A Post-Madejski World?

It seems like an eternity since Sir John Madejski started his search for new financial investment in Reading Football Club. That would be because it was the better part of five years ago and merely a week in football is a long time, as Carlos Tevez seems so eager to prove.

Anyway, upon promotion to the Premier League way back in 2006, Madejski stressed the need for a new financial backer at Reading; a billionaire rather than a millionaire being the main headline grabber.

Fast forward some 60 or so months, all of which passed by with very little news of any interested parties whatsoever, and we arrive at the consequently surprising announcement made a mere two hours ago.

As the Reading Post and Reading Chronicle seemed it prudent to run the whole statement as the bulk of their article on the subject, this blog shall be doing completely the opposite. If you want to read the three paragraph long statement, go here.

Both the Chronicle and the Post seem to be convinced that the deal is the initial announcement for large-scale investment in Reading Football Club, though cynicism would appear to indicate this is a “we-are-not-quite-sure-but-watch-this-space-and-buy-our-paper” play, with the lack of  clear information outside of the statement posted on the official Reading FC site as evidence for this.

All we have to go on right now is a whole lot of conjecture so here that is.

As pointed our rightly on Hob Nob Anyone?, the ‘Thames Sport Investment’ group is not registered at Companies House and a Google (ever reliable as it is) search brings up no relevant links aside from the official site statement, the resultant stories from the Chronicle and Post  (and subsidiary media outlets) and the Hob Nob thread.

As a result of this and the “no further announcements can be made until a binding agreement has been reached” paragraph of the official site statement, would both appear to indicate that “Thames Sports Investment”  is a new company and the next announcement would come once it becomes a registered company.

One of the perceived stumbling blocks when it comes to new ownership at Reading Football Club has been the role of Madejski in a new set up at the club and the theory that he would want to stay on at the club in some capacity. The statement confirms that he will stay on as Chairman for the foreseeable future, despite the agreement with this new group.

For this observer, this would appear to indicate that the “Thames Sport Investment” company is either a new holding company for Reading Football Club with Madejski at its head or a new set of investors who have grouped together and are awaiting approval for their company to be formed, with the blessing of Madejski to work alongside him.

If the eventual outcome is the latter, this would work well as it would allow the Chairman to guide the new investors in how the club works and its identity, leaving the club in safe hands when Madejski should decide to retire from ownership of the club.

On the other hand, if this new company is merely a restructuring of his ownership of the club, it leaves the club in the same position as it was before this evening’s announcement. However, why the fanfare of a statement if this was the case?

One of the things that Madejski cannot be criticised for is having the club’s best interests at heart, which is why news of a more investment or a takeover has been so long in coming as it had to be approved by Madejski that it was right for the club. If the “Thames Sport Investment” company does prove to be a case of new ownership, this observer would feel confident that they had the best interests of the club at heart, thanks to Madejski.

It may well be some weeks however, before the ramifications of this statement become truly clear, though if any Reading fan is expecting a spending spree akin to Leicester as a result of this, its probably best to come back to reality.