And by our tennis balls shall you know us. And by our clown outfits and face paint shall you know us. And by our carefully worded media releases and painstaking analysis of tribunal documents shall you know us. And by the gigantic billboard we hired outside the train station shall you know us. Anyway, what we’re saying is: you know us. As for the next step … yeah, we’re working on that part.
“Ripped apart while the world watches” reads the aforementioned billboard outside Reading station. But is the world actually watching? Beyond the RG postcodes it was hard to identify too many concentric ripples from the news last week regarding another mysterious takeover bid for the club apparently falling through. It’s hard to drum up much interest in A Thing Not Happening, particularly when the transfer window is closing and the big beasts of the Premier League demand to be talked about at all times.
And there are people out there who will tell you that spending controls and regulation are a brake on ambition, that football is lawless and free-form and ruthlessly competitive and that’s why it’s fun. Very often these are the same people who will rail angrily at the rights of owners to charge fans as much as they want, or broadcasters moving kick-off times, utterly oblivious to the fact that these are all multiple flexes of the same power.
The irony is that Reading under Noel Hunt are actually doing quite well this season. They’re eighth in League One, with a decent set of fixtures and a shoestring squad and just enough spit and polish to hold the thing together. If they can put some wins together, and if they can scrape together enough cash to get through the summer, and if the club can find a new buyer… if, if, if. In a world where the cost of everything seems to be rising, hope remains reassuringly cheap.
