete before making statements, cos you can look extremely silly that way, as weve seen in the past.

Obviously I agree with that, although they do respond to a lot of the rumours in one way or another.

This wasn't just an internet rumour though was it. It was well founded developing story with a massive effect on the club. It was out in the public domain and their handling of it didn't, IMO, calm the situation as it could've done.

I understand why they kept their counsel as they did, I just think that, when they're promoting the club (and specifically the manager) as "all pulling in the same direction, together as one team" and the fans are "such a vital part of that team", that the staff are just "custodians on behalf of the fans" and that "supporters remain the most important people at Reading Football Club" etc etc we could be given just a bit of reassurance or insight into what was going on.

As for telling us having any bearing on their contract negotiations, well that's a unfounded in reality as thinking the noises in the press about not spending money was always to keep potential transfer fee's down.

[Hoop Blah]

In spite of the words from those that insist on seeing conspiracy behind every corner (you know the sort - those that say they are only looking at things in a cynical or realistic way), I believe that the takeover is genuine and that Anton will became a true Reading fan. I don't think he will interfere with the way Brian runs the team as I believe there is a genuine trust between them. If people say that it was somehow disrespectful that the club said nothing to the fans about the Wolves rumours, perhaps they would prefer that we had done things in the same way that the Tommy Smith transfer was done, and that turned out well!!!

If that's supposed to be a nod in my direction, I've not really said anything about the takeover being a bad thing or any kind of negativity about it (apart from that we shouldn't get carried away) so I think you might be putting words into my mouth there. It is right to be wary of such takeovers irrespective of who's taking over and where they come from.

Whoever takes over from Madejski has our club at their mercy. I for one hope that whoever wields the power does it with the best interest of the club at heart, much like Madejski himself has done over the last 20 years.

The Smith saga was quite different to this episode.