Reading FC

[collisonmullan]

Does anyone know if Readings real life financial issues are reflected in game? And if so, how?

I don’t just mean losing money, or the points deduction.
 Is it a difficult save? 
I remember last year being able to sell one player and solving all the problems very easily. Is it still like this? 

[Jogo Bonito]

On 03/12/2023 at 15:47, collisonmullan said:

Does anyone know if Readings real life financial issues are reflected in game? And if so, how?

I don’t just mean losing money, or the points deduction.
 Is it a difficult save? 
I remember last year being able to sell one player and solving all the problems very easily. Is it still like this? 

Not sure on that but the pre-game editor has a debt of £83,189,608 repayable as 'gift upon departure' by 1st January 2042. Presumably that is to the Chairman/Owner. 

I've been planning to manage Reading in FM24 as in all my years of FM-playing, the club was never in League 1 by default. But far from being the reset that was hoped for in the summer, real life events got worse and have been putting me off. I've made some changes via the pre-game editor to try and make it more appealing, which included the following:

• Extended the transfer ban of attached players until 1st January 2025 (embargo end date 31st December 2024) which I believe is the current reality
• Removed the Owners and Directors (other than keeping Sir John as a Director) as I could not get involved if any of them remained
• Made the club fan-owned by choosing Member Owned with a Chairman and no elections (copied how Exeter City was showing)
• Ticked the box to 'Stop Outside Takeovers'
• Kept the £89m debt as it was, but changed the entry to Supporters Trust rather than repayable upon departure*
• Removed the entry for Rich Benefactor
• Removed all affiliate links but added Wexford for realism
• Deleted some staff that I am fairly sure are no longer at the club (in addition if I am appointed Manager, I would mutually terminate all the people Selles brought in)
• Changed the nationality of Basil Tuma to Maltese and corrected his data
• Made Nelson Abbey Vice Captain

*Not sure if this means the debt will stay active, which is the intention. But as I made the club fan-owned it didn't seem to match with the original 'repayable upon departure' entry. If this doesn't work, I may instead decide to convert it to a monthly repayable loan. One way or another, I want the debt to affect the club in the way it should, so this might need some trial and error checking. I've also asked a question on the Editors Hideaway page to see what others think is best for the debt to impact the club.

Apart from checking the finances/debt, I need to decide who the best Chairman is. The best I came up with so far is Dave Kitson as he has been quite involved recently (protests & weekly columns). I also had a good relationship with Dave when our professional paths crossed in the era of the 106-team. I was going to go for Nigel Howe as Chairman for more realism, but he was not in the editor, so just switched Dave from his position of Chairman at Arlesey Town for now. I may decide to add my own person as Chairman and would name them as Nigel Howe or maybe the directors of SCL as they deserve credit for going above and beyond what a sponsor should do. If that is beyond me, I just may put back Sir John as Chairman - he can just act as a custodian rather than being expected to plough any money in.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Jogo Bonito
Added other comments

[Abaddon879]

On 06/12/2023 at 16:19, Jogo Bonito said:

Not sure on that but the pre-game editor has a debt of £83,189,608 repayable as 'gift upon departure' by 1st January 2042. Presumably that is to the Chairman/Owner. 

I've been planning to manage Reading in FM24 as in all my years of FM-playing, the club was never in League 1 by default. But far from being the reset that was hoped for in the summer, real life events got worse and have been putting me off. I've made some changes via the pre-game editor to try and make it more appealing, which included the following:

• Extended the transfer ban of attached players until 1st January 2025 (embargo end date 31st December 2024) which I believe is the current reality
• Removed the Owners and Directors (other than keeping Sir John as a Director) as I could not get involved if any of them remained
• Made the club fan-owned by choosing Member Owned with a Chairman and no elections (copied how Exeter City was showing)
• Ticked the box to 'Stop Outside Takeovers'
• Kept the £89m debt as it was, but changed the entry to Supporters Trust rather than repayable upon departure*
• Removed the entry for Rich Benefactor
• Removed all affiliate links but added Wexford for realism
• Deleted some staff that I am fairly sure are no longer at the club (in addition if I am appointed Manager, I would mutually terminate all the people Selles brought in)
• Changed the nationality of Basil Tuma to Maltese and corrected his data
• Made Nelson Abbey Vice Captain

*Not sure if this means the debt will stay active, which is the intention. But as I made the club fan-owned it didn't seem to match with the original 'repayable upon departure' entry. If this doesn't work, I may instead decide to convert it to a monthly repayable loan. One way or another, I want the debt to affect the club in the way it should, so this might need some trial and error checking. I've also asked a question on the Editors Hideaway page to see what others think is best for the debt to impact the club.

Apart from checking the finances/debt, I need to decide who the best Chairman is. The best I came up with so far is Dave Kitson as he has been quite involved recently (protests & weekly columns). I also had a good relationship with Dave when our professional paths crossed in the era of the 106-team. I was going to go for Nigel Howe as Chairman for more realism, but he was not in the editor, so just switched Dave from his position of Chairman at Arlesey Town for now. I may decide to add my own person as Chairman and would name them as Nigel Howe or maybe the directors of SCL as they deserve credit for going above and beyond what a sponsor should do. If that is beyond me, I just may put back Sir John as Chairman - he can just act as a custodian rather than being expected to plough any money in.

I'm loving some of those ideas! I heard Dave Kitson was involved with a failed consortium takeover before the Thai's came in I believe, so it's not that far-fetched and idea. And Nigel Howe is back involved with the club once again to try and push through this current takeover and stabilise the club.

I was hopeful we there would be progress with the takeover to allow me to manage the club after the Winter Update, but it is seeming unlikely any takeover will happen in time. 

For now I am doing a glory hunter save (I'm currently enjoying Scalvini at Atalanta) and thoroughly enjoying myself. I played as Reading FC last season and had success, but couldn't bring myself to touch them this year while the current owner stays in place.

[Jogo Bonito]

On 31/12/2023 at 11:47, Abaddon879 said:

I'm loving some of those ideas! I heard Dave Kitson was involved with a failed consortium takeover before the Thai's came in I believe, so it's not that far-fetched and idea. And Nigel Howe is back involved with the club once again to try and push through this current takeover and stabilise the club.

I was hopeful we there would be progress with the takeover to allow me to manage the club after the Winter Update, but it is seeming unlikely any takeover will happen in time. 

For now I am doing a glory hunter save (I'm currently enjoying Scalvini at Atalanta) and thoroughly enjoying myself. I played as Reading FC last season and had success, but couldn't bring myself to touch them this year while the current owner stays in place.

Sorry for the late reply. I've decided Dave is too controversial/outspoken to be our Chairman, and Nigel Howe's appeal dwindled on the unconfirmed allegation that he may have had something to do with the rogue Chris Samuelson apparently being back around the club recently. So I've installed Mark Bowen as Chairman and just a final few tweaks to go before having everything as it should be.

I agree that taking on the club with the current owners is not at all attractive. Enjoy your time in Italy!

[John Joe O'toole]

On 03/12/2023 at 14:47, collisonmullan said:

Does anyone know if Readings real life financial issues are reflected in game? And if so, how?

I don’t just mean losing money, or the points deduction.
 Is it a difficult save? 
I remember last year being able to sell one player and solving all the problems very easily. Is it still like this? 

They're reflected yes but not as severe, you get lots of potential owners and lots of failed takeovers but normally get taken over within a season or two. 

 

First season isn't too tricky to meet the targets as you have a decent playing squad.

[GylfiAsCharged]

2023/24

Not sure how it took me so long to do a Reading save this year, but the first season was dominant as you'd like to expect. The takeover was sorted by January, with former Crawley Town owner Ziya Eren bought the club with no plans to provide any additional investment, but the Turk took over with us sat top of the pile and was therefore reasonable about some board requests on wage budget and percentage of transfer revenue available.

Competitions

I always aimed to win the league but to break the 106 record with a 4 point deduction was ridiculous! Especially sealing it in a 6-1 win against second-placed Blackpool on the final day.

I rotated the team a bit in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, but we still managed to win the competition despite being second-best to Derby in the semi-final which we turned around to win 4-2 and almost letting a three-goal lead slip in the final against Shrewsbury which we won 3-2.

In the proper cups, we made the fourth round of the FA before losing 3-0 at Old Trafford, and Bournemouth put us out of the League Cup in the second round.

Transfers

Disregard Mukairu and Ballard from the below, obviously there was very little space to work with financially. Snodgrass was an absolute flop and I quickly established I didn't want to trigger a second year on his contract by giving him five appearances, and he kindly decided to retire mid-season. Mochrie was our Player of the Season, while Bloxham and Amo-Ameyaw also contributed importantly in the attacking positions.

Scott Hogan must have left Birmingham mid-season and only appeared on my radar on January deadline day, and while Dom Ballard topped our scoring charts with 19 he was suffering frequent injuries, so given the Irishman's pedigree and reasonable demands I couldn't say no. He returned 13 goals in 12 appearances including 4 on a memorable final day of the season.

The Squad

Below are the squad stats for everyone who made nine or more appearances. The goals really were spread around the team, and my tactic with very attacking wing backs brought the best out of Nesta Guinness-Walker (17 assists) and Kelvin Abrefa (11) who enjoyed a break-out season himself.

Naturally my biggest concern is how reliant we were on loanees in attack. Mochrie's value increased so much I doubt Dundee United will let us take him back, while Russell Martin has been frustrated at me for the roles I've used Sam Amo-Ameyaw in, and since that bridge has been burned then I also can't take Ballard for another season.

[GylfiAsCharged]

2024/25

Changes on the ownership front as our Dai Yongge liberator Ziya Eren decided to retire and sell the club to Neil Harrison, a new owner who didn't seem to have any intention of rocking the boat during a season that I didn't expect. Another change came when assistant manager Andrew Sparkes took a role with Leicester, and the obvious candidate in my search for a replacement was a certain Ruben Selles.

Competitions

I expected to need to hold back our aggressive League One winning tactics, but from early on in the season it was clear that it was working a treat. Spending much of the season in second place I was nervously anticipating a slump, but it just didn't come. Instead it was our closest rivals Middlesbrough who slammed on the brakes, finishing the season in a lowly 10th place. Finishing only three points behind Norwich suggests that there was ever a title race, but the Canaries led the league throughout and this was as close as we ever came to catching them.

Transfers

Our incomings were fairly modest with another strong reliance on the loan market. Kayden Jackson was the most impactful of the permanent additions, chipping in with ten goals and seven assists despite niggling injuries. The standout loan was star striker Rodrigo Muniz, who led the league in scoring with 28 despite a slow start, with 18 of those coming after the new year.

The headline deal here caused some panic at January's deadline - Kelvin Abrefa had developed into a real asset at wing back and was dead set on a Premier League move once Fulham showed some interest. I didn't expect a £9m release clause in his contract to realistically be paid given their first offer was in the region of £4-5m, but they pulled the trigger on a full-price bid that I was powerless to resist. We responded quickly with a last-minute loan move for Ki-Jana Hoever from Wolves who did a fine job of filling his void for the rest of the season.

Squad

You can see our heavy reliance on loan players here, as well as another season of creative excellence from Nesta Guinness-Walker with 11 assists and the best average rating of the team. Coniah Boyce-Clarke was looking shaky at the beginning of the season so we loaned in youth international Davide Mastrantonio from Roma to be our first choice, but his season was ended in early April due to injury which gave Boyce-Clarke another chance as first choice. Lewis Wing and Ben Elliott both deserve a mention, performing at a level well above their attributes.

I hardly know where to start in turning this into a team that can survive in the Premier League, and dare say I won't even be expected to.

Edited August 21 by GylfiAsCharged

[GylfiAsCharged]

2025/26

A shaky first half of the season saw us in the picture for relegation dropping as low as 19th on two occasions, saved from bottom by Wolves who didn't win a league game until late November and finished bottom of the pile despite reaching the UEFA Conference League final where they lost to Standard de Liège. Brentford looked likely to go down despite winning the FA Cup, but some key wins late in the season kept them in the top flight.

Competitions

A 9th placed finish was well beyond my expectations, having prepared to potentially go straight back down after back to back promotions that left us with a Championship level squad. Thankfully some development from existing players and some handy signings steered us comfortably into mid-table, with a late run of form lifting us into the top half.

The Carabao Cup didn't make our league campaign much easier with some fixture congestion as a result, but looking below it's quite clear that we had the luck of the draw on our side. The big boys took each other out allowing us to overcome our fellow bottom half teams on the way to the club's first ever League Cup Final. 

The less said about the FA Cup the better as Championship side Bournemouth put us out in the Third Round.

Transfers

A combination of long term projects and ready-made talents helped us to defy expectations.

Squad

As with previous seasons our full-backs were highly influential, and Nesta Guinness-Walker continued to improve and contribute. New right back Cédric Brunner joined on a free transfer from Schalke and was superb early in the season before getting injured and replaced by another free signing from Germany, Felix Agu from Werder. Acquired due to his aptitude on both sides, he soon became our outright first choice at right-back.

Muniz couldn't continue his fine scoring form from last season, and loanees Georginio Rutter (Leeds) and Giuliano Simeone (Atletico) struggled for goals too. The solution became apparent late in the season as having been fairly ineffective as an inside forward I gave Troy Parrott a chance up front late in the season and he netted 6 in the final 4 games of the season, taking his tally to 10. Having kept his place in the team all season through form rather than quality,  Ben Elliott finished as our top scorer with 13.

Next season our fans will unfortunately be travelling an hour to Vicarage Road for our home fixtures as we add another 12,000 seats to the SCL Stadium, but having sold out every single home league game this season it's a necessary development.

Very little of note in the departures column, work permit issues with Mbengue saw us loan him out to Australia for the duration of the campaign while Tom Holmes was in line for very little playing time and hasn't developed at a fast enough pace to keep up with the club as a whole, so will leave the club this summer. Similarly, Sam Smith and Harvey Knibbs just aren't good enough to contribute so went out on loan when I could not organise permanent exits.

Edited September 12 by GylfiAsCharged