Last Friday I took a call from The Times columnist, Gregor Robertson, who was looking for my thoughts on the issues facing Reading FC. The column, when it appeared on Saturday, was excellent in its takedown of Dai Yongge, and although the numbers quoted are well known to Reading fans, they are worth repeating given what followed later that day.
‘By 2021, for every £100 of revenue Reading earned, they were spending £244 on wages, by last season Reading were haemorrhaging £500,000 a week.’
That’s why 2000 Reading fans met at Blue Collar Corner on Saturday afternoon and marched on the stadium. And that is also why I was proud to march right alongside them.
The knock-on effect of such unfettered and irresponsible spending by Dai Yongge is all around us. Only last week Reading were forced to sell the highly-rated academy product, Thierry Rohart-Brown to Southampton. The fee was officially undisclosed but I’m told it is £200,000.
200k for the crown jewels, and a Category One academy reduced to improving the prospects of a rival club. It was particularly hard to read the words of Southampton Academy Director, Andy Goldie, who said, "thanks must also go to Mark Bowen and Michael Gilkes at Reading, who have been incredibly supportive and professional throughout the process.”
It must be incredibly frustrating for Bowen and Gilkes to watch one of the clubs top talents leave before he’s played a first-team game, and even having to stand at the gates of Bearwood Park with their feet encased in concrete, smiling as they wave him off.
While Bowen’s job is tough, it is just about possible to see a recruitment plan that is not too dissimilar to “The Reading Way” (as we remember it, anyway). In return for Rohart-Brown, Saints’ have loaned Reading their highly rated 18-year-old striker, Dom Ballard, a serious talent with a great future ahead of him. Bowen who would have had to work hard to persuade Southampton and Ballard that a team struggling at the foot of League One was the best place for him to continue his football education.
The signing of young players such as Savage, Knibbs, Bindon, Craig, Azeez and Guinness-Walker is very much in keeping with what has brought success to Reading previously. Building a young, hungry team that can grow together is something that I think is absolutely the right way to go for Reading. It wasn’t long ago that people were asking who Kitson, Harper, Sidwell, Shorey and Murty were (maybe they still are!) But it’s worth remembering that in our case we had two or three years of failing to even reach the Championship playoffs before eventually winning the league with further young recruits like Doyle, Lita, Convey and Sonko.
A few years later another young and hungry academy-based side emerged in the shape of Karacan, Sigurdsson, Pearce, Church and Robson-Kanu. Again, these players were afforded the opportunity to grow together and were ultimately promoted to the Premier League with further additions to the squad. So it can be done, but it takes time to build it.
There’s no doubt that this current squad has the furthest to travel, but that shouldn’t be on them. It’s hard enough to get a consistent tune out of a young squad of players when a club is stable, let alone when it’s been driven into the ground.
So where the team is concerned we’ll need to have patience, something that’s running in short supply around RG2. But the alternative is what we’ve seen, an owner that puts everything on black and it lands on red. Gambling a club's sustainability on reaching The Premier League is the oldest, and most naive mistake that any owner can make, and every one of us is now living with the consequences.
The march finished at the foot of the Sir John Madejski stand where among others, Matt Rodda MP made an impassioned speech. I’d been asked to do the same, but quite honestly I had a lump in my throat having walked past the photo mosaic of former academy manager, Eamonn Dolan, as I remembered something that he would often say to me.”
‘Kits, the kids in the academy look up to you, promise me you won't let them down!’ As I marched with the fans past Eamonn’s picture, I like to think that I'm keeping my promise to the great man.
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I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you who have already signed up for my newsletter and enquired about group and one to one coaching with me. The response really has been amazing and I’m looking forward to getting started on coaching the amazing talent that we undoubtedly have in the area.
You can sign up to my newsletter for updates about the academy and news about where and when the group coaching sessions will be.
The academy is for Under 9s to Under 23s - one to one coaching is available for all ages, and is for individuals, small groups, local junior clubs, school teams etc.. So if you’d like me to coach your team please get in touch. I promise we won’t sell you to Southampton!
To sign up for my newsletter, email me at info@davekitsonacademy.com
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