McD - 'We have no more cash'

Anthony Smith • Published 13 Aug 2010 14:30 4 Comments

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BRIAN McDermott has confirmed Reading do not have the money to make any more signings this summer.

Royals boss has delivered the gloomy news three weeks before the transfer window closes.

But he would not rule out the possibility of losing players between now and the end of August, with speculation growing over goalkeeper Adam Federici’s future.

“There will be nothing else coming in as far as we’re concerned,” declared McDermott. “We simply can’t do it.

“We haven’t got the funds to do any business. Money is very, very tight here and it is tight in general. But I want to keep the players in the squad, as many as I possibly can.”

Reading have cut costs following the end of Premier League parachute payments which were worth £12 million a season.

This summer McDermott has brought in Marcus Williams from Scunthorpe United on a free and Andy Griffin from Stoke City for around £250,000, while Royals have sold Kalifa Cisse, Marek Matejovsky and James Henry for a combined sum of approximately £600,000.

It is understood McDermott wanted to add another centre-back to his squad but it appears he can no longer afford one.

Reading are suffering with injuries at the moment with Ivar Ingimarsson, Matt Mills, Simon Church, Shane Long, Jobi McAnuff and Noel Hunt all on the treatment table.

Mills, Church, Long and McAnuff are all rated doubtful for tomorrow’s Championship clash at Portsmouth.

But McDermott cannot afford to bolster the his squad, admitting “The money’s not there. I see other Championship clubs still signing players when they are meant to be in trouble so I don’t know how that works.

“But we are a very well run club. First and foremost, the safety of the club is everything.”

McDermott will look at Gylfi Sigurdsson’s decision to sign a new long-term contract as a personal victory against Premier League vultures.

The 21-year-old talented midfielder signed an improved three-year deal recently despite offers from a string of top-flight clubs.

The Icelandic star picked up where he left off last season with a stunning goal in Reading’s opening day defeat by Scunthorpe United last weekend.

But the future of Australia international Federici is less certain as he is about to enter the final year of his contract with the Royals.

And McDermott is unsure whether the club can afford to offer him a new deal, with Liverpool and Tottenham rumoured to be watching him closely.

“I don’t know whether we’re in a position to give a new deal at the moment,” explained McDermott. “It’s not the sort of thing we will discus in public, we will discuss that with Adam.

“That is the club’s business to conduct when the time is right, it is the club’s choice. They have to look at it and make a decision as far as Adam is concerned.

“But I will just concentrate on our games in August and nothing else.”

However, McDermott insisted the club has not received any offers: “At the moment we’ve had nothing,” he stated.

“We’ll deal with whatever we have to deal with but I’m not worried.”

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

Sir Dodger Royal
Unregistered User
Aug 13, 17:14
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It is amazing how RFC virtually signed no one of value when in the Premiership when we also said we had no money. We had no money when we had parachute payemtns and surprise surpise we now have no money.

Other Clubs manage to saign players and NOT EVERY CLUB is about to go into liquidation.

I also note that the transfer fees coming in have strangely reduced to a total of £600K. Also we did not pay £250000 for Griffin. The fee was £50K. So where has the money gone for the past FOUR SEASONS.

On no account do I believe the spin that comes out of RFC. Sheer make believe and believe I don'tttttttttt

Real Facts.

SDR

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Sir Dodger Royal
Unregistered User
Aug 13, 17:16
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It is amazing how RFC virtually signed no one of value when we were in the Premiership when we also said we had no money. We had no money when we had two seasons parachute payments and surprise surpise we now have no money.

Other Clubs manage to sign players and NOT EVERY CLUB is about to go into liquidation!

I also note that the transfer fees coming in this season have strangely reduced to a total of £600K. Also we did not pay £250000 for Griffin. The fee was £50K. So where has the money gone for the past FOUR SEASONS?

On no account do I believe the spin that comes out of RFC. Sheer make believe and believe I don'tttttttttt

Real Facts.

SDR

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Steve100
2 posts
Aug 13, 23:17
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I doubt the accuracy of this statement "while Royals have sold Kalifa Cisse, Marek Matejovsky and James Henry for a combined sum of approximately £600,000."

When at the time the chronicle reported that Cisse left for approximately £500k, matejovsky for around £500k also and Henry for £200k (plus a sell on %). I make that over £1M coming in, not £600k.

Surely we can't sell anymore players, we have continually sold players for nearly 3 years now. We know the parachute payments have stopped, but surely we've seen enough players leave now? the supporters understand the problems of falling out of the premier league and the drastically reduced revenue, but surely enough is enough now, please stop the sales! the supporters can only bear so much. We are a centre back short as it is!!

C'mon u RRRRRRR's!!!

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Fatbellywobblebottom
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Aug 14, 00:17
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The sooner we drop into Division 1 where we can justify our 'sell & survive' policy the better. Sir John keeps on about our ambition but that is now so thin it's translucent. Everyone is saying how open the Championship is this season which I agree with and we have one of the better teams in it providing the starting 11 are happy/capable of playing at least 45 games each. Outside of that we're stuffed.

The phrase 'parachute payment' keeps getting thrown around to justify having no money but how many of the current squad are here from the Prem days and are still tied into Prem wages? Errrr just about noboby so that should no longer be a problem and I can see no reason why we can't buy the odd moderate player on moderate wages? In short we can, or at least could, if that word 'ambition' mentioned earlier were to be believed.

Quite frankly I feel we season ticket holders (and everyone else who attends on a regular basis) are being taken for mugs - again!

Still, we'll all be there, singing away in April thinking 'if only we had signed another defender in August'.......

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