by papereyes »
21 Sep 2007 15:04
Katie Marsden If the club developed a big club attitude and actually spent some money on quality players and Coppell actually had some ambitions that didn't involve simply avoiding relegation then a 38,000 ground may well come in handly.
As it is RFC continue to play the little club and do everything on a budget. That's all fine and good, but don't expect the fans to come along to watch second rate signings get over run every week as we plummet down the table.
Caught between two posts here, I must admit.
I think I agree, but have to add the caveats.
1) By quality, you mean "big name" and I don't think we should do that. We should buy the right players for the job at the right price. If they're unknowns then so be it. Still, the failure to add the odd body here and there, the odd Championship player capable of stepping up a level is a touch mysterious.
2) I don't think its that easy to just go out and buy such players. The club have said throughout the summer that they were struggling to attract players to the club. Wages, I guess, are one factor. But that mystical thing called history MUST have played a role.
3) A 30-38,000 seater stadium would make it easier to consolidate once its built. Sadly we appear to have taken the middle ground and neither strengthened nor expanded.
As I said somewhere else on the board.
We have potential to be a much bigger club than we are. This does not mean that we are a bigger club than we are now.
4) One season in, the ambition still has to be "survive". Its not like, suddenly, we can assume that 8th is our lowest limit. We had a fantastic season last time round and there was always going to be a hangover. I also think the club found the summer a lot harder going than they'd expected. It is not like the club have been in the Prem for 10 years and just hanging on year on year. Given also that the club in the little over two years have gone from a record fee of £850 k (Convey(?)) to whatever value over £3 million Cisse was suggested to be (via Lita and Halford) that they are prepared to spend
some money. Whether it is enough is another issue.
5) "Which was the last club in England to become a 'big club' and when did they do it?"
Indeed.
I also reckon that teams drop down from being a big club far quicker than they ever could climb to that status.
The cups thing doesn't annoy me that much. We get a semi-final and go out? Beh. We get relegated = a season out of the sun. Our 'reserve' teams were often stronger than people gave them credit for, as well. Europe annoyed me more as a trip to Greece, Macedonia, Lithuania, Cyprus or even the Ukraine would have been a lifetime's trip in terms of supporting Reading.
I guess I can go up and pay on the day for the Liverpool game, though, can't I?
. I got told off on another thread a while back for lacking ambition with regards to RFC as I said that Nicky Hammond was getting ideas above his station when he said that the fans and the club in general should develop a big club attitude. 38,000 seats = laughable.
