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.