Steve Cumner

[Supporters’ Trust At Reading @STARReading]

We want to thank Ruben Selles for his service to Reading Football Club.

Ruben Selles was let down and lied to by our ownership. Despite this adversity, he built an on-field team that we could be proud of. While the ownership bond between fans and club has never been weaker, we think it is fair to say that the bond between the playing staff and fans has never been stronger.

Under his management, a powerful “us vs them” mindset developed. Players and fans represented the badge, not the boardroom. We roared on the team, not the regime. We wish Ruben all the success in his future, but now we have to re-focus on our own - however uncertain it may feel.

In Noel Hunt we have a Reading legend who deserves the same support. Our first-team squad is packed with Academy talent that he helped develop, playing in a system that has been drummed in at every level of the club and with a two-year contact, he is no caretaker - this is our gaffer and today is his first day.

It’s impossible to support Reading without being constantly concerned about the ownership situation. It would be tone deaf to say “just focus on the football”, but while the owners continue to treat the fans with contempt, these players and Noel Hunt never have. It’s time to throw ourselves behind them.

As for the takeover debacle, we remain committed to haranguing the club for updates and again call on the EFL for their support. The lack of communication from the club is impacting the mental health of our supporters and staff in equal measure. This is an issue of duty of care, but also decency. We demand better.

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Dispiriting events at Reading should concern everyone in English football. Fans are lied to, players and an impressive manager are let down, and so are staff. A thoughtless, heartless owner damages a historic club. It’s another warning to all in football. If we tolerate this, then your club could be next.

Fans at some other clubs fear similar pain or just feel relief to have escaped danger. Many will simply focus on their own form and fortunes. Football’s tribal. Most headlines revolve around the big names, the big games like Manchester City versus Arsenal. But Reading embody the pyramid, a local beacon and hub for nurturing talent. Neil Webb started there. The windfall from the Michael Olise deal helps sustain the club currently. Ted Drake learned his managerial trade at Reading before guiding Chelsea to their first title.

Football clubs are community assets and have to be protected from individuals like Dai Yongge wreaking such misery at Reading. He has his motives and his methods but none seem aligned to the club’s future wellbeing. He doesn’t communicate with fans. Reading FC Women withdrew from the Championship because of financial difficulties. Sustained mismanagement of the club has seen a failure to pay men’s players and HMRC lead to points deductions.

A proposed takeover by Rob Couhig, an American businessman welcomed by the fanbase, collapsed, leaving Yongge still in charge and supporters still in torment and again asking questions. Does Yongge really want to sell? If the club goes under is it then all about valuable real estate? Would administration and another points deduction actually be better than this shambles?

And so Reading fans rally again, fighting for their club’s life. But Yongge doesn’t listen. He doesn’t appear to care about the negativity his ownership brings to the door of the dressing-room. Ruben Selles and his whole-hearted squad give everything they can on the field, and sit a defiant 12th in League One, but they aren’t detached from the mess. It must be dismaying and distracting.

Losing Selles would be a disaster. He’s doing a good job in trying circumstances. If he left, Selles would be picked up swiftly by a better run club. Reading fans post messages of support to Selles and his squad. They will back them loudly at Bolton Wanderers today. It’s about finding the balance between demonstrating support for the team while demonstrating against the owner.

Much is right about Reading: committed fanbase, stadium, training ground, the attitude of manager, squad and club staff. It’s just the owner. It’s a nightmare that Reading are living through. And it’s a cautionary tale all football needs to heed. #ReadingFC #EFL

[Steve Cumner @SteveTEDC27]

@james_e1871 How can we not be allowed to even bring in a free agent after selling an asset? While Birmingham bring in 10 players for £16m in the same league 🤯

[Sell Before We Dai @SellBeforeWeDai]

Reaction to statements from #readingfc and #WycombeWanderers

Football's ownership problem has reached a new low.

[Ed Ryding @EdRyding]

11 games left of the toughest season in our history. Keep the dream alive 💙

𝐷𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑦, 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔… 🎶 #readingfc

[Talk Reading @TalkReading]

To those that don’t know our story…

Dai Yongge took over Reading days before the club’s Championship play-off final in 2017.

Since then:
• Relegation to the third tier for the first time in 22 years
• A total of 16 points deducted
• A 5 year transfer embargo
• Multiple missed HMRC payments
• Extreme cost cutting including redundancies, no hotels before away games and microwaved pre-match meals
• CEO selling our most valuable assets behind the back of our manager and DoF
• Not a single interview with the public

With Reading now in the League One relegation zone, protest action is a cry for help to save our club from extinction.

Dai Yongge Out. #readingfc

[Steve Cumner @SteveTEDC27]

@EFL_Comms So that’ll be more points deducted
Which may put off buyers. Which means stuck with Dai. Who won’t pay anything.
Which means more points deducted
Which may put off buyers…. Etc…etc….
EFL you are clueless. Have no idea how to fix anything other than deduct points from clubs

[Norwich City FC @NorwichCityFC]

𝗔𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀, 𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝗼𝗯𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗲, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁.

Check in on those around you.

#WorldMentalHealthDay | #YouAreNotAlone | @samaritans

[Steve Cumner @SteveTEDC27]

@ElmParkRoyals Worst captain we’ve ever had?

[Steve Cumner @SteveTEDC27]

@RFCSupport Any other issues you might want to mention at all? Nothing for anyone to worry about except not being able to buy an away kit today?

[Concourse 72 @72Concourse]

Almost a month after Reading had their transfer embargo eased, they have again been placed under a transfer embargo for a late payment to HMRC.

Dai Yongge has well and truly turned John Madejski’s great, well run, once Premier League Club, into a League One Circus.

#readingfc

[Calum Randall @CMRandall92]

My club @SUFCRootsHall is on a life support machine. Potentially 24 hours left until the club is liquidated and there has been no mainstream media coverage. Not even a countdown clock to us going bust on Sky Sports News. How can we be so irrelevant? How is this not a big story?

[Steve Cumner @SteveTEDC27]

@ReadingFC #sellbeforewedai

[Sell Before We Dai @SellBeforeWeDai]

Press Release In Full for #SellBeforeWeDai #ReadingFC

https://t.co/w6pB7DA52f

[Steve Cumner @SteveTEDC27]

@ReadingFC planning to renew before tomorrows deadline. Anyone able to confirm that you won’t go bust or fold or have a points deduction or less than 11 players by 5th Aug??

[Derek Trotter @DelBoy_ofah]

One of the finest pub stories ever told by both Del Boy and Trigger

Absolute comedy gold

[homesoffootball 💙 @HOMESofFOOTBALL]

#253 @ReadingFC "STUCK IN THE SAND"
v Gillingham 1996
FotoBy©stuartroyclarke

I'm going thru 800 possibles for a DEFINITIVE H.O.F. book for 2024
Do give me your takes.

(You CAN buy the pics BiG only + free lights-to-light-them AND free books for a year)

[Steve Cumner @SteveTEDC27]

@_The72 Now

[Paul Kelso @pkelso]

Numbers of the day

- Centrica, owner of British Gas, announces 500% increase in 6-month profit to £1.3billion & £59m dividend

- Shell records $11.5bn quarterly profit and announces $600m share buyback

- energy price cap forecast to rise to £3,850 in January & persist to 2024

[The72 - We Love the #EFL @_The72]

Reading’s home shirt…

1) it’s horrendous

2) it’s about climate change but they’re literally releasing 3 kits this year

3) climate change again, yet the club and the stadium are sponsored by a car leasing firm